On the Gridiron: Indianapolis Colts Handle Remote Radio Broadcasts of Away Games From Lucas Oil Stadium The effort involves collaboration with the league, broadcasters, The Switch By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 - 11:38 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Many professional sports have opted for a return to play inside a sanitized bubble. Not the NFL. Without skipping a beat, the league is soldiering on with regular-season games in all 30 stadiums across the country. Similar to our At the Ballpark series, On the Gridiron examines the new routines, habits, and production philosophies of in-venue personnel on any given Thursday, Sunday, or Monday.
In consecutive home games, the Indianapolis Colts rattled off convincing wins against the Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets. A limited number of fans are enjoying amenities that they're accustomed to on game day, but, when games aren't played at Lucas Oil Stadium, the in-venue staff assists with remote radio broadcasts for away contests.
MORE ON THE GRIDIRON INTERVIEWS
Baltimore Ravens Adjust In-Game Operations To Feed More Content to Digital, Social Platforms
After Busy Offseason, Denver Broncos Welcome Limited Fans Back to Empower Field at Mile High in Week 3
San Francisco 49ers Production Team Shifts Gears To Engage the Players
Jacksonville Jaguars Reflect on In-Stadium Fans During Week 1, Connecting With Duval' Community
Without Raucous Crowds, New Orleans Saints Adapt to a Quiet Mercedes-Benz Superdome
While the football team is on the road, the Colts remotely produce radio broadcasts with the help of the NFL, broadcast networks, and The Switch.
Our radio crew can't travel this year, so I think a lot of other teams in the league are following this model as well, says Mike Stevens, operations manager, video engineering, Indianapolis Colts. It has been an interesting experience to say the least - especially for our talent, who have embraced the fact that they're sitting in a control room hundreds of miles [from the action] but are still able to see what they need to see to efficiently call the game.
Through the Speaker: Radio Broadcasts Continue Remotely Even when the building isn't packed with fans, the in-house production team is hard at work while the football team is on the road. In a season that has presented a hefty number of logistical challenges, production teams are confined to their respective stadiums to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak. When the Colts began their 2020 campaign in Jacksonville, FL, Stevens and his team leveraged a handful of partners to produce accurate and precise radio calls.
We had our entire radio broadcast of play-by-play Matt Taylor, color commentator Rick Venturi, and sideline reporter Larra Overton inside the control room in Indianapolis, Stevens says. The NFL was very open to letting us take feeds from CBS, Fox, ESPN, or NBC and feeding it back to us via The Switch. We've also been working with local engineers at the stadiums to get the all-22 feed.
At the forefront of this effort, Colts Senior Broadcast Engineer Chris Buckley; NFL VP, Broadcast Planning, Mike North; and NFL Senior Director, Broadcasting, Blake Jones are creating a relationship with home stations of other teams as well. Those stations are sending feeds of crowd sounds and referee microphones to Emmis Communications, the Colts' media partner responsible for getting these radio broadcast to fans.
Indianapolis Colts' Matt Taylor (foreground) and company call the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars from Lucas Oil Stadium.
Other leagues have adopted this production model in their return to the television screen. In Major League Baseball, television and radio teams assigned to the visiting team were prohibited from entering booths in the home venue and had to rely on game footage captured by local RSNs. NBA franchises did the same for local radio teams during the resumption of play in the Wide World of Sports bubble in Orlando.
For reference and guidance, Stevens recalled his time working with the Indiana Pacers during their run in the playoffs. The Pacers were getting a program feed from either Turner or ESPN, along with a few other feeds and were calling the games from their home arena. Every NBA team was doing it with the RSNs, so I had experienced [remote broadcasts] before discussing this with our radio department. I've used some of that knowledge to get our radio team prepared and also to ask the league for certain things that we knew we needed to do a game efficiently.
Full Steam Ahead: Limited Audience Still Gets a Videoboard Show As more and more fans are allowed in the building and local government enters the next phase of reopening, a Colts football game is becoming a destination. Even though attendance is not at the venue's full capacity, the production team is still moving forward with its normal videoboard show.
We're taking the same approach, whether we have 65,000 fans or five fans in the stands, says Stevens. For fans who have taken the initiative to come to the game, we're giving them the experience that they expect at a home game.
While selected fans are lucky enough to get through the turnstiles at Lucas Oil Stadium, fans at home are still able to access content being shown during the game.
We've integrated our in-house production system into our pregame [live] stream, says Stevens. While the guys are out there stretching and warming up, we'll go live on Facebook, our mobile app, and website with Overton and [Media Specialist] Jeffrey Gorman. They'll give you an idea of what to expect for the game, but it also brings [together] our fans who can't come to the stadium and gives an experience that they would have if they were there.
Audio Change: League Adjusts
North America Stories
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
27/03/2026
At NAB Show 2026, Net Insight will showcase the next evolution of Nimbra Edge, its orchestration and control layer designed to manage live media services across...
27/03/2026
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced powerful new innovations that further elevate the company's sports streaming solution. The advanced capabilities enh...
27/03/2026
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced significant new capabilities for Player Web X, its next-generation web video player...
27/03/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Czech-based production company CS live has equipped its newest outside broadcast (OB) van with an integrated Riedel i...
27/03/2026
130 Industry Experts Confirmed as Show Celebrates its 10th Anniversary
MPTS, the UK's largest and most influential event for the media, production and tech...
27/03/2026
Grass Valley today announced the successful completion of a major live production deployment with NVP, a leading European media company specializing in live spo...
27/03/2026
Showcases resilient solutions for satellite-to-IP migration, REMI and hybrid live production
Appear ASA (Appear, OSE:APR), a global leader in live production t...
27/03/2026
San Francisco, California, March 2026 - Microsoft Ignite, a major annual conference hosted by Microsoft for developers, IT professionals, partners and business ...
27/03/2026
Clear-Com is proud to highlight its support for worship teams through professional communication solutions, with the deployment of its EQUIP wireless system a...
27/03/2026
Orban Collaborates with Sage on Virtualized EAS Technology Demo
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
Sage Alerting Systems (SAS), in cooperation wit...
27/03/2026
Berklee Alums Bring GIANT to Broadway Brian and Dayna Lee BM '13 met and fell in love at Berklee, and now their production companys first Broadway debut i...
26/03/2026
Extron and Audio-Technica have announced that their Design Solutions devices, Ce...
26/03/2026
SPORTEL Asia took place March 24-25 at the Orchard Hotel Singapore, drawing 370 participants representing more than 220 companies from 35 countries. Approximate...
26/03/2026
LTN will demonstrate satellite-to-IP migration solutions for broadcasters, cable networks, MVPDs, and station groups at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2100).
The C-Ban...
26/03/2026
The Seattle Mariners have partnered with Daktronics to install an upgraded outfi...
26/03/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) has awarded National Team Partner status to organizations and individuals across more than 100 countries and territories for the Esp...
26/03/2026
Telestream has announced expanded integration between its Vantage workflow platf...
26/03/2026
FOR-A Corporation has announced a partnership with Nippon TV and NVIDIA to distr...
26/03/2026
CBS Sports and the WNBA have expanded their partnership through a new long-term, multiplatform rights agreement. CBS Sports will feature up to 20 regular-season...
26/03/2026
Zac Brown Band will star in the Sunday Night Baseball show open on NBC and Peacock, NBC Sports announced. The open was filmed at American Family Field, home of ...
26/03/2026
Major League Baseball opens the 2026 season with nationally televised games across multiple media partners. Fans can visit MLB.com/Watch for a complete schedule...
26/03/2026
DIRECTV has announced an agreement to carry nine new MLB-operated team channels, covering the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers (Detroit SportsNet), Kansas City R...
26/03/2026
Nationals.TV, the Washington Nationals' local broadcast channel, is now avai...
26/03/2026
Starting Thursday, March 26, MLB.TV will be available on the ESPN App, giving fans access to more than 2,000 out-of-market regular season games. Fans can also r...
26/03/2026
By Matt Klein
Hello to everyone reading this - whether you're a current YEP, HPA member, or just YEP-curious. I'm Matt Klein, one of the co-chairs of t...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
28 participating companies, from start-ups to blue-chips, lead the UK Group as part of the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland presence across all the Halls at N...
26/03/2026
Arkona Unveils BLADE//planner and Major Usability Enhancements at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
New graphical configuration tool and...
26/03/2026
Bitfocus showcases complete control at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton March 26, 2026
0 Comments
Continuing development drives advances in security, availa...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
26/03/2026
Nevion introduces powerful new Panel Builder to enhance VideoIPath broadcast con...
26/03/2026
2026 Oscar Nominated Films Powered by Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton March 25, 2026
0 Comments
DaVinci Resolve Studio used on 27 of this year's no...
26/03/2026
Leader to present full suite of advanced Test & Measurement solutions at NAB Sho...
26/03/2026
Boston Conservatory to Present New England and Collegiate Premiere of Groundbrea...
26/03/2026
Back to All News
Have a Wish Worth Dying For? Netflix's First Korean YA Hor...
26/03/2026
Back to All News
The Truthers, Starring Jose Coronado and St phanie Magnin, Pre...
26/03/2026
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
26/03/2026
That gaming backlog won't clear itself - GeForce NOW is here to help. Stream the latest titles straight from the cloud across a variety of devices.
This we...
25/03/2026
Live match directors Sarah Cheadle (Sky Sports), Rob Levi (TNT Sports), and Andrew Swift (BBC Sport) sit down with the Premier League's Rachel Nightingale t...
25/03/2026
The senior from Upstate New York is manning the mic while also interning for the athletic department's sports-information team
In the live-sports-video ind...
On the Gridiron: Indianapolis Colts Handle Remote Radio Broadcasts of Away Games From Lucas Oil Stadium The effort involves collaboration with the league, broadcasters, The Switch By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
