The Simpsons Funday Football: Inside the Tech That ESPN and the NFL Use To Bring Springfield to Life The alternative broadcast relies on Sony's Beyond Sports tech and Hawk-Eye data By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, December 9, 2024 - 3:24 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The world of alternative broadcasts is expanding once again. Tonight, ESPN will roll out The Simpsons Funday Football on ESPN2, Disney+, ESPN+, and NFL+ (mobile). SVG goes behind the scenes in Springfield (and Bristol) with in-depth coverage of every aspect of the production:
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW: Inside the Tech That ESPN and the NFL Use To Bring Springfield to Life (FULL STORY BELOW)
PRODUCTION OPERATIONS: The Game May Be Set in Springfield, but the Production Team Is in Bristol
CREATIVE PHILOSOPHY: ESPN Creative Studio's Michael Spike' Szykowny Pulls Back the Curtain on Creative Process
TRACKING TECHNOLOGY: Sony's Beyond Sports CEO Sander Shouten Analyzes How Tracking Tech Enables Real-Time Animated Altcasts
MUSIC & THEME SONG: ESPN Records Unique Twist on Monday Night Football Theme for Animated Alternative Broadcast
Altcast Sophistication Illustrates Evolution of Animated Broadcasts The Simpsons Funday Football not only promises to be filled with more humor and schtick than previous alternative broadcasts but also demonstrates how quickly the technology is evolving to power such broadcasts.
I think this is the most alternate of the alternate broadcasts, says Phil Orlins, VP, production, ESPN. To me, this is the true alternative because we're not just treating the game or wrapping it with an alteration. We're actually re-creating the game in a truly alternative universe. By design, we're explicitly pursuing the interest of fans who may not want to watch the game in the conventional manner, and I think that is really important.
Tonight's broadcast involves creative elements representing everything from the Simpsons writing staff to the ESPN graphics team, which continues to get more and more reps with such broadcasts. Those creative elements make use of some key technology pieces that make it all possible and, increasingly, allow the. shows to become even more sophisticated.
Explains Josh Helmrich, senior director, media strategy, business development and Next Gen Stats, NFL, We always had this vision when we started player-involved tracking, which is what we call the Next Gen Stats platform, to create benefits for the entire ecosystem of the NFL. One of those is bringing new experiences to our fans and creating more engaging content. With the Beyond Sports team and Hawk-Eye data, we've been able to take it to the next level. The more creative and engaging content we can create, the better. We continue to grow, thanks to great partners like ESPN and Beyond Sports.
According to Orlins, the constant and rapid progress with the technology that started with single-point tracking just a couple of years ago and relatively basic movements has evolved to blended tracking, which is single-point NGS tracking combined with the Hawk-Eye tracking. He credits Sony's Beyond Sports co-founder/Chief Technology Officer Nicolaas Westerhof and his team with taking the alternative broadcast to new heights.
Our 3-D simulation is based, first, on positional tracking data, explains Westerhof. We have two sources coming together. The single-point tracking data provided by Next Gen Stats relies on trackers in the shoulder pads of the player and gives us a very stable feed of the position of the player.
The secondary source, he notes, is optical tracking that provides skeletal data from 29 points on each player's body and limbs. The secret sauce provided by Beyond Sports is to combine the two sets of data in an accurate way.
It allows us to get a lot closer to the actual players' movement and give the [animated characters] detailed movement, Westerhof explains. It's a little less stable than the single-point tracking, but, when it works, you want to use it as much as possible because it provides the detail.
Tonight's effort takes things to yet another height. Characters like Lisa Simpson, for example, will not be as tall as Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. So, when the Beyond Sports system tracks a ball thrown to a real-world 6-foot-2 receiver but the shorter Lisa Simpson animated character is what the viewer sees, the Beyond Sports system needs to adjust the flight of the ball so that it lands in the hands of Lisa Simpson.
With data processing, says Westerhof, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. That is difficult to do, especially in real time, and a whole bunch of different processes are going on in the background on our side, mostly machine-learning processes, to make that happen. It needs to be adjusted on the fly as we don't know beforehand what character is going to be in what play. We spent a lot of time on making the system as flexible as possible, because we don't know what's going to happen.
The advances in Hawk-Eye have been driven by a broad technical partnership between Sony and the NFL that began in the summer and is being expanded to other aspects of the NFL's business. This alternate broadcast is a good example of [that expansion], from a Hawk-Eye perspective, says Sony Chief Commercial Officer Michael Markovich. The more data we capture, the better it gets, and we can deliver more use cases from it. As this data gets better and the systems get better and we have more reps and trials, obviously, we get to do things like the Simpsons game and the Toy Story game and, hopefully, even more serialized or episodic media content.
He also sees a role for this sort of data in officiating: Our number-one focus on the Hawk-Eye side is to use the optical trac
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...
16/07/2026
33 leading exhibitors are taking part in the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions and linked locations across IBC2026 (Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September)...
16/07/2026
Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR colour verification solution measured in picture, not using VPID, at IBC2026 (Hall 10, Stand A40). Expanding ...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...
16/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...
16/07/2026
XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...
16/07/2026
Together the semi-finals had a combined reach of 1.98 million unique individuals...
15/07/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...
15/07/2026
As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...
15/07/2026
HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...
15/07/2026
IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...
15/07/2026
Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...
15/07/2026
New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...
15/07/2026
Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...
15/07/2026
Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...
15/07/2026
USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...
15/07/2026
ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...
15/07/2026
Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...
15/07/2026
San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...
15/07/2026
Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...
15/07/2026
The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...
15/07/2026
Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer
Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...
15/07/2026
Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026
Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...
15/07/2026
Real-time stem-separation tool updated
zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...
15/07/2026
A new benchmark in bass enhancement
Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...
15/07/2026
DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...
15/07/2026
SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...
15/07/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...
15/07/2026
COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...
15/07/2026
Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...
15/07/2026
DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration.
Anyone w...
15/07/2026
BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...
15/07/2026
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
The Simpsons Funday Football: Inside the Tech That ESPN and the NFL Use To Bring Springfield to Life The alternative broadcast relies on Sony's Beyond Sports tech and Hawk-Eye data By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
