Commentary revolution: DAZN's technical production manager Max Mosgraber talks doing more with less By Kevin Emmott
Monday, April 29, 2024 - 11:24
Print This Story
DAZN commentators Max Siebald [left] and Michael Ballack
Doing more with less is a common trope in broadcast circles, but the needle does not have to move far to make it worthwhile. The smallest things can make the biggest differences says DAZN's technical production manager, Max Mosgraber.
Sports commentators don't just describe what's happening on the field. The best commentators engage and involve the viewer in the action. They have opinions, they chat, and above all they provide companionship to people listening at home.
Mosgraber already knows all this. With over 10 years of experience in the broadcast industry, he's worked as a freelance sound engineer and technician for various OB companies in Germany, including TVN, Studio Berlin, NEP, TV Skyline, and HD Broadcast, and has spent time as a media engineer at public broadcaster RBB. So when he saw an opportunity to repurpose existing technologies to improve DAZN's commentary output he leapt on the opportunity.
Teaming up with select industry partners, he boosted DAZN's commentary output with additional audio channels, improved quality, added a video feed of the commentary area, and provided a fully redundant mix on an entirely separate backhaul.
He used the same technologies to minimise latency, give audio operators full control over the signal, and provide the commentary team with better information to do their jobs and he did it with no outside broadcast equipment and no additional transmission lines.
Available resources
Trialling his workflow at the recent UEFA fixture between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernab u Stadium, he did big remote production on a micro scale. But Mosgraber's description of what he did is way better: We condensed the OB van into hand luggage.
When we attend games in foreign countries we have three commentary options, says Mosgraber. At the biggest events like the Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League matches in Germany, we will always send an OB van. For foreign Champions League matches, as a main visiting broadcaster, we may come equipped with our own OB, or more likely we book a full or partially equipped space in the commentary area.
Like many broadcasters, DAZN adds live commentary from its onsite team to the world feed of the game, supplied on this occasion by Spanish UEFA rights holder Telefonica. In Madrid, Mosgraber secured a partially equipped commentary booth, which as usual included a fibre connection to a 100MBps internet line and two monitors which showed the live match feed to help keep the commentators across the action. Mosgraber felt that even with this limited connectivity, he could do better.
DAZN's commentary booth at the recent UEFA fixture between Real Madrid and RB Leipzig at the Santiago Bernab u Stadium
Doing more with less
Pairing a Prodys Quantum W commentary unit at the stadium with a Quantum AV at DAZN's production control room (PCR) in Munich, he was not only able to introduce a second commentator track, but a live PTZ camera feed of the commentary area. Providing up to three mic/line inputs, the Quantum W can embed up to four audio tracks onto a camera feed. Mosgraber only needed two, and he used it to embed isolated commentator audio channels on the camera video output down the Movistar ethernet link to the DAZN PCR in Germany where it was de-embedded via a Quantum AV unit. Embedding the audio kept everything in sync, and both channels were able to be routed directly into DAZN's Stagetec mixer for monitoring and mixing into the world feed presentation.
The biggest benefit for us is being able to deliver a better mix to the gallery, and all without an SNG, OB van or additional dedicated fibre/satellite transmission lines. I think I am the only person in the world working like this, but this workflow was enabled by its simplicity
To use as much of the available bandwidth as possible, Mosgraber used the BitRate Adaptive Video Encoding (Brave) protocol, which provides network analysis for things like packet loss, packet latency and average bandwidth, and makes bitrate adjustments in real time. Crucially, Brave also gives priority to audio information over video.
The system effectively creates a small television studio that fits into my travel bag, says Mosgraber. We are the first company at the Champions League in Europe - or maybe in the world - that is using a commentary camera at these big football games without needing an OB van on site. It allows us to integrate the commentaries on a transmission line via the internet and because the commentaries are embedded onto the commentary camera it means the camera is an integrated part of the setup.
On a normal partially equipped remote production the commentary area isn't able to send or receive vision tracks to or from the PCR, but this workflow means that as well as sending the commentaries and commentator camera feed, we can also get the program feed from the gallery via RX.
It means the commentators can see all the inserts and graphics, the commercials, the EVS highlight tracks; they can see everything as opposed to just the match feed. It's a huge benefit to the commentary team because they feel more connected to the production and from a teamwork perspective it's a much more joined up approach.
Full redundancy
As a as a main visiting broadcaster, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) requires DAZN to produce a clean commentary track on audio track four of its transmission line, and Mosgraber took the opportunity to implement a secondary system to ensure that it not only sounds better than before, but provides a solid redundant backup should the internet f
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...
18/05/2026
Delta Goodrem shines for SBS as more than 3.27 million Australians tune in for E...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
Agentic AI inference at one-tenth the cost per token with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL7...
18/05/2026
18 May 2026
Dubai and New York, May 18, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a glob...
18/05/2026
Monday 18 May 2026
Sky News offers ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes for just...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
Commentary revolution: DAZN's technical production manager Max Mosgraber talks doing more with less By Kevin Emmott 
