MLB Postseason 2024: ESPN Begins Wild Card Sprint Early With Monday's Mets-Braves Doubleheader in Atlanta Hurricane Helene adds two games to stretch of 12 potential broadcasts in four days By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Tuesday, October 1, 2024 - 2:29 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Major League Baseball Wild Card seems to become crazier every season, but this year's edition is definitely the most chaotic. ESPN will produce a guaranteed total of eight games in two days, and that could stretch to 12 in three days if all four series go to a winner-take-all Game 3. And, as if those responsibilities weren't enough, there was a playoff-impacting doubleheader on Monday between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, thanks to last week's postponements due to Hurricane Helene.
There were many scenarios that we considered, says Paul Horrell, operations manager, remote production, ESPN, but, by Friday night at around 6 p.m. ET, the two games on Monday materialized. When we pulled the trigger [on this plan], we put an ops team together, secured a mobile unit that arrived on Sunday, and got everything set up on Monday morning before the two games.
Punched Tickets: Last-Minute Doubleheader Relies on Dome Spring, Atlanta-Based Crew When the MLB season begins, many people see the day following the conclusion of the regular season as a time to get ready for the excitement of the playoffs. Mother nature - plus a three-way tie between the Braves, Mets, and Arizona Diamondbacks - spurred other plans in 2024.
Unforeseen circumstances forced a doubleheader with multiple possible outcomes. The winner of Game 1 would automatically earn a postseason berth, and the loser would need to win Game 2 to snag the final Wild Card spot. To sneak into the dance, the idle DBacks needed the Game 1 winner to sweep both games. In one of the best games of the 2024 campaign, the Metropolitans won a back-and-forth contest in Game 1 to clinch the No. 6 seed and face the No. 3 Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin. The Braves won their matchup to clinch the No. 5 seed and square off against the No. 4 San Diego Padres in California, denying the defending National League Champions a playoff appearance.
NEP ND6 traveled from Notre Dame Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the Kansas City Royals-Baltimore Orioles series.
Before a pitch was thrown, the most complex aspect of this show-and-go production was ESPN's getting everything in order operationally. This included finding a separate crew, with a majority coming from Atlanta since most regular MLB on ESPN staffers were preparing for Tuesday's start to the Wild Card round. To execute the production, the network opted for a REMI (remote-integration) model that leveraged the enhanced-world-feed model deployed during the COVID-19-impacted season in 2020.
We took the clean feed and a handful of isos from Bally Sports South's home mobile unit, which was Mobile TV Group's 35HDX, Horrell explains. We also added three of our hard cameras, including high first, high third, and centerfield.
One control room in Bristol, CT, was used for this one-off regular-season finale, and Dome Productions Spring mobile unit onsite sent the video feeds to the offsite crew. The truck was available after producing ESPN's college-football coverage between Florida State vs. SMU in Dallas on Saturday afternoon and making the nearly 12-hour drive to the capital of Georgia. Also onsite was the Sunday Night Baseball booth, housing Karl Ravech, Eduardo Perez, and David Cone. After the doubleheader, the on-air crew followed the Braves to San Diego to meet their colleagues.
Clearer Picture: Confirmed Sites Allow Crew To Create Tech, Production Roadmap With all eight seeds locked up and the regular season in the rearview mirror, attention shifts to the Wild Card. Luckily, unlike in previous years, the four stadiums - Houston's Minute Maid Park, Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Milwaukee's American Family Field, and San Diego's Petco Park - hosting a maximum three games each were determined before the season's final weekend. This not only gave the team more time to focus on the workflows and production elements to implement in the Wild Card effort but also made Monday's doubleheader less stressful to handle.
We were trying to strategically come up with a plan throughout the week, notes Horrell. When the host sites were unknown, we considered placing a truck halfway between two cities and take a crew. MLB's new playoff format is a bit more broadcast-friendly, but it was nice having one of the leagues locked up before we headed into last weekend.
The most difficult task for Horrell and his operations team is coordinating the sites' specific mobile units. Two mobile units coming from NEP Group's Field Shop in Pittsburgh - Alpha and NCP11 - are ready to go in Houston and Milwaukee, respectively. NCP11, used throughout the SNB season, was also in Milwaukee for last year's Wild Card featuring the Brewers and Diamondbacks. The other two trucks are coming off productions from last weekend: NEP ND6 headed to Baltimore from Saturday's college-football matchup between No. 22 Louisville and No. 14 Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, and NEP EN3 stayed on the West Coast to assist the series in San Diego.
The audio section of the ND6 mobile unit
On the broadcast-technology side, ESPN will augment broadcasts with various specialty cameras. A MindFly AI BodyCam, which debuted at the 2024 NCAA Men's College World Series, will be deployed in Houston. UmpCam will make its return in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and San Diego. And DEFY WireCam - a workflow used during the regular season at numerous MLB venues - will be tapped in Baltimore, Houston, and San Diego.
On the talent side, the network is deployin
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
MLB Postseason 2024: ESPN Begins Wild Card Sprint Early With Monday's Mets-Braves Doubleheader in Atlanta Hurricane Helene adds two games to stretch of 12 potential broadcasts in four days By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
