Live From World Baseball Classic: MLB Network Concludes Wild Two Weeks With World-Feed Production, Onsite Studio Coverage of Championship in Miami The broadcaster relied on NEP Japan in Tokyo, NEP's flypack solutions in Taichung By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - 9:48 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
If the Major League Baseball regular season is a marathon, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) can rightfully be seen as a sprint. With domestic and international baseball fans glued to their television sets, MLB Network has been tasked with supplying the production and operations foundation for this sprint with a world-feed model for 63 media partners in 144 countries.
It's the sheer volume of 47 games in 14 days in three countries on two continents in multiple time zones, says Jason Hedgcock, senior director, remote technical operations, MLB Network. There were a lot of double- headers, so we needed to develop a plan that could be executed and replicable.
Leaders of MLB Network's production and operations teams onsite in Miami: (from left) Stephanie Perone, Tom Guidice, Susan Stone, Jason Hedgcock, Samantha Calastro, and Chris Pfeiffer
Global Game: Inside the World-Feed Production Since the launch of the World Baseball Classic in 2006, MLB Network has provided resources to broadcasters looking to showcase the global competition. For this year's edition, the network has constructed a baseline production of eight unilateral hard cameras: a high-speed unit at 6X, a mid-home robotic camera, POVs for broadcasters to splice into their respective telecasts, and an RF camera for basic angles from a handheld position.
As in years past, broadcasters can supplement and augment their specific coverage with their own cameras. For instance, Fox Sports is adding two cameras - at low third base and low first base - to its arsenal for Tuesday night's championship bout between the U.S. and Japan. If international broadcasters want to enhance their own dedicated coverage, MLB Network is more than willing to allow that to happen.
The compound in Taichung comprised shipping containers as makeshift production trailers. (Photo: Samantha Calastro)
A lot of our international rightsholders that want to come onsite have new technologies, so that requires fewer cameras from us, says Stephanie Perone, director, remote technology operations, MLB Network. It comes with an extra amount of communication, but it's more planning on the frontend.
For the championship game in Miami, the network's onsite team of 90 employees is working out of Game Creek Video 79 mobile unit for the world-feed production and is integrating graphics and Statcast from operators at network headquarters in Secaucus, NJ. Besides Fox Sports, MLB Network provides resources for Fox Deportes and Univision and, on the international side, TV Asahi, Tokyo Broadcast Systems, and Amazon Prime Japan, two from Venezuela, and two from Cuba. Operationally, establishing a reliable transmission scheme is essential.
Hedgcock and company are responsible for commentary insertion for broadcasts in 14 languages. Throughout the tournament, English-language commentary has been done by top-notch pairings: Tyler Maun and Ryan Rowland-Smith in Taichung, Taiwan, for Pool A; Stephen Nelson and Jos Mota in Tokyo for Pool B; Rich Waltz and Buck Martinez in Phoenix for Pool C; and Dave Flemming and Yonder Alonso in Miami for Pool D.
MLB Network's biggest concern has been serving up feeds and workflows that work for every broadcaster across the board.
Inside an empty shipping container before gear was installed (Photo: Samantha Calastro)
We need to keep the technology compatible because we're transmitting to some countries that have advanced technology on par with or better than the U.S. and some that do not, Hedgcock says. We have to produce a product on a technical level compatible with all of these rightsholders so that they can ingest it and broadcast it to their audience.
In comparison with the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the world-feed model has been perfected since the shortened MLB season in 2020. Largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB Network found itself the main supplier of video feeds for both national and regional sports networks. Nearly three years later, a handful of pandemic-inspired habits have become vital to productions over the past two weeks.
Some of the things that we learned in the pandemic with multiviewers for remote announcers have been employed here, adds Hedgcock. We've also become more efficient since 2020, and this event shows how we can partner with multiple broadcasters in a better way.
From a production perspective, presenting the world feed to various media entities comes with a challenge: shots seen on these unilateral cameras have to remain somewhat neutral. Luckily, the production staff, led by MLB Network VP, Live Events, Chris Pfeiffer, has gained valuable lessons from the pandemic.
The main priority is to document the game, but we try to add in the international flavor with certain stories, Pfeiffer says. Fans can't get enough of [Japan's Shohei] Ohtani, so we made sure to have a camera on him to show everything that he does on the field and in the dugout. There has also been so much energy in these venues that we want to capture the atmosphere with shots of the crowd.
Working Overseas: NEP Japan, Local Staffers Pitch in for International Pools The magic of the World Baseball Classic is to offer fans in the U.S. and other areas of the globe a peek into unfamiliar baseball venues. In previous years, these have included Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2006; Foro Sol in Mexico City in 2009; Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2013; and Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul in 2017.
This year, the tw
More from Sports Video Group
02/06/2026
Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...
02/06/2026
Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...
02/06/2026
Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...
02/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...
02/06/2026
Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...
02/06/2026
NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...
02/06/2026
Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...
02/06/2026
Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...
02/06/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
02/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...
02/06/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...
02/06/2026
The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...
02/06/2026
CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...
02/06/2026
The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...
02/06/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...
02/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
02/06/2026
The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend
Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...
02/06/2026
The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
Live From World Baseball Classic: MLB Network Concludes Wild Two Weeks With World-Feed Production, Onsite Studio Coverage of Championship in Miami The broadcaster relied on NEP Japan in Tokyo, NEP's flypack solutions in Taichung By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
