Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Fox Sports' Studio Crew Lowers Outfield Set To Show Off the Cornfield Director, Remote Studio Operations Rob Mikulicka offers a peek behind the improvements to this years set By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Thursday, August 11, 2022 - 10:07 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In a professional baseball game played on a pristine diamond in the middle of eastern Iowa, the cornfield is the surefire star. Like the game of baseball, nature isn't always predictable, and this spring's growing season produced stalks only 8 ft. tall, much shorter than last year's 11-ft.-tall ones. Fox Sports' remote studio operations adapted to the circumstances and brought the main set closer - and deeper - into the corn.
Our first instinct ended up being the best one, says Rob Mikulicka, director, remote studio operations, Fox Sports. That was to lower [the set] by 3 ft. Last year, the corn went right to the top of the railing there, but [with the lower set] it's above the [railing], and the corn has become a bigger part of the story.
Lost in the Maize: Lowered Platform Brings Cornstalks Into the Picture Having decided to lower the platform, Mikulicka and company needed to work with Mother Nature to make sure it's in the most perfect spot. With the help of BaAM Productions, a sizable portion of the cornfield next to the videoboard in left field was plowed and taken away to make room for the set. Beneath the stalks was a hill that needed to be navigated, which means that one end of the platform is higher than the other.
We had two plans: either lower it or possibly move forward a little bit, Mikulicka explains. With the hill getting steeper by nearly 4 ft., I would have had to remove more corn [with the second option], but I didn't want to do that. We had to redesign some aspects because certain cables ran under the set last time, but that's obviously out of the question now since the back of the set is resting on the ground.
Fox Sports' main MLB at Field of Dreams studio set is once again located in left field next to the videoboard.
Certain challenges arose as this plot of land was sectioned off. First, the studio team at Fox Sports needed to work closely with BaAM Productions to drop the set at exactly the same spot as last year's. Relying on the same light pole from last year as a reference point, both parties were able to pinpoint the desired location amongst the sea of corn. Second, the studio-operations staff had to work around a new addition to the MLB at Field of Dreams schedule: the first-ever minor-league game played at the site - the Cedar Rapids Kernels vs. the Quad Cities River Bandits - on Tuesday, Aug. 9. From an operational perspective, pulling off this set was an arduous task, but, creatively, the broadcast will benefit from new sightlines that make the desk seem to be engulfed by the cornstalks with the field slightly behind the desk.
We put a lot of focus on the fans [during other regular-season games], notes Mikulicka. Here, the corn and the field are a huge driver of the story. We want to show it off as much as possible.
Go the Distance: Filmwerks Builds Sturdy Structure To Withstand Bad Weather With the location selected and the platform lowered, Filmwerks took the proverbial baton and constructed the infrastructure. The company helped Fox Sports remodel and retrofit an existing desk with the appropriate wood finish.
Rob Mikulicka (pictured) and Rod Conti are leading the remote-studio-operations team.
The steel structures above and on the sides of the set was designed with weather in mind. Iowa is known for unpredictable and sporadic weather that can include ferocious thunderstorms and nasty tornadoes. Similar to last year, when a tornado warning was issued a day before the first outing of MLB at Field of Dreams, harsh conditions affected construction.
We did have some challenges in the beginning, says Mikulicka. There was a lightning alert going on at the time, and the crane is probably the worst thing to have up because it's taller than the light pole, which is our lightning-protection system. We helped Filmwerks get the roof raised, and, once that was up, we could safely work on getting the desk and tech ready to go.
To prepare for inclement weather on Thursday, Filmwerks has ensured that the structure can withstand winds upwards of 80 mph, even though Fox Sports will take precautions if gusts reach 35-40 mph. For accurate readings, the broadcaster's trusted meteorologist is working onsite at the ballpark. Aside from weather, the setup is designed to accommodate any flyball-turned-homerun that reaches the desk. If a player gets hold of a ball during batting practice, the netting/lighting scrim behind the talent's chairs will be able to stop the impact of a hard-hit ball.
The MLB Field of Dreams set includes three hard cameras, a jib camera, and two teleprompters.
In the compound, director David Faller and producer Bardia Shah-Rais will handle the pregame and postgame shows from Game Creek Video Encore mobile unit. The pair will have multiple camera feeds at their disposal, including three hard cameras and a jib on the set, along with cameras that will be used during the game: a cable cam running from the field to the original movie set, three separate drones (two heavy-lift and one FPV racing), RF handhelds, and more. Fox Sports' Vault facility in Los Angeles will be online for studio programming, with one EVS machine, one teleprompter operator, and graphics.
Village Mentality: Pregame Set Connected With Cinematic Baseball Production Host Kevin Burkhardt, three-time World Series champion and Hall-of-Famer David Ortiz, World Series champion Alex Rodriguez, and 17-time Sports Emmy Award winner Tom Rinaldi will lead the pregame show on Thursda
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
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...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
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...
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Fox Sports' Studio Crew Lowers Outfield Set To Show Off the Cornfield Director, Remote Studio Operations Rob Mikulicka offers a peek behind the improvements to this years set By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
