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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
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 
