Live from 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: Fox Sports' Kevin Callahan Discusses The Evolution of the Jewel Event Fly Pack By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Sunday, August 6, 2023 - 4:41 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup has entered the Quarterfinals stage and for everyone involved it signals the end of a long run of long days, a quick day off to reflect and reset, and now focus on the end of the tournament. Kevin Callahan, Fox Sports, VP, Field Operations and Engineering, says things have been going well for Fox Sports, which has match control rooms on site for a Women's World Cup for the first time since 2015 in Vancouver. The team is also continuing to build, along with FIFA and HBS, on new workflows deployed in Qatar.
When we were in Qatar what everybody was doing was a science experiment and I think now that science experiment is over, says Callahan. We've gone from bleeding edge to cutting edge. We're still doing things most people aren't doing and we've taken the next steps and adding features rather than just adding to the bug list.
The Fox Sports IBC team has been dialed in on match coverage and much more.
The Fox Sports production team at the IBC plays a key role in nearly every aspect of the effort, as the two match control rooms are where everything comes together: the FIFA and HBS match production, graphics, commentary, and much more.
All of the matches go there, regardless of where the announcers are, says Callahan. Whether they are on site or calling off tube it comes here for Fox Box integration and final integration with the studio programming going to and from halftime and the end of the game.
The IBC also is home to the core engineering team and the media management team and the remote operations center where all the feeds, both inbound and outbound, are managed.
Monitoring all incoming FIFA World Cup feeds is a big part of life at the IBC for Fox Sports and other rights holders.
We're recording all of the feeds coming from FIFA and HBS, whether it be a watch-party feed, an additional content feed or ISO feed, says Callahan. We want to be able to get all of the content that they are producing and show it to viewers at home.
Jewel Event System: Third Time's the Charm
The Women's World Cup is the third event where the Fox Sports Jewel Event system is in use. First used at the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup and then at Super Bowl LVII, the system leverages IP and SMPTE ST 2110 technology in 20 racks of equipment from TAG Video Systems and EVS which are pre-cabled and configured before folding down in half for shipping via air from the U.S. There are two in use in Sydney, one at the IBC at Sydney Olympic Park and one at the technical operations center for the studio shows at Campbell's Cove.
This is really our third deployment of the Jewel Event system, and we've been able to fine tune things based off of the learning experiences we have had, says Callahan. We're able to use it to how we expected to use it, with all of the features that we had hoped for when we were designing the system.
The improvements did not require new gear but rather new updates from EVS, TAG Systems, Arista, and Calrec. And that involved a lot of testing as well testing as the goal is to minimize risks as much as possible.
When you have the words Jewel Event' in the name of the system you, generally speaking, are going to be risk averse, so we needed things to be tested and resilient, he adds.
New features include the ability to do a lot of additional monitoring, including seeing what sources are going where and making sure all the redundancies are in place for an IP-based system.
We also now have 2022-7 redundancy so there is more resiliency between Sydney and Los Angeles, he explains. And now that we have had it set up for 30 days in a row, we're able to really take advantage of that.
The benefits of the Jewel event system begin with setting up at the IBC as Callahan says the team was able to cut a week in set up.
By the time we get to the Euros next year we will be able to cut another week, says Callahan. We just need to do a lot of leg work ahead of time in terms of programming in order to make that a reality.
Another improvement to the Jewel event system is that the digital team, which also has its own set on Campbell Cove, is now tied into it.
We knew that they were going to be part of us, and we don't have to bolt them on or think about them as an afterthought as they're designed into the Jewel system, says Callahan. The digital team can access all the same feeds so that shows like World Cup Now, which is a personality-driven show, has access to all the same content.
Also helping in connecting everyone is the use of Arista switching gear as Arista is provider of the core networking environment.
The Arista 7508 switch router is our core 2110 switch, and we are also using one of their newest items, the 710P compact series switches, says Callahan. It's a nice fanless switch that we're able to deploy in various rooms as a true edge switch. It's deployed just about everywhere, in our match control rooms, on each of the stages, at researcher positions, and in the Vault in Pico. The 710p supports PTP which is a key for an IP broadcast environment
Callahan says that leveraging tools for advanced monitoring has been a big help as it obviates the days of walking into the IBC and learning that the power supply has been out, or the international circuits are down.
We have a lot of advanced alerting and monitoring between Telstra and our media broadcast team so that when something's out we can react quickly, he says. Knock on wood we haven't had any on-air implications.
At The Venues
The Fox Sports p
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
Live from 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup: Fox Sports' Kevin Callahan Discusses The Evolution of the Jewel Event Fly Pack By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
