ESPN Unleashes 4DREPLAY as NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Hit ABC Men's championships to follow Saturday night on ESPN2 By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, April 18, 2025 - 9:57 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Saturday (4 p.m. ET) marks the fifth consecutive year that ESPN will broadcast the finals of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships on ABC.
Throughout that half decade, the broadcaster has introduced a wave of innovations to improve the live-viewing experience of this rapidly growing sport. From live leaderboards (which, in gymnastics, is far more complicated than it sounds) to graphical enhancements that illustrate the elite athleticism of the student-athletes, ESPN has revolutionized the presentation of women's gymnastics.
The trend continues this year with the debut of 4DREPLAY on two apparatuses: vault and uneven bars. The technology produces volumetric, time-slice frozen moment replays that immerse viewers in a previously impossible perspective of the sport's most dynamic moments. The image is produced by stitching together images from 30 cameras arranged in a semicircle around the apparatus.
Gymnastics delivers a perfect environment for volumetric replays provided by 4DReplay, says Phil Orlins, VP, production technology and innovation, ESPN. The vault and uneven bars offer close proximity and an eye-level shot of the athlete that is ideal for showcasing the dynamic action. These time-slice freezes give us the tools to provide in-depth analysis of fast-moving content like never before.
Orlins and ESPN have plenty of experience with 4DREPLAY, having used it most recently on events like the 2024 MLB Home Run Derby.
--
Video clip courtesy of ESPN.
Tech That Bridges the Gap
Beyond the 4DREPLAY integration, ESPN's broadcast team stationed at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX, continues to enhance the understanding of gymnastics with such tools as height meters and protractors providing relatable metrics for viewers.
The enhancements are valuable also for the analysts on the broadcast: Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, silver medalist Samantha Peszek, and three-time Olympian John Roethlisberger.
Tech tools, like the protractors and the height meters, create a relationship between what is happening and what [the fans] already know, says Roethlisberger, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 1992 (Barcelona), 1996 (Atlanta), and 2000 (Sydney) while competing collegiately at the University of Minnesota. Everyone knows how high a basketball hoop is. When we show the height meter on vault or bars and it goes 6 ft. above the high bar, which is already 8 ft. off the ground and we say that [the gymnast's] head is 14 ft. above the floor, every human in the world goes, 14 ft., that's 4 ft. higher than a basketball hoop. That's 4 ft. higher than Anthony Edwards can dunk a basketball.' There's a lot of those things that have helped make [the sport] more understandable and relatable to the audience.
Roethlisberger also credits women's collegiate gymnastics for developing a set of rules and a scoring system that make it much easier for the audience to follow compared with other disciplines of the sport.
Women's college gymnastics has figured out how to make the rules the most understandable rules on the planet Earth, he says. Because of that, along with all the things that networks like ESPN have done to bring it to your living room and make it understandable and visually appealing, every person that watches gymnastics, by the third night, [is watching a routine and] going, That's 9.9. I remember, two nights ago, she got a 9.8 when she took a big step forward on her landing and Aly and Sam said that cost her two-tenths. Now she stuck it, and that's going to be a 9.9.' That is what women's college gymnastics has done and no other version of gymnastics has done.
All the tech enhancements, including slow-motion-capable cameras and in-depth replay, do create an interesting dynamic for the sport.
It's a blessing and a curse in some ways, says Peszek, who was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 2008 and competed collegiately at UCLA. We have the ability to show replays in slow motion, and guess who doesn't get to see the replays in slow motion: the judges. To John's point about the [fan] conversation of I thought she should have scored this' while watching a side-by-side replay and the only people that don't have the luxury of watching it are the judges, I think we're getting a lot of heated conversation around judging. We have the ability to take a microscope to everybody's routine and each skill and the protractor, and we replay it to see if it was actually vertical. I think what a lot of fans don't take into account is where the judges are sitting, the angle that they're at. Also, they're seeing it in real time, and humans have the ability to make errors.
Enhanced Fan Engagement With Stream Team Beyond the championship on ABC, ESPN+ will again feature its popular Stream Team coverage, bringing personality and insight directly from a lineup of NCAA greats. This year's team comprises Olympic silver medalist and Florida legend Bridget Sloan, Oklahoma's four-time NCAA champion Anastasia Webb, 11-time All-American Kennedy Baker, and ESPN newcomer Trinity Thomas, an 11-time NCAA All-American and two-time Honda Award winner.
In a fresh twist for 2025, instead of traditional apparatus-only streams, viewers can follow specific teams throughout the arena on dedicated feeds with tailored commentary. Each stream pairs two teams with expert analysis, letting fans personalize their experience in unprecedented ways.
Immediately following the women's final, the NCAA Men's Championship takes center stage on ESPN2
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
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...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
15/05/2026
For sports organizations, the most valuable assets are often the most sensitive:...
15/05/2026
The NFL's broadcast partners released their 2026 regular season schedules ye...
15/05/2026
When MMA icons Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano meet inside the Hexagon at Intuit Do...
15/05/2026
Daniel Roher attends the Tuner Premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Theatre on January 22, 2026 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Neilson Bar...
15/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
15/05/2026
Rebranded show announced
Ahead of their 2026 return, Music Expo have announced that they have now officially changed their name to the MONO Music Conference...
15/05/2026
Fuzz pedal joins UK companys line-up
UK-based pedal makers Buzzing Bugs Audio Devices have recently unveiled their latest creation, the Bolster. Said to pay...
15/05/2026
Joint Statement: News Bargaining Incentive
28 April, 2026
Media releases
The vibrancy of Australian democracy relies on the robust and open exchange of new...
15/05/2026
Call it Deltavision, Australia's through to the Grand Final of this year'...
15/05/2026
Join Calrec at MPTS 2026 | May 13-14 | Stand A40 | Olympia, London We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at this year's Media ...
15/05/2026
86% of media planners would move more linear TV budget to CTV if they had show-level targeting and reporting - and 65% would also shift dollars from programmati...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Clear-Com will showcase new communications solutions and major platform updates at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005), June 17-19, in the North and Central Halls of t...
15/05/2026
Following an outstanding inaugural year in 2025, Rise AV is proud to announce the return of its flagship leadership initiative, Elevate. The programme continues...
15/05/2026
Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit The three-day event puts musicians at the center of the future of music creation, ethics, and the indus...
15/05/2026
Lightware returns to InfoComm 2026 with a focused showcase of scalable USB-C connectivity, next-generation AV-over-IP solutions, and technologies that help over...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
ESPN Unleashes 4DREPLAY as NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships Hit ABC Men's championships to follow Saturday night on ESPN2 By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
