Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL London: Sky Sports Opts For An Enhanced Production as Jaguars Take on Bears in NFL's Second Game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

11/10/2024

NFL International Series: Sky Sports opts for an enhanced production as the Jags prepare to take on the Bears in London By Will Strauss

Friday, October 11, 2024 - 10:16

Print This Story

In the latest game in the NFL's International Series, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be looking to kickstart their faltering start to the season when they take on the Chicago Bears at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Sky Sports holds the rights to show the game live in the UK and Ireland. SVG Europe caught up with senior producer Alex Jackson on the eve of the Week 6 matchup to find out how the broadcaster will handle pre-match, half-time and post-match coverage.

The London games are our FA Cup Final, acknowledges Jackson. It's a real opportunity for us to showcase to the UK audience, what we're all about. So, we invest a lot of time and resources into trying to make it the best possible production.

Sky's NFL output is ordinarily helmed from a mixed reality studio at its HQ in Osterley, West London. But for this home' fixture, the presentation team will be going on-site.

As much as we're proud of our new studio, you can't beat being on-site, continues Jackson. We want to bring the atmosphere of an NFL game to the viewers at home. You get such a difference when you're on site. The atmosphere comes crashing through your screen and that's what you want.

The on-screen team at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium will include longstanding host Neil Reynolds, former NFL players Jason Bell and Ndamukong Suh, NFL analyst Phoebe Schecter, and reporter Olivia Harlan Dekker.

The Bears have given us access to shoot in their locker room before the team arrives. That's exclusive access. It's an opportunity for us to peel back the curtain and take the viewers to a part of the stadium that they wouldn't normally go.

Sky has several different presentation positions available to them on Sunday.

We try to bounce around areas to take the viewers closer to the stadium. We're going to present the match build-up from field side. We have a reporter position field side too which we can use for updates during the game or at halftime. Our reporter, Olivia Harlan Dekker, will grab interviews with players post-match.

We're going to try and stay in our presentation position up to kick off, he continues. And then Neil, Jason and Suh will reposition from field-side up to the broadcast studio in the stands that we use on Premier League games. Before the game, we'll also have a position outside the stadium because we feel the fans are a big part of the story during a London game.

Sky is also getting something that eludes many broadcasters, adds Jackson.

The Bears have given us access to shoot in their locker room before the team arrives. That's exclusive access. It's an opportunity for us to peel back the curtain and take the viewers to a part of the stadium that they wouldn't normally go. Phoebe and Suh are going to explain the intricacies of the locker room and the setup.

Although the presentation team will be on site, the production is being done remotely from Osterley (gallery pictured, above).

Jackson says: The director, director's assistant, technical supervisor, sound, graphics, producer, VT ops, they will be all be in our NFL gallery back at Sky. And then we have all the camera circuits coming in via fibre. For the first time for a Sky NFL London game, we've got a full HDR camera set up to improve the visual quality of what we're offering to our viewers.

Sky's presentation elements will be captured in 1080p HDR. To match this to the host match coverage, which is 1080p SDR, the host feed will be up-converted at Sky. The final output will be made available to viewers in both 1080p HDR and 1080p SDR.

In total, 45 people are working on the NFL output on Sunday, this includes the talent, the staff from Sky, and the crew from the OB provider EMG, plus those working for Sky Sports News and in Sky's Digital and Social teams.

Among the ongoing challenges for Sky is explaining the intricacies of the sport to viewers who are new to it. This can be solved, at least partly, through the language used by the talent but also via on-screen graphics and specially produced explainer content.

We're conscious that it is quite a complicated game, recognises Jackson (pictured above). And we definitely do our best not to assume knowledge. We've made a real effort over the last couple of years to make the coverage more accessible. We've moved away from Xs and Os. We've tried to focus more on the stars and not go too far down the analytical route.

We've recently upgraded our analysis software to Piero. Sometimes [with NFL] there is a feeling that there's just a sea of bodies and it's hard to know where you should be focussing your attention. We think it is important to help direct the viewers.

Phoebe is leading a series of explainers throughout the rest of the season. We think they're essential. These have already started. This Sunday we should be seeing the first episode of her jargon-busting series. But equally, we have a loyal audience. Many of the viewers have been with us for quite a while and we don't want to dumb it down. So it's a fine balance between not assuming too much and not patronising your audience.

Ross Video's Piero will play its part in this process too.

We've recently upgraded our analysis software to Piero to bring it in line with what the football [soccer] department and Premier League use. We think it is important to direct viewers to where they should be looking. Sometimes there is a feeling that there's just a sea of bodies and it's hard to know where you should be focussing your attention. That's why we've taken the time, e
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/nfl-international-series-sky-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 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...

28/05/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV to Expand Choice in Virtualized Audio Workflows

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

Berliner Ensemble Upgrades Backstage Infrastructure With...

Riedel Communications today announced that Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expanded its backstage communications and te...

28/05/2026

Digital Alert Systems Ed Czarnecki to Speak on Advanced E...

Company's VP Government and International to Address How Broadcasters Can Operationalize Advanced Emergency Information for NextGen TV Digital Alert Syst...

28/05/2026

Radio BGM Upgrades and Futureproofs with DHD SX2 Audio Mi...

Radio BGM (https://radiobgm.org.uk/), Llanellis multiple-award-winning community and hospital radio station, has invested in a DHD SX2 audio mixing console and ...

28/05/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV to Empower Broadcasters with Great...

Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters as they enter a new broadcast age, Calrec announces an expansion to its ImPulseV...

28/05/2026

NAB, MPA and NCTA Defend Current TV Ratings System

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

Amazon MGM Studios, AWS Launch the GenAI Creators' Fund

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

AudioShake Launches New Copyright Compliance System

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

ITV Studios Deploys Cuez Live Production Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/05/2026

ACT Entertainment Introduces Green Hippo Estuary Series a...

Green Hippo, an ACT Entertainment brand, will pull back the curtain on the Estuary Series, a next-generation media control platform engineered for the scale, sp...

28/05/2026

ZEISS Introduces Panoptes 65 Cinema Lenses at Cine Gear E...

First Hands-On Opportunity at Universal Studios Lot, June 5-6 Oberkochen, Germany, May 27, 2026 ZEISS is launching their new Panoptes 65 primes at Cine Gear ...

28/05/2026

Wooden Camera Releases New Accessories for Blackmagic URS...

Irvine, CA May 20, 2026 Wooden Camera today announced the release of new accessories for the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive. The new lineup includes a redes...

28/05/2026

Six films, one unmissable collection. First Facts documentaries debut on 10 Streaming

Six films, one unmissable collection. First Facts documentaries debut on 10 Stre...

28/05/2026

Emma Watkins brings all-new Emma's Dance Club to ABC Kids

Emma Watkins brings all-new Emma's Dance Club to ABC Kids 28 May 2026 Emmas Dance Club. Image credit: Sarah Wilson. The ABC, Screen Australia and Screen N...

28/05/2026

Cool Concentric Text for Cavalry

Cool Concentric Text for Cavalry Simon Ubsdell May 27, 2026 0 Comments In this tutorial I'll show you how to make this popular text effect that is...

28/05/2026

The Name's Gaming Cloud Gaming: 007 First Light' Launches on GeForce NOW

License to stream, shaken and stirred. GeForce NOW is dialing up the espionage with the launch of 007 First Light, letting members slip into James Bond's r...

28/05/2026

NVIDIA Research Advances Robotics From Simulation to the Real World

Robotics is entering a new phase: moving from controlled demos and scripted automation toward generalizable, reliable embodied autonomy in the real world. At ...

28/05/2026

May 21, 2026

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School awards doctoral degrees to 34th graduating class May 21, 2026 Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School of ...

28/05/2026

May 27, 2026

Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu is named a Fellow of the Royal Society Yu is honored by the U.K.'s national academy of sciences for his work in synthet...

27/05/2026

Telestream Appoints Benjamin Desbois as CEO, Effective July 1

Telestream has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Benjamin Desbois as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Desbois, currently Teles...

27/05/2026

FOX MLB Leads Live-Event Categories; ESPN Is Tops Overall at 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards

ESPN garnered 10 awards; NBC's Sunday Night Football received the Outstandin...

27/05/2026

Matrox Video Marks 50th Anniversary, Announces New Product Launch for June

Matrox Video is celebrating its 50th anniversary, marking five decades of operations from its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1976, the company has...

27/05/2026

MLB Announces Fan Engagement Initiatives for Americas 250th Anniversary

Major League Baseball has announced a series of initiatives tied to America's Semiquincentennial, including a national marketing campaign, Fourth of July br...

27/05/2026

Advanced Systems Group Hires Brian Gross as Account Manager for Audio Team

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced that Brian Gross has joined the company as an Account Manager on its Audio team, based in the Burbank office. He will...

27/05/2026

Nielsen Research: Hispanic Fans, Asian Markets Drive Global Soccer Audience Ahead of World Cup 2026

Nielsen has released new research on soccer fandom ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2...

27/05/2026

ESL FACEIT Group Debuts First Ever Esports Vertical Stream Co-Developed With TikTok

ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has unveiled a new partnership with TikTok to bring broad...

27/05/2026

Two Weeks Away: FIFA Outlines Production Plans for Highly Anticipated North American-Based World Cup

FIFA's Oscar Sanchez gives a deeper look to how this tournament will be cove...

27/05/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Maggie Lynn, Virginia Tech

The soon-to-be senior from Charlottesville is building her skills in replay, TD, and even creative content for HokieVision and its ACC Network productions In t...

27/05/2026

A Global Festival of Football: FOX Sports Illustrates Strategy to Bring Every FIFA Mens World Cup Match to the U.S. Audience

FOX Sports' Mike Davies breaks down the vision for this summer's showcas...

27/05/2026

Top-Tier Storytelling: Host Broadcast Services Works at Capturing the Atmosphere of the FIFA Mens World Cup

HBS's Paul King, FIFA's Oscar Sanchez preview how the masses at home wil...

27/05/2026

Matt Gangl & Pete Macheska on FOX MLBs Huge Night and an Unforgettable Postseason Run

FOX's MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards...

27/05/2026

FOXs Mike Davies and Team on Outstanding Technical Team Win for 2025 World Series

One of the most memorable Postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...

27/05/2026

NBC Sports Rob Hyland Reflects on an Unforgettable Sunday Night Football Season

NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most decorated and most watched programs in the history of television. It added to its jam-packed trophy case on Tu...

27/05/2026

Prime Videos John Ward and Mike Francis on Groundbreaking NBA on Prime Video Studio

The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...

27/05/2026

Countdown to FIFA World Cup 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to Winter Games

With the Opening Match just over two weeks away, the entire sports-production-te...

27/05/2026

Spotify Brings Long-Form Magazine Articles to Audio

Spotify already brings together listeners' favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place. Now, we're trialing a new format that expands the cont...

27/05/2026

Podcast Clips Make Your Favorite Moments Easier to Save and Share

The best podcast moments deserve more than just a mental note. That's why today, we're making those moments easier to save and share with clips. Whethe...

27/05/2026

Spotify and Netflix Partner With Jay Shetty to Bring On Purpose' to Video Across Both Platforms

On Purpose is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, known for conversat...

27/05/2026

Olivia Rodrigo Brings Billions Club Live to Barcelona: Watch the Concert Film Now

On May 8, 1,500 of Olivia Rodrigo's top fans gathered in Barcelona's Tea...

27/05/2026

JZ Microphones announce the MU-1

Hybrid design combines large-diaphragm capsule & ribbon JZ Microphones have teamed up with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Marc Urselli to develop a ne...

27/05/2026

Tape Effects Collection from AIR Music Tech

Three new plug-ins inspired by classic tape effects AIR Music Tech's latest release delivers a set of plug-ins that aim to capture the character, moveme...

27/05/2026

The Crow Hill Company's Absurdly Quiet Piano goes Pro

Piano played on the edge of silence The Crow Hill Company's Vaults collection offers a continual rotation of instruments that are given away for free fo...

27/05/2026

Arturia release Memory V

Recreates Moog's iconic Memorymoog polysynth Arturia's vast software instrument range offers a combination of new and old, with innovative modern so...

27/05/2026

Accentize introduce free dxLevel plug-in

Offers loudness levelling for speech and dialogue Accentize have built up a solid reputation with their audio-restoration tools, and their latest plug-in is...

27/05/2026

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400 Rohde & Schwarz celebrates a major manufacturing milestone, producing its 10,000th R&S M3SR Radi...