Live From Super Bowl LIII: NFL Media Expands Presence; Bexel Tapped To Build 25,000-Sq.-Ft. Facility A team of 400+ onsite and 250+ in Culver City is producing Tuesday-Saturday programming By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 8:58 am
Print This Story
It has been a busy week for NFL Media in both Atlanta, where Super Bowl LIII will be played this weekend, and Culver City, CA. In Atlanta, a team of more than 400 is covering every angle ahead of the game and working closely with a team of more than 250 people at NFL Media's facilities in Culver City, where three control rooms have been producing all the coverage for programming from Tuesday to Saturday. And new this year, a fourth control room will be fired up on Sunday for the big game.
For the NFL team, each year provides its own set of challenges and opportunities because each host city is unique. Atlanta has arguably provided the most compact Super Bowl footprint in quite some time.
NFL Media's Dave Shaw says the team in both Atlanta and Culver City, CA, has done a great job this week for Super Bowl LIII coverage.
I can't be prouder of our team, says Dave Shaw, VP, production, NFL Media. We developed a plan taking advantage of the unique, centrally located venues in Atlanta, with Opening Night at State Farm Arena, Super Bowl Live at Centennial Park, Super Bowl Experience at the Georgia World Congress Center, and Media Center at GWCC, all in close proximity to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The close proximity gave Shaw and the team a chance to build a 25,000-sq.-ft. production hub within the GWCC. Bexel was tapped to supply and engineer a prebuilt system customized for NFL Media's engineering core, transmission hub, and control room. The only standalone production is NFL Honors, with Game Creek's Nitro supporting NFL Media's coverage of the red-carpet show.
The beautiful thing about Atlanta is [that] everything is so close, and having everything in the same vicinity allowed us to have a central hub for the operational and production teams, says Shaw. I don't know when we'll see something like this again.
Adds AJ Wainwright, director of technical operations, NFL, If there are any real issues, you are within a five- or 10-minute walk of each other, and we enjoy that. Conceptually, we're thinking about Miami and next year.
Coordination is key, especially with production facilities so far apart. Says Shaw, [Director, Studio Operations,] Jessica Lee in Culver City oversees the studio operations and control rooms and is working with [VP, Broadcast Operations,] Leon Schweir on the trafficking of which show is done out of which control room. We want to use the exact control room they use all year, so they are comfortable.
The team in Culver City is working closely with the team in Atlanta and makes sure the intercom system (a massive RTS Adam intercom with 880 ports) and all other signals get to the right location. When nasty weather hit Atlanta on Tuesday and production plans had to be adjusted for programs set to shoot in Centennial Park, for example, ensuring communication between the team in Culver City and the one in Atlanta was critical.
NFL Media studios and sets in Atlanta comprise a presence in Centennial Park; a two-way set on the floor of NFL Experience; a Total Access set; four positions in the Media Center for the linear network, digital, social, and original content; and a set along one of the primary thoroughfares the fans will take to reach the stadium.
Capturing the feel of Atlanta was most evident in our set at Super Bowl Experience, says Shaw. [NFL Media Director, Media Operations,] Adam Acone has again led coordination of the overall production plan, including all set locations, with our set-design team led by Rick Qualliotine, Jennifer Love, and Carlos Aguero, along with Jesse Medeiros on scenic design.
Filmwerks was tapped for set structure, intended to highlight the looks of Super Bowl Experience, Super Bowl Live in Centennial Park, Media Center Radio Row, and an outside set near Fan Plaza.
cAt Opening Night, says Shaw, this team also built out great augmented-reality elements of player identification, team logos, and more with the overall feel of the dynamic stage set.
Inside the stadium, there is a set on the field level as well as in Section 119, where a coaches show, a Twitter show, and a digital postgame show will be produced. And, on Monday morning, Good Morning Football will set up shop with the stadium as a backdrop.
The NFL is relying on one truck in Atlanta: Game Creek's Nitro, which will be used for the production of the NFL Honors on Saturday night from the Fox Theater.
We have a separate transmission from CenturyLink, says Wainwright. Then [the signal] goes to Culver City. It's a simple three-mux production.
Third Time Is the Charm for At-Home Production
This is the third year the team at the game has made use of the at-home approach to produce content. But it's the first year that Bexel is involved, providing the equipment, integration, and technical support to keep the production-control room, audio area, EVS replay-playback area, and graphics area are online and operating properly.
Bexel made use of furniture from NEP in building the NFL Media production-control room at Super Bowl LIII.
Shaw and the team put the contract for technical facilities out to bid this year, and part of the process included having the finalists construct a dummy of the facility in Los Angeles. That gave the NFL production and operations team a chance to see what the facility would look like and also make adjustments, such as adding a path down the middle of the production-control room, which will seat 15 people on Super Bowl Sunday.
Because Bexel is now part of NEP Group, its team was able to leverage the rest of
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
30/04/2024
By Adam Piron
In anticipation of this edition of the Indigenous Program's Native Lab, it actually dawned on me that this will be our lab's tenth year i...
30/04/2024
Launch of SBS South Asian channel and SBS Spice, a new English language offering...
30/04/2024
LOS ANGELES (April 30, 2024) Light Iron, the post-production creative-services division of Panavision, is excited to announce that lodie Ichter has joined th...
30/04/2024
Now streaming on Netflix, Good Grief marks the feature-film directorial debut of Daniel Levy, well known as the co-creator and costar of the series Schitt's...
30/04/2024
The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy's sweeping portrait of a wealthy British family in 1880s London, is getting its third TV adaptation in less than 60 years....
30/04/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
30/04/2024
CAMPBELL, Calif. Streaming media company Plex and T-Mobile will work together to expand T-Mobile's connected TV (CTV) inventory and advance the connection b...
30/04/2024
SAN JOSE, Calif. & BELLEVUE, Wash. Roku, Inc. has announced an expanded measurement partnership with iSpot.tv, the cross-platform TV measurement company....
30/04/2024
NEW YORK As Paramount Global wrestled with management turmoil and ongoing negotiations for a proposed merger with Skydance, the company managed to report improv...
30/04/2024
Cobalt Digital Receives Trifecta of Awards at NAB 2024
Company adds two 2024 NAB Show Product of the Year awards and one Best of Show from TV Tech to long list...
30/04/2024
arkona technologies GmbH, provider of IP core infrastructure solutions for top-tier broadcast productions, has announced that its BLADE//runner IP Audio Engine ...
30/04/2024
OpenDrives, Inc., the global provider of software-defined media workflow solutions and data management capabilities, announced today that it has joined the glob...
30/04/2024
The first norm conform sustainability service dedicated to the needs of the events industry
Easy-to-use, intuitive platform for venues, event organisers and su...
30/04/2024
Dejero GateWay enables Stream7 to create independent internet connectivity at any venue or location, including UK teaching hospital for live streaming of surgic...
30/04/2024
Excitement is building as farmerswife, a leading software provider for resource scheduling, project management, and team collaboration in the media industry, ha...
30/04/2024
XL8, a leading deep-tech startup specializing in AI-powered machine translation technology, proudly announces the successful completion of a System and Organiza...
30/04/2024
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced that it will exhibit at CABSAT, which takes place this year from 21-23 May 2024 at the...
30/04/2024
MRMC Debuts Cinebot Max Camera Robot at NAB 2024
Brie Clayton April 30, 2024
0 Comments
Expands its range of live-action, motion-control camera robots...
30/04/2024
Next Jazz Legacy Announces 2024 Cohort of Women and Nonbinary Awardees The program was created by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender J...
30/04/2024
European telecom satellite company SES announced today that it is acquiring rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion. The deal, unanimously approved by both companies...
30/04/2024
Bob Bakish, chief executive of Paramount stepped down on Monday, effective immediately. Bakish, who was a staunch ally of Shari Redstone, controlling shareholde...
30/04/2024
Hotspring said the breakthrough had been achieved through the acceleration of machine learning technology
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 30, 2024
Ho...
30/04/2024
Speaking about the deal, Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of SES, said: it will bring value-added, efficient, and reliable offerings for both companies media customers
By Je...
30/04/2024
Paramount said the Office of the CEO is working with its board to develop a comp...
30/04/2024
LOUISVILLE, Ky. In another sign that broadcasters are finally using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer viewers new features instead of simply simulcasting existing ...
30/04/2024
OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame will induct Blaise Labbe, a group news director for Sinclair Broadcast Group, May 2 at the 54th Anniversary I...
30/04/2024
ATLANTA and ENGLEWOOD, Colo. Cox Media Group and Dish have ended a dispute over retransmission fees that lasted nearly a year and a half with a new multi-year ...
30/04/2024
Video transport solution provider LTN has announced that it is working with TelevisaUnivision to help the Spanish-language media giant migrate to IP-based video...
30/04/2024
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has released details about how it played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 by NBC K...
30/04/2024
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company is adding Seth Walters to its sales leadership team as head of CTV sales, effective April 29....
30/04/2024
The force was strong at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Saturday night, April 27, 2024, as the night netted the ballpark's first official sellout crowd of...
30/04/2024
Revry, a network celebrating queer culture. said its second annual NewFront presentation will be a cabaret-type spectacle showcasing the spirit of the LGBTQ+ co...
30/04/2024
Family Entertainment Television (FETV) said that the Western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp will be joining the network's afternoon lineup startin...
30/04/2024
Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount Global, will depart the company as Paramount explores a merger, according to numerous published reports. The reports ...
30/04/2024
April 30th, 2024 Press Materials Available Here
TRIBECA FESTIVAL 2024 ANNOUNCES TALKS, REUNIONS, & RETROSPECTIVES
Live Conversations with Judd Apatow, Andy C...
30/04/2024
6 minute read
Share
alt=Alternative descriptive text class=lazyload main main-lazyloaded responsive-image data-v-1a5ebb10>
Telenor showed good momentum...
30/04/2024
SES Acquiring Intelsat to Create New Satellite Giant; Will Offer Improved Reach ...
30/04/2024
Wuppertal April 30, 2024
WDR Filmhaus to Implement Riedel Infrastructure Award-Winning MediorNet HorizoN Hybrid Processing Platform Serves as Bridge to IP
Ri...
30/04/2024
Back to All News
Tilda Swinton Joins Colin Farrell in Edward Bergers The Ballad...
30/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Reveals First Look Images and Teaser from Senna, Inspi...
30/04/2024
Back to All News
Top 10 Week of Apr. 22: Baby Reindeer' and Rebel Moon - ...
30/04/2024
Dr. Nicola Hodson, Chief Executive, IBM UK & Ireland introduces the UK findings of an IBM study on female leadership in the age of AI
Advances in Artificial In...
30/04/2024
Channel Expansion, and New Codecs, Compression and Transport Technology Among Latest Updates...
30/04/2024
Accel-KKR Credit Partners today announced that it has provided debt financing to support Dalet in its next chapter of innovation and growth. Accel-KKR Credit Pa...
30/04/2024
Skeem Saam: Monday's episode, 29 April 2024 [video]Missed an episode of Skeem Saam? No problem! Watch the latest episode of your favourite South African soa...
30/04/2024
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Lewatle witnesses an explosive fight between Sthoko and B...
30/04/2024
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of David Murphy as its new Economics & Public Affairs Correspondent. David is currently RT 's Political Cove...
Live From Super Bowl LIII: NFL Media Expands Presence; Bexel Tapped To Build 25,000-Sq.-Ft. Facility A team of 400+ onsite and 250+ in Culver City is producing Tuesday-Saturday programming By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
