
Big West Conference Taps Broadcast Management Group for Championship Events for ESPN BMG's Las Vegas-based centralized production hub will house live-production operations By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Thursday, September 16, 2021 - 3:11 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In collegiate athletics, mass production and distribution of live coverage of sports events isn't just for the Power Five anymore. These days, every collegiate conference and its member institutions are looking to deliver live game coverage to not just selected sports but all of its sports.
That's what made this such an important summer for the Big West Conference.
In July, the Big West announced, in addition to a new logo, a key distribution deal with ESPN under which more than 600 Big West events - including numerous conference championships in both men's and women's sports - will stream on ESPN .
While production of many of the live games will be the responsibility of the schools, the conference office is tasked with the live coverage of 13 conference championship events hosted throughout the academic year.
It's a great time to be at the Big West, says Big West Conference Commissioner Dan Butterly. There's a significant number of changes going on here with our operations, our office locations, our staff. [The ESPN partnership] provides our institutions the means to go from producing 60 regular-season games and championship events a year to 600 and above. The ESPN package having an ESPN name to it definitely helps the distribution opportunities for our institutions. We're excited to join that family.
To meet the production demands on those championships, the conference has turned to Broadcast Management Group, a full-scale production-services company that is building up REMI (or at-home) production-operations hubs across the country, including its new crown jewel in Las Vegas.
Broadcast Management Group will produce Big West Conference championship events for ESPN from its Las Vegas production hub.
[At-home production] is where the future's going, says Butterly. The Broadcast Management Facilities, and what they've got on the Las Vegas Strip, was amazing to walk through. The things that they're able to do, the technologies that they're able to utilize were immaculate. We're really excited at what they bring and what they're able to do. It really is a benefit for us.
In addition to live coverage of many of these events, BMG will provide studio-show and highlight-show coverage, all originating from BMG's Las Vegas-based production hub. BMG officially launched a sports division in January and has assembled a team of about 20 directors, editors, producers, graphics and playback operators, and technical directors.
Our approach to production is centralized technology and decentralized staffing, says Todd Mason, CEO, Broadcast Management Group. That is what a lot of the sports networks have been doing for a number of years now. Our model is way beyond [a response to] COVID. It's being able to put the camera [operators] on the field, the commentators at the game, but then bringing all the video signals back to our cloud broadcast center.
It's almost irrelevant as to where it is, he continues, because it's the cloud center. The rest of the control-room team can be either there or in various locations around the country. It allows us to efficiently leverage our staff nationwide, reduce the cost of producing an event, while maintaining the highest quality and booking the best people.
The first championship broadcast from this collaboration will be the 2021 Big West Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships hosted by UC Davis. The full schedule is as follows:
Men's and Women's Cross Country: 30-minute recap show (Oct. 29)
Women's Soccer: Live finals coverage (Nov. 4-7)
Men's Soccer: Live finals coverage (Nov. 4-13)
Men's and Women's Basketball: Live coverage of all games (March 8-12, 2022)
Women's Golf: 30-minute recap show (April 10-12, 2022)
Men's and Women's Tennis: Live finals coverage (April 28-May 1, 2022)
Beach Volleyball: Live finals coverage (April 29-30, 2022)
Men's Golf: 30-minute recap show (May 1-3, 2022)
Men's and Women's Track & Field: 60-minute recap show (May 6-14, 2022)
With many events taking place on the campuses of Big West institutions, both Butterly and Mason note, there will be plenty of collaboration between the schools and BMG.
We have our technology infrastructure, so that we can do everything turnkey in-house for them, says Mason. But we also have a systems-integration division that designs and builds facilities. That's where we can partner with the universities to support them as they're upgrading their own facilities.
That will also manifest itself in opportunities for students interested in learning live sports production.
That's one of the things that we're both very interested in: helping to train the next generation in our industry, says Mason. Our industry is aging, in the sports world particularly. A lot of people have been doing it for a long time, and some are starting to age out. We need to look at the next generation of talent. We're able to work with their students and help them, train them in real-life, real-world production experiences. We look to work with the universities on technology. We look to work with them on helping to train their students on how to be good broadcasters and to tell the story of the Big West universities.
North America Stories
10/09/2026
Duff Foreman is an AI-generated announcer who will add color to this month's New Mexico Open...
10/09/2026
Bitmovin is rolling out Encoder Version 3, the next major release of the technology behind its VOD and Live Encoders. Version 3 is built on a premise every stre...
10/09/2026
At IBC2026, on booth 1.B47, Net Insight will showcase Open Live Media, its architecture for delivering resilient live media services across networks, partners, ...
10/09/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and Scripps Sports have announced a national broadcast rights agreement for the 2026-27 season, a landmark par...
10/09/2026
The Trusted Partner Network (TPN), the global content security initiative powere...
10/09/2026
The NFL is launching its most expansive creator programming yet, bringing togeth...
10/09/2026
Sportsnet is set to deliver its biggest hockey season ever with a national sched...
10/09/2026
LiveU is now a Clarus Integrated Reseller, bringing Starlink's fast, reliabl...
10/09/2026
Mimir is the cloud-native media production platform built for teams that need to move media fast across live, archive, web, social, and broadcast workflows. At ...
10/09/2026
ATSC is being honored with a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the Nat...
10/09/2026
Audio-Technica has introduced the BP880R Contact Transducer, a specialized micro...
10/09/2026
TMRW Sports in partnership with the LPGA, today announced multiyear U.S. media rights agreements with ESPN and Scripps Sports/ION to bring WTGL, the new women...
10/09/2026
SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) in partnership with Major League Baseball and the Pit...
10/09/2026
Tennis Channel announced today its launch as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel.
Tennis Channel offers viewers a single home for Tennis Channel and Ten...
10/09/2026
Dolby has announced major updates to Dolby OptiView, its live sports platform, ahead of IBC 2026. The updates include new AI-powered intelligence to better unde...
10/09/2026
Dalet has appointed Brian Doheny as CEO. Doheny joined Dalet as President and Chief Revenue Officer in April 2026. Since joining Dalet, Doheny has led the compa...
10/09/2026
Sony, as well as its partner company Nevion, is starting IBC 2026 with a handful of announcements for attendees to see on the show floor.
Sony Announces the 4t...
10/09/2026
The six-year-old venue is expanding capabilities for NFL action, Super Bowl LXI, 2028 Summer Olympics
SoFi Stadium, as well as the surrounding area known as Ho...
10/09/2026
France launch follows UK and Germany as Nielsen expands product across EMEA
Paris, France, September 10, 2026 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measuremen...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Leading professional audio manufacturers NUGEN Audio, RTW, Steinberg and Telos Alliance have joined forces with Fraunhofer IDMT to establish a common approach t...
10/09/2026
Built Into Setplex's Zapflex Platform, AI Insider Turns Video Service Data Into Actionable Insights
Setplex today introduced AI Insider, a breakthrough new...
10/09/2026
Managed service changes dialogue without actor-specific training or facial rigging while preserving the original performance and fitting established post-produc...
10/09/2026
The ACT Entertainment tvONE and Green Hippo Pixel Academy has released its autumn course schedule, with hands-on training dates in September, October and Novemb...
10/09/2026
Orange Polska continues to Rely on Viaccess-Orca for Secure TV Services and the Next Phase of its Technology Evolution
Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in T...
10/09/2026
Generate and create directly in your timeline with new AI-powered innovations in...
10/09/2026
Tedial is introducing Media Business Hub (MBH) at IBC 2026, a new business enablement platform designed to help media organizations unlock the full value of the...
10/09/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will unveil the next phase of its transformation at IBC2026 with a preview...
10/09/2026
Fabric Data and TMT Insights today announced that the two companies are combining to create Fabric Insights, uniting authoritative data, purpose-built software,...
10/09/2026
Operative, the preferred advertising and broadcast management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced a comprehensive slate of new pr...
10/09/2026
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced the launch of its latest range of handheld signal generation, analysis and monitoring ...
10/09/2026
The partnership begins with native Zixi protocol support on the Kiloview D350 and will extend to deeper product integration and joint go-to-market initiatives
...
10/09/2026
Avid and FilmLight announce strategic partnership to reimagine the color pipelin...
10/09/2026
Maxon Brings Exclusive Preview of Fall Innovations to IBC2026
Brie Clayton September 10, 2026
0 Comments
IBC attendees will get the first look at new ...
10/09/2026
Puget Systems Launches Built Different by Puget Systems, A New Podcast That Go...
10/09/2026
Three Boston Conservatory Dance Alums Honored for Their Early-Career Promise India Hobbs and Demetrius Lee received Princess Grace Awards, while Lilly David t...
10/09/2026
MonoNeon Returns to Berklee to Kick Off Signature Series The Grammy-winning bassist and alumnus performs with students and faculty from the Planet MicroJam In...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Gear up: The latest PC games and major updates are ready to play on GeForce NOW ...
10/09/2026
AI inference chipmaker d-Matrix today announced it will use NVIDIA NVLink Fusion to connect its next-generation Raptor XPUs to NVIDIA's AI infrastructure pl...
09/09/2026
Sony Electronics has announced the SEL814G, the company's first fisheye zoom G Lens for full-frame Alpha E-mount cameras. The lens will be available in Octo...
09/09/2026
Telestream has announced an expansion of its Practical AI capabilities across th...
09/09/2026
Haivision and Chyron have announced a technology partnership integrating Haivisi...
09/09/2026
Omaha Productions has released ManningCast: Heist, a short film featuring Peyton and Eli Manning attempting to break into NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's o...
09/09/2026
Imagine Communications will demonstrate the next evolution of XVR at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14).
XVR is Imagine's channel-in-a-b...
09/09/2026
swXtch.io has announced abbe, an AI-based orchestration layer for live media workflows, making its world premiere at IBC2026 (Meeting Room 5.MR13, Hall 5, Septe...