Van Wagner Prioritizes Remote Production With New Broadcast-Control Center in Raleigh Company staff, outside personnel can now operate from multiple control rooms By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - 8:05 am
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The sports-video-production industry is undoubtedly headed toward placing remote production and similar workflows at the core of broadcast efforts, and Van Wagner is taking notice. With in-venue productions at the biggest professional and collegiate events on the yearly calendar, the company is taking a step down that path with a new broadcast control center at its office in Raleigh, NC.
As we sit in our Raleigh office right now, says Van Wagner President, Productions, Bob Becker, we officially have a multimillion-dollar broadcast-control facility. We presented this idea to our ownership group, and they were behind it 100%, so we're excited about this opportunity.
Long-Awaited Dream: Pandemic-Related Delays Push Project Down the Road Like most ideas generated over the past three years, the concept has taken new shape and been continually altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 NFL Virtual Draft with NFL Network and ESPN was the catalyst to turning the decision on paper into a brick-and-mortar facility.
We [produced that event] on 6-ft. tables and blew out our conference room by adding monitors everywhere, says Becker. [Director, Technical Operations,] Nate [McCoart] did a good job figuring out how to do that well while it was happening.
The early stages in construction of a control room for remote production at Van Wagner facilities in Raleigh, NC
Virtualized productions and Zoom-based content were the rage and, at the time, allowed the industry to navigate the pandemic effectively. Although the entire industry was capitalizing on that trend, the temporary solution almost dictated the direction of the permanent facility.
We went through the design phase and construction process to the point where we started knocking walls down, says Becker. Four months later, we realized that [this trajectory] wasn't going to last forever, so we knew it wouldn't be a great business model to build it this way.
Teaming up with McCoart and Broadcast Facility Operations Manager Nelson Hurst, Becker and the rest of the crew worked closely with their partners to redefine the scope and vision for the project. Luckily, Van Wagner employs folks with extensive experience in the in-venue sector of the industry, and that experience entails knowledge of, and time spent inside, the newest control rooms across the country.
The main control room allows Van Wagner and others to produce in-venue shows remotely.
The unique benefit we have, says McCoart, is that we've been in trucks from NEP Group and Game Creek Video and have worked in large control rooms like SoFi Stadium's as well as control rooms in smaller venues. Our team has been able to experience the full breadth of what's out there in the world, and we've taken that into how we want our space to function.
Although the control room will reduce the travel costs and congestion of a full onsite team, the new facility will not change Van Wagner's in-venue-production philosophy of having a majority of their team onsite for major tentpole events, such as this weekend's two-game series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in London.
That's not going to stop [us from traveling to these bigger events] since it's still difficult to do a live event from a remote control room, says Becker. When somebody makes a three-point shot or scores a touchdown, you need to see that in real time instead of in three seconds.
Inside the Tech: ES Broadcast, Other Vendors Supply High-Quality Workflows From a technological vantage point, Van Wagner enlisted the services of ES Broadcast for hardware and software in the control room. The main production wing of the control room features a Ross Carbonite Black Plus switcher with 36 inputs/25 outputs and 3 full M/E//4 mini M/E; a Ross Touchdrive 3S control panel with touchscreen and 3 Full M/E; two Ross XPression studio graphics system with three channels fill/key x 2 inputs and Datalinq server; an Evertz DreamCatcher replay server with 6 input/2 output and DCP controller; and a Newtek 3Play 3P1 replay server with 4 input/2 output SDI and additional IO via NDI. The main audio-control wing houses a Calrec Brio 36 console with 64 64 Dante IO and 64 32 analog IO; a 5.1- and stereo-capable system; JBL audio monitoring; and a TriggerPlay audio playback system.
A Calrec Brio 36 console is the main component of the audio-control room.
Back of house, the space is powered through a 384 384 Evertz NEXX multiformat enterprise routing system, MADI and Dante audio routing by DirectOut and Focusrite, G&D IP KVM system, and Evertz Quartz control panels. Communications are accomplished with a Riedel Artist 1024 IP AES67 intercom system, Riedel RSP1232 and RSP1216 control panels, Unity Connect remote audio connectivity, and a Unity server mobile intercom system.
To receive incoming video feeds from a mobile unit or flypack with minimal operational issues, the facility relies on an approach that works well with any vendor: 12 inbound paths via LiveU LU4000, four outbound paths via LiveU LU810, 6 inbound x 6 outbound paths via TVU VS3500, 24 inbound paths via Haivision Makito SRT, 16 outbound paths via Haivision Makito SRT, and multiple paths of HLS, RTMP, RTMPS, RTSP, MPEG-2, MPEG-DASH, and VIXI encoding.
A Ross Carbonite Black Plus production switcher drives in-venue productions.
Our model is to be transmission-agnostic, to be flexible and have the ability to easily integrate with anyone's existing workflows, says McCoart. Since we partner with multiple providers, we wanted to sca
