To say the NFL Draft has become legitimate tent-pole event for the league is a colossal understatement. Consider that the Draft's Chicago debut last year drew more than 200,000 attendees to Grant Park and once again proved to be a major ratings draw. This year, that number is expected to swell beyond 250,000 and last-minute trades atop the draft order are expected to drive strong ratings. With this in mind, it's no surprise that NFL Media (comprised of NFL Network and NFL Digital Media) has rolled out its largest Draft production ever in Chicago this year, complete with three studio sets, five mobile units, more than 40 cameras, and a record 20 Draft war room cameras, and nearly 160,000 feet of fiber.
NFL Media's Dave Shaw (left) and Adam Acone at the primary set in Selection Square
The preparation going into this is ridiculous, says NFL Media VP Production Dave Shaw There are a lot of moving pieces at work and a lot could potentially go wrong, but it all has really gone well and it's been a great run up to the Draft. I think people get excited about just being a part of the Draft now since it's three days and such huge event here in Chicago It's become quite a show, and the fans get a good chance out here to really get a piece of all of it.
By weeks' end, NFL Media will have delivered more than 70 hours of live Draft coverage, including NFL HQ, NFL Total Access, NFL Draft Kickoff, and the main event from the Auditorium Theatre on Thursday and Friday (Rounds 1-3) and from Selection Square in Grant Park on Saturday (Rounds 4-7).
Fibering Up: A Sprawling, Multi-Venue Production
The biggest change for NFL Media this year (and ESPN, for that matter) is the expansion of Draft Town and Selection Square that has resulted in its truck compound being located 6,000 feet from the Auditorium Theatre (compared to 1,000 last year), where the first two nights of the Draft are held. In order to connect the compound to the Theatre, the ops team rolled out a more than 40 3,000-ft. fibers. In all, NFL Network laid down nearly 160,000 feet of fiber and SMPTE cable - roughly 30 miles.
The NFL Media truck compound in Grant Park (shown here) is approximately 6,000 feet away from the Auditorium Theatre, requiring extremely long fiber runs.
Our fiber technicians are just so strong, says Adam Acone, director of media operations and planning, NFL Network. Jeff and Phil Bartley really lead that for us and they ran the Draft last year, the Super Bowl, and other big events for us as well. It's such a great advantage to have people like that on your crew that you have the utmost confidence in and you know will figure out the solution to any [challenge].
In addition, the NFL Events team once again built a temporary bridge overhanging Michigan Avenue for NFL Media and ESPN to run its cable across, along with a second bridge running across Congress Parkway.
In the compound, Game Creek Video's Glory (A and B units) is serving as the home of NFL Network's primary show, while the Selection Square studio shows and pre-Draft red carpet special utilized Game Creek's Pride (A and B). HFI's Crave VIP support unit houses QC and transmission operations, while two redundant Filmwerks 500-kw generators are powering it all.
It Takes Two: NFL Network, Digital Unite With Pair of Sets
NFL Network's primary set in Selection Square
NFL Network's primary set is located at Selection Square looking out onto Buckingham Fountain and the swaths of fans on-site at Grant Park. Designed and built by Filmwerks, the raised 40 40-ft. set is surrounded entirely by glass and features a four-person desk and five cameras, including a jib. The set not only serves as home to pre/post-draft coverage, but plays a major role in the Draft coverage itself with live analysis in between picks.
The Huddle Social Media Command Center is located nearby and serves as the home to NFL Digital Media. CLICK HERE for SVG's full story on NFL Digital Media's presence at the Draft.
The Network and Digital production units are all working together to create content that's all consistent, adds Shaw. So there's really no separation as far as how we look at it, it's just more of how we distribute it. We all work hand in hand and then social media crosses all platforms.
NFL Network also has a small location at the NFL Play60 Zone in Draft Town where live hits are being delivering throughout the week.
The Red Carpet and Inside Theatre: A Sense of Spectacle for Rounds 1-3
NFL Network produced a full red-carpet show prior to the Draft on Thursday.
Prior to the start of the first round on Thursday, NFL Network's red carpet special featured Melissa Stark and Michael Irvin interviewing prospects as they arrived.
Once the Draft kicked off, host Rich Eisen, analysts Mike Mayock and Steve Mariucci, and Stanford head coach David Shaw took over at NFL Network's primary set inside the Auditorium Theatre. Deion Sanders also interviewed Draftees on-stage after being selected, while Maurice Jones-Drew and Ike Taylor interviewed Draftees backstage for the NFL Now Live show.
The Supracam (seen here to the top right) made its NFL Draft debut on Thursday inside the Auditorium Theatre.
NFL Network deployed 17 unilateral cameras inside the Theatre (not including 10 camera feeds shared with ESPN), including a Supracam two-point aerial system, an I-MOVIX ultra-slo-mo system (provided by Fletcher), six robos, and an RF SteadiCam. The Supracam, which was utilized on Thursday Night Football this year, features a 4K camera that shoots sweeping shots of the stage and house.
It's tricky in the theater because it's a very a small theater and you have three lighting plots - for the main show, ESPN, and us, says Acone. This thing has to somehow get through all those lights and also mak
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
To say the NFL Draft has become legitimate tent-pole event for the league is a colossal understatement. Consider that the Draft's Chicago debut last year drew more than 200,000 attendees to Grant Park and once again proved to be a major ratings draw. This year, that number is expected to swell beyond 250,000 and last-minute trades atop the draft order are expected to drive strong ratings. With this in mind, it's no surprise that NFL Media (comprised of NFL Network and NFL Digital Media) has rolled out its largest Draft production ever in Chicago this year, complete with three studio sets, five mobile units, more than 40 cameras, and a record 20 Draft war room cameras, and nearly 160,000 feet of fiber.
