NFL Playoffs 2023: After Pulling Double Duty During Regular Season, NBC Sports Ops Team Kicks Off Wild Card Doubleheader in Jacksonville, Cincinnati In addition to handling SNF, the NBC Ops team played a vital role on Prime Video's TNF package By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, January 13, 2023 - 3:03 pm
Print This Story
It has been a unique season for the NBC Sports operations team: it not only was tasked with delivering one of the biggest weekly live productions in the business with Sunday Night Football but also collaborated closely with Amazon Prime Video on its inaugural Thursday Night Football package. This weekend, NBC's team will once again be split, with the TNF crew on hand in Jacksonville, FL, with Game Creek Prime One and Prime Two trucks for Chargers-Jaguars and the SNF crew and NEP ND1 trucks handling Sunday's Ravens-Bengals game in Cincinnati.
NBC Sports' Tim Dekime (left) and Jenny Powelson on hand at the truck compound in Jacksonville for the first of NBC's two NFL Wild Card Game productions
It has definitely been an interesting and very different kind of year, says Jenny Powelson, director, remote technical operations, NBS Sports, who oversaw operations for TNF this season. Just getting brand-new trucks in time for our [broadcast] boot camp in L.A. and then getting to Week 1 was a major accomplishment. And then putting on such a massive show like that every week was very challenging. But this team is what made it all happen. Every single person on this crew was handpicked to be a part of this team, and we couldn't have done it without every one of them.
Plenty of Production Firepower for Super Wild Card Weekend Although SNF and TNF deploy a near-Super Bowl-level of production technology each week, NBC still found a way to add a few new toys to its NFL Super Wild Card Weekend productions.
We're excited to have two RF Steadicams for game coverage on both Saturday and Sunday, says Tim DeKime, VP, sports operations, NBC Sports. We have an abbreviated pregame show on both games because we're both in the primetime window; we are going to use the Steadicams from the pregame shows for game coverage as well.
Both games will feature field-side pregame-show sets for Football Night in America, with co-host Jac Collinsworth and analyst Rodney Harrison pulling their own version of Phil Collins's Live Aid stunt by providing live reports at TIAA Bank Field on Saturday before heading to Paycore Stadium for Sunday's game. Meanwhile, host Maria Taylor - along with analysts Jason Garrett, Chris Simms, Mike Florio, and Matthew Berry - will be back in the studio in Stamford, CT.
NBC will deploy more than 40 cameras for Saturday's game in Jacksonville and Sunday's game in Cincinnati - with the two camera complements largely mirroring one another. This includes 13 Sony HDC-5500's in 6X-slo-mo mode, five HDC-4800 4K cameras, two Sony HDC-P50 RF Steadicams on the field, and a Skycam Wildcat wired aerial system.
Since both games will have Sony HDC 4800 4K cameras shooting down the sidelines for close plays on the field, NBC's production team opted to forgo goal-line Pylon Cams this weekend. However, both productions will have 3G wireless RF line-to-gain cams on hand.
Saturday's game in Jacksonville will also feature a jib overlooking the stadium bowl, which the game in Cincinnati will not have. Saturday's game will have an extra EVS XT-VIA replay system at its disposal, bringing the number of replay operators to a whopping 17.
A Grand Sendoff for a Legend in the Truck Saturday's game will mark the end of an era, as Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Fred Gaudelli will be producing his final game in the truck (alongside director Pierre Moosa) after 33 years as producer of ABC's Monday Night Football, ESPN's Sunday Night Football, NBC's Sunday Night Football, and, more recently, Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video.
Sunday's production will be led by Coordinating Producer Rob Hyland and director Drew Esocoff, who will also handle NBC's Divisional Round playoff game next week out of ND1. The Prime trucks, meanwhile, will transition to Fox Sports, which will use the mobile units for its NFC Championship and Super Bowl LVII pregame shows.
On the operations front, Powelson is overseeing things in Jacksonville with Tech Managers Zaque Meyers and Jordan Keen handling the game production and Jess Fogarty and Myles Rich handling pregame. In Cincinnati, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer John Roch is heading up operations with Ethan Balcer and Andrew Lawing as tech managers for the game production and Shaun Cooper for the pregame show. The operations team is led by Ken Goss, EVP, studio/remote operations planning, NBC Sports.
More from Sports Video Group
02/06/2026
Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...
02/06/2026
Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...
02/06/2026
Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...
02/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...
02/06/2026
Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...
02/06/2026
NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...
02/06/2026
Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...
02/06/2026
Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...
02/06/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
02/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...
02/06/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...
02/06/2026
The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...
02/06/2026
CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...
02/06/2026
The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...
02/06/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...
02/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
02/06/2026
The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend
Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...
02/06/2026
The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...
28/05/2026
Hosted by ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee, the ceremony honored winners from athletic departments, conference offices, professional networks, production companies...
28/05/2026
Major rights-holders rolled out their 2026 college football slates today, offering a first look at marquee windows, kickoff partners, and conference distributio...
28/05/2026
The 4 Nations Face-Off, an international competition that launched in February 2...
28/05/2026
Soccer is a truly global sport, and, to match the U.S. viewing audience's in...
28/05/2026
The NFL Today, CBS Sports' top-of-the-line NFL studio show, has a storied hi...
28/05/2026
Prime Video is no stranger to innovation, and, within the realm of live streamin...
NFL Playoffs 2023: After Pulling Double Duty During Regular Season, NBC Sports Ops Team Kicks Off Wild Card Doubleheader in Jacksonville, Cincinnati In addition to handling SNF, the NBC Ops team played a vital role on Prime Video's TNF package By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
