NFL Draft 2021: NFL Media Combines Lessons From 2020 Virtual Draft With Onsite Presence for Best of Both Worlds'

NFL Draft 2021: NFL Media Combines Lessons From 2020 Virtual Draft With Onsite Presence for Best of Both Worlds' Robo cameras, additional trucks reflect emphasis on crew safety By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Thursday, April 29, 2021 - 3:52 pm

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After a virtual draft that VP/Head of Media Operations Dave Shaw calls NFL Media's most challenging operation to date, the league's media arm will return to a semblance of normalcy tonight in Cleveland for the opening night of the 2021 NFL Draft. With a full production and crew onsite, the event will mark a bookend of sorts to the pandemic era, which began with a trailblazing decentralized production of last year's Draft.

Throughout the next three days, even with trucks and crew onsite, NFL Media will leverage the knowledge and workflows developed for the 2020 Virtual Draft.

I wouldn't call it a hybrid [production] as much as I would say it's the best of both worlds, says Shaw. We're taking advantage of what we learned last year with the [Virtual Draft] and also taking advantage of the many years [of onsite coverage] before that. Having a combination of the onsite and at-home live [workflows] this year makes things more complex, but it also makes the show a lot more dynamic. And I think we're giving viewers a whole new level of coverage.

In the Compound: NFL Media Mixes Onsite, REMI Production NFL Media has rolled out Game Creek Video's Encore A, B, and C mobile units for the Draft production. With crews socially distanced in the trucks, HFI Flex 11 is also on hand to accommodate overflow. In addition, three EVS replay operators and all graphics operators are located at NFL Media's Culver City, CA, Broadcast Center operating EVS servers inside Encore remotely.

NFL Network's set at the Draft Theater, one of its two primary sets, is ultra wide to accommodate multiple talent while keeping them socially distant.

It feels very much like we're getting back to our standard production model but also incorporating everything about [remote production] that we learned last year, says Bjorn Estlund, senior manager, remote technical operations, NFL Media. For a show like the Draft with the amount of elements, the precise timing, and all the movement, we're going to get a much better show with the production [team] here onsite.

This year, NFL Media is producing its NFL Network show onsite in 1080p to align with co-broadcast ESPN and Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment Productions, who is managing the in-house show and has set up a TOC in Cleveland to manage feeds for the respective broadcasts on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. In all, NFL Media is sharing 120 feeds with Van Wagner and ESPN through an IP gateway provided by Game Creek Video.

We made a decision early on to have Van Wagner handle the technical compound and bring in all those feeds, says Shaw. We learned from what we did last year and decided to create a central [TOC], and we went to Van Wagner to build the infrastructure in Cleveland because they are handling the in-house production and were one of our three call centers last year. That gave us all the confidence in the world that they could handle it.

Estlund is onsite, along with Senior Director, Media Operations, Adam Acone, overseeing the operation in Cleveland.

NFL Media rolled out Game Creek Video Encore A, B, and C to serve its NFL Draft production in Cleveland.

NFL Media Director, Studio Operations, Jessica Lee is also onsite in Cleveland, helping manage all the feeds for the NFL Media group in the 34 fiber muxes that feed Culver for live shows and disaster recovery (DR), as well as the five fiber muxes to NFL Films to support Good Morning Football (which airs live from its New York studio all week) and provide a second layer of DR.

NFL Media COVID-Compliance Manager Casey McKee has led the effort onsite safety protocols for the Draft production. All 236 onsite personnel (including production, crew, talent, executives, digital media, and photo) were COVID-tested prior to arriving in Cleveland and are PCR-tested every other day while onsite. In addition, all crew members maintain social distancing, wear Kinexon contact tracers, and are required to wear masks/PPE at all times.

Safety is our number-one concern and priority one, says Estlund. Fortunately, we've had a year to work on this and to come as close to perfecting [safety measures] as we can.

On the Set: Ultra-Wide Desks, Dynamicam in the Green Room, Plenty of Robos This year's Draft will take place across iconic Downtown Cleveland locations: FirstEnergy Stadium, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Great Lakes Science Center, with the main Draft Theater set against the backdrop of Lake Erie.

NFL Media has erected five sets and brought its full roster of on-air talent to Cleveland for its live coverage. The two primary sets - located inside the Draft Theater and outside overlooking the festivities - feature 24-ft.-wide desks to socially distance the talent. NFL Network also has sets at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame plaza for NFL Draft Red Carpet, in a suite at FirstEnergy Stadium, and at Great Lakes Science Center (the contingency location in case of inclement weather).

With the sets growing in order to socially distance, so have the size of our actual stages, says Estlund. Our main sets are 24 ft. across to allow for four people, but you also need space for the jib and the build-up cameras, so that means the stage has to get bigger, too. We have to expand everything to cover that distance between talent on the set.

NFL Network's exterior NFL Draft set is located outside Cleveland's FirstEnergy Stadium.

NFL Media has 48 cameras dedicated specifically to the NFL Network show and is also sharing several with ESPN. The production will de

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