
U.S. Open Cup Final 2023: Telemundo Deportes Rolls Out New Mobile Unit for Local Production of Championship Match In-house-developed truck sends feeds to Telemundo Center in Miami By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Thursday, September 28, 2023 - 12:52 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It has been a busy year for the production and operations teams at Telemundo Deportes. After the Men's World Cup in Qatar in December 2022 and the Women's World Cup in Australia/New Zealand this past July, its list of championship soccer broadcasts extended to last night's 2023 U.S. Open Cup Final in Fort Lauderdale, FL. With the match taking place in its backyard, the Spanish-language broadcaster deployed the new internally developed Surf Boy mobile unit for its first live sports broadcast and cut the final show at Telemundo Center in nearby Miami.
This was our remote-production truck's first live use case, says SVP, Content Operations, Chris Suarez-Meyers. We broke in that new resource by pushing back all the camera feeds to Telemundo Center along with a handful of isos.
Ops Plan: Surf Boy Mobile Unit Connects Onsite Team With Crew at Telemundo Center Developed by Director, Field Operations, Vanessa Sabatier, the Surf Boy truck was an integral part of the production. Given the facility's proximity to the venue - Telemundo Center is about 50 miles southwest of DRV PNK Stadium - it made sense to have the newly created truck as the conduit between the 75-person onsite staff and the high-octane control rooms at home. In addition, the short trip up north allowed personnel to sleep in their own beds and gave a more localized crew the chance to work on a domestic soccer final.
Logistically, , says Suarez-Meyers, [being at DRV PNK Stadium] gave some of our folks, who wouldn't necessarily travel for an event like this, some time in the field. We dipped into our in-house pool of technical-production-crew members and had them commute up the road.
As for the technology deployed for live match coverage, Telemundo Deportes tapped into the shared resources of world-feed broadcaster VISTA Worldlink and supplemented those feeds with a handful of unilateral cameras. Telemundo Deportes and fellow U.S. broadcaster CBS Sports leaned on a close relationship with the VISTA Worldlink crew, including VP/Executive Producer, Production Services, Mike Freedman; Tech Manager Steven Kravit; and Operations Producer Victor Bague.
We get along great with them, notes Suarez-Meyers. Many of them had previous careers with us, so it was almost like a family reunion. We understand their capabilities on the technical side and had no doubt that they were going to be able to deliver a quality product.
On the Pitch: Studio Team Shares Footprint With CBS Sports at DRV PNK Stadium Besides live match coverage, Telemundo had its studio team onsite for pre/postmatch and halftime analysis. Situated at the southwest corner of the stadium, Miguel Gurwitz and Ana Jurka were joined by the voices on the call - play-by-play commentator Andr s Cantor and analysts Manuel Sol and Maxi Rodr guez - in an area reserved for the VIP Experience during regular-season Inter Miami matches. When Director, Production, Sports, Adrian Costas; SVP, Production, Robert Pardo; and Suarez-Meyers conducted an initial site survey, they decided on this spot over others.
When we scouted the stadium and were evaluating the different options, says Costas, we knew that this was the spot. We started working with U.S. Soccer and Inter Miami to find a way for us to use it as our host position.
Manuel Sol, Andr s Cantor, and Maxi Rodr guez in the booth at DRV PNK Stadium.
Utilizing a relationship with Inter Miami Senior Director, Broadcast and Event Presentation, Luis Dones and his team, Telemundo was able to carve out an ample footprint despite sharing the space with CBS Sports' studio team of Kate Abdo, Micah Richards, Clint Dempsey, and Charlie Davies.
On the tech side, the location featured two dedicated cameras but posed a big challenge: the need to have a backup plan for inclement weather during Telemundo Deportes' first-ever U.S. Open Cup Final.
We had a production and technical operations meeting on Tuesday, says Costas, and were discussing contingency plans for rain and also for severe wind since our talent wouldn't be able to stand on the roof of our location. If we did have to move away, we could have gone into our commentary position since it was a booth within an enclosed environment.
Argentinian Dream: Cantor Calls His Second Final Featuring a Lionel Messi Team Commentator Andr s Cantor was in a unique position. Not only was the native Argentinian on the call for Messi's triumphant reunion with the World Cup trophy after defeating France at Lusail Stadium, but he had the opportunity to witness another final poised to make history with another Messi win. In a production with so many moving variables, having Cantor behind the mic for another dramatic final was a decision set in stone.
That's the top storyline for us, Costas points out. Having the opportunity of seeing Messi potentially lifting another trophy was a big driver for this production.
Cantor wasn't the only member of the talent team with a special attachment to the match: Rodr guez had a connection as well.
Maxi played with Lionel for the Argentinian national team, says Costas, adding, Inter Miami manager Tata Martino and Maxi come from the same city of Rosario in Argentina.
North America Stories
10/04/2026
Imagine Communications will showcase its multiviewer portfolio at NAB Show 2026 (April 19-22, Booth N1328, Las Vegas Convention Center), including Prismon and t...
10/04/2026
Chyron has released PRIME VSAR 2.3, an update to its virtual set and augmented reality solution for broadcast. The release adds compatibility with Unreal Engine...
10/04/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2267, April 19-23, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating new tx darwin features including consumer multiview,...
10/04/2026
NDI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026, demonstrating its IP video ecosystem through live partner integrations, NDI 6.3 features, AI metadata workflows, and creator ...
10/04/2026
FOR-A has announced the acquisition of all shares of Tamu Radiance Corporation, a new company spun off from the Information Equipment Business of Tamura Corpora...
10/04/2026
InSync Technology will showcase new and updated video conversion products at NAB...
10/04/2026
TNT Sports and DAZN have announced a partnership to air monthly boxing events in the United States under the brand The Fight. The series will be promoted in p...
10/04/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display has announced the SQ3 Series of 4K LCD displays as part of its MEVIX professional display portfolio. All sizes will be available...
10/04/2026
Amagi has announced the addition of Agentic Media Operations to its Amagi NOW platform, integrating AI reasoning agents across its media supply chain workflows ...
10/04/2026
LTN has announced enhancements to its global IP video network targeting broadcasters transitioning from satellite distribution. The updates come ahead of US fed...
10/04/2026
Daktronics has installed new LED displays at Yankee Stadium, upgrading the main centerfield board, two flanking boards, and two ribbon displays spanning the 200...
10/04/2026
Harmonic has announced updates to its hybrid streaming solution, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity for AI applications, cloud-native deploymen...
10/04/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will introduce two new fiber transport products at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C4425, April 19-22): the FiberSaver-10G waveleng...
10/04/2026
Telos Alliance and ip-studio will demonstrate STUDIO ZERO, a cloud-hosted virtual studio, at NAB Show 2026. First introduced at NAB Show 2023, STUDIO ZERO integ...
10/04/2026
d&b solutions, a London-based audio-visual, lighting, and media integration grou...
10/04/2026
ARRI and SmallHD have announced a new expansion license for ARRI's Hi-5 and Hi-5 SX hand units that displays lens data overlays on supported SmallHD monitor...
10/04/2026
Roku and the Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) have announced an exclusive streaming partnership to bring five BBCL games to the Roku Sports Channel in 202...
10/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
10/04/2026
The Peabody Awards don't just recognize great storytelling, they spotlight t...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 10, 2026 Bitcentral, a leading provider of professional media solutions for broadcast and digital video, will showcase its latest...
10/04/2026
Ikegami to Introduce Expanded Range of Broadcast Production Solutions at NAB 202...
10/04/2026
AJA Debuts SMPTE ST 2110 and openGear Solutions Ahead of NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 10, 2026
0 Comments
New gear and updates address evolving hybrid ...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind the worlds leading streaming television channels, today launched its AI platform for Frequency Studio, powering the entire channel ...
10/04/2026
J nger Audio Joins EBU ADM Integration Group as Founding Member to Help Advance...
09/04/2026
Zixi will demonstrate IP-based live video workflow solutions at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2057).
The industry is moving quickly toward IP-based distribution as br...
09/04/2026
Global women's elite sports revenues are expected to reach at least $3 billi...
09/04/2026
Monitor engineer Gavin Tempany mixed Kylie Minogue s Tension Tour on a Solid Sta...
09/04/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5507), debu...
09/04/2026
With the 2025-26 NBA regular season concluded and the playoffs beginning next we...
09/04/2026
Telestream and Mimir have announced an integration connecting Telestream's V...
09/04/2026
Bitmovin has expanded its Live Encoding and Observability solutions to provide r...
09/04/2026
The Nashville Predators and Scripps Sports have announced a multi-year media rights agreement covering local preseason, regular season, and first-round playoff ...
09/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC has announced a partnership with Beam Dynamics to offer the Beam Asset and License Intelligence Platform to its clients. The platfor...
09/04/2026
Lawo has unveiled Edge One, a combined video and audio stagebox for broadcast and Pro AV workflows. The device will be on display at NAB Show (Booth C2108, Apri...
09/04/2026
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) will host the SMPTE ST 2110 IP Media Roadshow on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at the Las Vegas Conven...
09/04/2026
The Atlanta Braves have completed upgrades to video displays in and around Truist Park ahead of the 2026 MLB season. The upgrades include the Delta Out-of-Town ...
09/04/2026
The University of Southern California has contracted Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT) of Brookings, South Dakota, to manufacture and install 22 LED displays across fou...
09/04/2026
Backlight, the media technology company behind Iconik and Wildmoka, will showcase its Creative Operations Platform at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2829, April 19-22). ...
09/04/2026
MotoAmerica and V10 Entertainment have announced a partnership to broadcast MotoAmerica Superbike racing on VICE TV for the 2026 season. Coverage begins live on...
09/04/2026
Proton Camera Innovations has announced the appointment of Tod Musgrave as US Sa...
09/04/2026
Designed specifically for live sports broadcasting, new platform features IP-nat...
09/04/2026
Blending 1990s DNA, modern motion theory, and a distinctly colorful brand identi...
09/04/2026
Technical capability is essential, but long-term success often depends on how we...
09/04/2026
15 feature films, including fiction and documentaries, along with six short film...