NFL Kickoff 2022: NBC's Sunday Night Football Ushers in New Chapter With 1080p HDR New producer, new play-by-play voice, and new tech will debut in propertys 17th season By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Thursday, September 8, 2022 - 3:48 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It's the dawn of a new era for one of the biggest properties in the history of sports television.
NBC Sports will open a new season of the National Football League on Thursday night when it broadcasts the NFL Kickoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Rams from SoFi Stadium in L.A. (8 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock). With it begins the 17th season of NBC Sunday Night Football, a series that for the past 11 years has rated as primetime's No. 1 TV show by Nielsen.
NBC Sunday Night Football returns Thursday with the NFL Kickoff game in Los Angeles. A new wrapping of the show's truck lineup accompanies a new branding for both Sunday Night Football and Football Night in America. (Photo Courtesy: NBC Sports)
It also opens the book on a new chapter for the storied show. With the 2022 NFL season comes a new play-by-play man (Mike Tirico), a new sideline reporter (Melissa Stark), and a new producer in Rob Hyland, who replaces the man who has produced SNF since its inception in 2006: Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Fred Gaudelli.
The makeover doesn't stop there, however. SNF is also making a notable move on the operations and technical side as game coverage is migrating to 1080p HDR this season. It's a substantial shift behind the scenes for such a high-profile production, and, even though the broadcast won't be delivered to homes in HDR, it's an upgrade that the NBC Sports crew believes will make a significant increase in image quality.
We feel there's enough benefit from being natively produced in progressive- and bt.2020-color space that those at home will notice a difference, says Craig Bernstein, VP, remote technical operations and engineering, NBC Sports. We're excited about that.
According to John Roch , senior technical manager, Sunday Night Football, NBC Sports (and another Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer), mobile-unit partner NEP bolstered SNF's unit, ND1, by upgrading all scopes and monitors for video and replay servers to EVS XT-VIA's to move to 1080p HDR.
NBC Sports unveiled a new logo for Sunday Night Football on Wednesday.
There has also been a sweeping upgrade in cameras with 15 Sony HDC-5500's integrated into the lineup. With that also came upgrades across the arsenal's Canon-heavy lens line. There are more than 35 Canon lens on SNF, including nine Canon 122 8.2s at the top end.
Ken Goss, EVP, studio, remote operations, and production planning, NBC Sports, notes that, although SNF is preparing to move into a new production truck for the 2023 season, the crew considers it important to make some of these leaps this year.
NBC is also adding some new camera angles this season: a second end-zone camera (now there are cameras up behind the end zones on both sides of the field), a second slash camera, and the season-long inclusion of 12 PylonCams (provided by BSI and featuring Dream Chip cameras) and two line-to-gain PylonCams (Also BSI with Marshall cameras). The reverse 50-yard-line camera is among the upgrades to the Sony 5500 with the Canon 111 8.3 lens and has been bumped up to a 6X SSMO.
Returning stars this year are a completely rebooted graphics package that debuted at Super Bowl LVI in February and a SkyCam Wildcat in 4K (Sony HDC-P43 camera and Fujinon 18 5.5 lens).
Tonight's opener in Los Angeles will feature 60 cameras, including a dual-camera cart on each sideline, a fixed-wing airplane for aerial shots above SoFi, 19 cameras capable of shooting in super-slow-mo, and five 4K-capable cameras.
It's an embarrassment of riches for returning director Drew Esocoff (a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Class of 2022 inductee) and Hyland to play with. New to the SNF front bench, Hyland is a 25-year veteran of NBC Sports and one of the broadcaster's top producers on the roster, having produced Thursday Night Football, Notre Dame Football, and the Kentucky Derby and served as current primetime producer of NBC's Olympics coverage.
Rob Hyland, a 25-year veteran of NBC Sports, is the new producer of NBC Sunday Night Football. He works alongside director Drew Esocoff, who has been with SNY since its debut in 2007.
He's no stranger to the big stage, but it's still special to take the front bench at Sunday Night Football, a property that he was a part of in its first three seasons; in the first season, he served as a tape producer under Gaudelli and Esocoff.
For all the shows I've worked over that time, says Hyland, I'm not sure anything was more formative in my career than the three years I spent on Sunday Night Football. The lessons I learned laid the foundation of who I am as a producer. I am so looking forward to starting the next chapter with this team. What has made Sunday Night Football the gold standard in sports television is best-in-class storytelling and coverage of the football game, and those two things will remain the same. To be given the opportunity to lead Sunday Night Football, I pinch myself every morning I wake up, and that's the truth.
It has been terrific [working with Rob], says Goss. I've known him for 25 years. I've done Notre Dame Football with him. I've done the Olympics with him. I've done horse racing with him. Drew and Rob do horse-racing together. We're used to that tandem. It's a great tandem. Rob has terrific leadership skills. Obviously, all of us have benefited from Fred [Gaudelli] and his leadership over the years, but we're looking forward to this.
The NFL season begins tonight with NBC Sports' broadc
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
29/10/2025
ESPN said it will produce animated telecasts for NFL, NHL, NBA and WNBA games across The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN platforms during the 2025-26 season under an a...
29/10/2025
WASHINGTON Despite the government shutdown, the Federal Communications Commission has passed, with some revisions, a previously announced Notice of Proposed Rul...
29/10/2025
29 10 2025 - Media release SBS, NITV and Screen Australia announce 2025 Digital Originals Shortlist
The 2025 Digital Originals shortlisted teams. Photo credit...
28/10/2025
ESPN Announces Monsters Funday Football', Its Latest Real-Time Animated Bro...
28/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Catherine Chalfant, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe Ole Miss alum is an operational force behind ESPN's extensive college-football catalo...
28/10/2025
Elevating the experience: AI and data take Ryder Cup to the next level By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 10:25
Print This Story
NBC produced th...
28/10/2025
Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Priva...
28/10/2025
World Series 2025: Spectrum SportsNet LA Brings Dodgers Fans Closer to the Actio...
28/10/2025
Dylan Southern and Benedict Cumberbatch at the premiere of The Thing with Feathers (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
28/10/2025
For three weeks in Lagos, Spotify's Greasy Tunes Caf pop-up brought the cit...
28/10/2025
Once a niche subculture, German rap has evolved into an influential cultural movement. Now, Spotify is giving the genre a new home with OFFCULT, a playlist dedi...
28/10/2025
Shane Delia's Malta serves up the Mediterranean this summer
28 October, 2025
Media releases
Feast on 9,000 years of culinary history Mondays from 24 No...
28/10/2025
SBS's global sporting festival continues with the FIVB Beach Volleyball Worl...
28/10/2025
Bilbao, October 28, 2025 - AgileTV, a leading technology solutions company for t...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
28/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has announced an agreement to sell WRTV, its local ABC-affiliated station in Indianapolis, to Circle City Broadcasting for $...
28/10/2025
Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia Named to Billboards 2025 Top Music...
28/10/2025
NEW YORK As AI usage continues to spike, a new study from IAB delves into an important aspect of how AI is transforming the advertising business with new data s...
28/10/2025
Charlie Jablonski, a broadcast tech pioneer who helped shape the modern era of Olympics television coverage, died Oct. 25 at his home in Lake George N.Y., the N...
28/10/2025
VIENNA, Austria Bitmovin has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insights into video playback. The so...
28/10/2025
LOS ANGELES LucidLink, the file streaming platform, has announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities at Adobe Max....
28/10/2025
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced that it has joined the Ama...
28/10/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in connectivity and signal management solutions, has announced a major update to its Taurus
platform, which now delivers flawless...
28/10/2025
Following a successful mid-September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Hiltron Communications will promote its full range of satellite communi...
28/10/2025
Open Broadcast Systems has chosen MC&S (Media Consulting & Services) as a reseller to help strengthen its presence in France.
With over twenty years of experi...
28/10/2025
Bitmovin, leading provider of video streaming solutions, has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insi...
28/10/2025
Ease Live, the leader in interactive TV technology, today announced the successful launch of interactive graphical overlays for UEFA Champions League matches fo...
28/10/2025
LucidLink, the file streaming platform, today at Adobe MAX announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities, streamlining collaboration and hel...
28/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Nick Hasenecz to general manager of WNDU, its NBC affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., market....
28/10/2025
Applications Open for Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant Boston nonprofits can apply by December 12 for funding to support community projects that ...
28/10/2025
Governments everywhere are racing to harness the power of AI - but legacy infras...
28/10/2025
AI is moving from the digital world into the physical one. Across factory floors...
28/10/2025
NVIDIA is delivering the telecom industry a major boost in open-source software for building AI-native 5G and 6G networks.
NVIDIA Aerial software will soon be ...
28/10/2025
The race to bottle a star now runs on AI.
NVIDIA, General Atomics and a team of international partners have built a high-fidelity, AI-enabled digital twin for ...
28/10/2025
Along the Pacific Ocean in Monterey, California, the Naval Postgraduate School (...
28/10/2025
To democratize access to AI technology nationwide, AI education and deployment c...
28/10/2025
Leading technology companies in aerospace and automotive are accelerating their ...
28/10/2025
28 Oct 2025
VEON's JazzCash Wins Silver Award for Innovation in Lending at ...
28/10/2025
Guests include Wayne Rooney, Maya Jama, Dame Laura Kenny, Chloe Kelly, Chris McC...
28/10/2025
The two-hour special, recorded live from the iconic Dolby Theatre in LA, will ai...
28/10/2025
Eutelsat upgrades teleports with Rohde & Schwarz satellite uplink amplifiers High efficiency and resilient Ku-band amplifiers for excellent RF performance
...
28/10/2025
These appointments come at a pivotal time for ABC, as the organisation continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of a digital-first media ecosystem. The ne...
28/10/2025
Scripps Research awarded $4 million to advance platform for neurodevelopmental disorders The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant support...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
NFL Kickoff 2022: NBC's Sunday Night Football Ushers in New Chapter With 1080p HDR New producer, new play-by-play voice, and new tech will debut in propertys 17th season By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
