MLS Cup Final 2023: League, Apple, NEP Group Partnership To Produce First Championship Match on MLS Season Pass The companies will also provide linear coverage on Fox Sports, Fox Deportes in the U.S. By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Friday, December 8, 2023 - 10:17 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
After a highly entertaining eight months of Major League Soccer on Apple TV featuring more than 1,000 matches, the digital platform's inaugural regular season will conclude with the MLS Cup Final on Saturday, Dec. 9, with one of the original clubs, the Columbus Crew, vs. the third-newest team in the Western Conference, Los Angeles FC (LAFC). The three-pronged partnership of MLS, Apple, and NEP Group will elevate the production quality of the league's biggest event and cap off an exciting first year of MLS Season Pass.
This is the most complex workflow in the world right now, and we're delivering an exponential amount of video [because of it], says Seth Bacon, EVP, media, Major League Soccer. It's controlled chaos, but there's something nice about being able to have a week to plan for an event like the MLS Cup Final.
75+ Deliverables, 20+ Cams in 1080p: Connected-Production Ecosystem Is Put to the Test For the marquee MLS event, the production and operations teams are deploying their tech arsenal as well as their connected-production ecosystem. The match will include more than 20 cameras to capture every angle of the action, but the most impressive aspect of the MLS Cup Final is the multi-layered production workflow that debuted at the start of the 2023 regular season. Based at NEP's data center in Dallas before being dispersed to other locations - VISTA Worldlink's South Florida-based facility, NEP's Mediabank MAM operations in Washington, DC, the Apple Live Operations Center (ALOC) in NEP's Production Center in Los Angeles, the MLS Season Pass studios in New York City - the workflow is firing on all cylinders to handle the multiple responsibilities of distributing the match to the masses.
Inside the control room of Major League Soccer's headquarters in New York City (All photos: MLS)
The platform offers many deliverables for this one event, says Joshua Liemer, president, VISTA Worldlink. That's the secret sauce to what MLS has been delivering this year. Early on in this journey, we set out to build this ecosystem, but what has impressed me the most is that [the final will] be delivered in a variety of languages and graphics packages.
In addition to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, the crew will be sending feeds to numerous linear platforms: domestic broadcasters Fox Sports in English and Fox Deportes in Spanish, Canadian broadcasters TSN in English, RDS in French. With all the video signals in 1080p, any match day can be quite daunting, but, with the ecosystem in place, the operation can move forward with minimal hiccups.
The ecosystem is what has been able to connect all these dots, adds Liemer. We always say it takes a village, but, in this instance, it takes the ecosystem to bring it all together.
Operations in Ohio: Logistical Challenges Resolved With Columbus-Cincinnati Semifinal Although the ecosystem served as the main artery for distribution during the regular season and broadcasts of Leagues Cup, the production strategy will be used in a support role for Saturday's game. Opting for an onsite production to crown this year's champion, the team will be working out of three trucks (one for English-language team Jake Zivin, Taylor Twellman, and Katie Witham on Apple, one for Spanish-language team Sammy Sadovnik, Eduardo Biscayart, and Antonella Gonzalez on Apple, one for the linear outlets). Two of the trucks are from NEP Group: Supershooter 7 and Supershooter 29.
Logistically, a prior result - Columbus Crew's dramatic 3-2 victory over FC Cincinnati in a postseason edition of the Hell Is Real derby - helped solidify operations plans for the last match of the year. Because of playoff seedings, the winner of the Eastern Conference Final would dictate where the championship would be held. At slightly more than 100 miles from the teams' respective venues, Lower.com Field in Columbus, OH, was the best possible outcome for the drivers of NEP mobile units and the onsite technical staff.
It was a dream scenario because were able to lock in the exact crewing that we wanted and needed, says Liemer. We've been able to prepare to produce from this venue for a good amount of time.
NEP Group is a pivotal piece in the production of MLS Season Pass on Apple.
In addition to preparing for the 2023 final, the team has become familiar with the stadium that will host the 2024 MLS All-Star Game on July 17, 2024. To make things easier for next summer's broadcast, two-year-old Lower.com Field is the third-youngest stadium in the league. With a recently opened venue comes an updated tech infrastructure, which is very much welcomed for a production emphasizing connectivity.
The new MLS stadiums being built are the most technologically advanced from both a fan experience and a production standpoint, says Bacon. We have very strict standards that we put on our clubs in regard to camera locations, connectivity, and fibering. It was helpful to know that Ohio was going to be our destination, but, when you go through a season with 77 Leagues Cup matches in 34 days, you become pretty good at being nimble and reacting quickly to deploy a full-scale production.
This special relationship with Lower.com Field will allow on-field studio programming before and after the match on MLS Season Pass. The English-language team will feature Sacha Kljestan, Kaylyn Kyle, Liam McHugh, Andrew Wiebe, and Bradley Wright-Phillips; the Spanish-language team, Tony Cherchi, Miguel Gallardo, and Diego Valeri.
Year 1 Reflec
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Marshall Electronics, a globally recognized provider of high-performance video solutions for broadcast, streaming, AV and professional production, will exhibit ...
08/10/2026
Latest Innovations Extend Fiber to Any Location and Elevate Subscriber Quality o...
MLS Cup Final 2023: League, Apple, NEP Group Partnership To Produce First Championship Match on MLS Season Pass The companies will also provide linear coverage on Fox Sports, Fox Deportes in the U.S. By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
