FIFA Women's World Cup: Telemundo Center Anchors Telemundo Deportes Production, Operations in Miami

FIFA Women's World Cup: Telemundo Center Anchors Telemundo Deportes Production, Operations in Miami Stateside facility is handling studio programming, offsite match commentary By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Wednesday, August 9, 2023 - 1:25 pm

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As the onsite team of Telemundo Deportes provides Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA Women's World Cup from Australia and New Zealand, the broadcaster's Telemundo Center in Miami is supplying hours of studio programming as well as offsite commentary for games taking place on the other side of the world. Synchronizing efforts with the crew at the stadiums and in each city has been a major hurdle to clear.

The grind of the 14- to 16-hour time difference has been the biggest surprise, says Telemundo Deportes SVP, Production, Robert Pardo, who's holding down the fort in the U.S. There have been 18 different start times during the Group Stage, so we needed to make sure that we had a control room for every single game.

The Telemundo Deportes team at the front bench for the Colombia vs. Jamaica match in the FIFA Women's World Cup Round of 16 on Aug. 8

Two World Cups in Six Months: Brainstorming Women's World Cup While in Qatar Since the previous FIFA Women's World Cup in France in 2019, the women's side of soccer has seen exponential growth on a global scale. With that event's Final between the U.S. Women's National Team and Netherlands reaching new ratings heights - an average live audience of 82.18 million and a total of 263.62 million unique viewers made it the most-watched FIFA Women's World Cup match ever - Telemundo Deportes understood that it would need to elevate its effort for the event four years later.

We knew in the back of our minds that this was going to be a completely different World Cup, says Pardo. Not only has the quality of the game come a long way, but the production bar had been set. We had to make sure that our initial assumptions and plans were validated.

Edit teams assemble highlights and packages at Telemundo Center in Miami.

Similar to what corporate sibling NBC Sports Group endured with back-to-back Olympic Games in Summer 2021 and Winter 2022, the Telemundo Deportes is producing is second World Cup in six months. To get ahead of the arduous planning that would have to be done in a short timeframe after the 2022 Men's World Cup in Qatar, production and operations teams brainstormed their plan during that tournament. When Lionel Messi-led Argentina lifted the trophy after their victory over France, the final steps of planning were under way by Telemundo Deportes EVP, Sports, Eli Velazquez; SVP, Content Operations, Chris Suarez-Meyers; and Pardo.

We brought the entire team together, says Pardo, and made sure that the essence and spirit [shown during] the Men's World Cup in Qatar would be reflected throughout the Women's World Cup. This meant treating the women's tournament with the same respect as well as having the same experts and resources.

The Miami Plan: Multiple Control Rooms, New Virtual Studio at Facility's Core Because the Men's World Cup in Qatar - all 64 matches were played in the capital of Doha - would be drastically different from the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, greater strain would be put on the stateside crew working in Miami. On the linear side, coverage has been increased to include more live game productions and studio programming and requires the use of two production-control rooms - led by Telemundo Deportes Director, Production, Sports, Adrian Costas - and a Technical Operations Center that receives the live feeds from HBS and from five separate ENG teams via LiveU LU800 field units.

The remote EVS replay team in the control room at Telemundo Center

For studio programming, viewers of Telemundo Deportes have been treated to an enhanced presentation before and after matches and at halftime. After the final whistle or on non-match days, fans have recaps of the day's action on shows like Hoy en la Copa with Miguel Gurwitz, Ana Jurka, Carlota Vizmanos, and Carlos Yustis and Zona Mixta with Veronica Rodriguez. In addition, Homenaje al Campe n will air after the Final at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 20 to showcase the trophy ceremony and summarize the journey of the winning team. Shows produced in Miami are being handled from two separate spaces.

We did a refresh of our main sports studio, Studio A, by adding another level of AR just prior to the Women's World Cup, says Pardo. The centerpiece is our virtual studio, Studio L, which was first deployed for Tokyo. Our real-time graphics, lighting, and fabrication teams have turned that space into what it is now.

Programming transitions to the pregame show of the France-Morocco match.

The commentary team of Andres Cantor, Manuel Sol, and Natalia Astrain is onsite, but, for matches not called by that team, on-air talent - Cop n lvarez, Janelly Farias, Isabella Echeverri, Jorge Calvo, Kenti Robles, Diana Rinc n, Daniella L pez-Guajardo, Eduardo Biscayart, and Maxi Rodriguez -provide the commentary from a setup in Studio L at Telemundo Center.

We knew that it was going to be a challenge to get all of our play-by-play commentators and analysts out there, especially given the logistics of two countries, says Pardo. With so many time zones, our approach was to bring it all to Telemundo Center and piece the shows together from here.

Telemundo Deportes' Technical Operations Center is receiving video feeds from Australia and New Zealand.

On the streaming front, Telemundo is populating Peacock with full replays of the prior day's matches, extended highlights of iconic moments, player profiles, and more - all produced from Miami.

Early-Morning Footy: Staff Rotations Accommodate Va

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/08/09/fifa-womens-world-cup-telemundo...
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