Live From the NFL Draft: Q&A - NFL Media's Mark Quenzel Puts Nashville in Spotlight Reaching beyond Music City, NFL Network is also taking 60 live feeds from NFL cities By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, April 26, 2019 - 3:14 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
NFL Media is all over the Draft action in Nashville this week, delivering more than 76 hours of live Draft Week coverage. NFL Network has bookended Lower Broadway with a pair of sets located on the Draft Main Stage and attached to the legendary Tootsie's Orchid Lounge honky-tonk bar. Connecting the two locations is a SupraCam point-to-point aerial system capturing the party happening on the streets below. In addition, NFL Media's coverage goes well beyond the borders of Nashville, bringing in more than 60 live feeds from NFL cities across the country, including a record 23 Draft War Room cameras and live picks from every team's home city in Rounds 4-6 on Saturday.
SVG sat down with NFL Media SVP, Programming and Productions, Mark Quenzel to discuss production philosophy for the Draft and how it has evolved over the years, how his team worked to create an authentic Nashville aesthetic for its Draft sets and broadcasts, how NFL Network differentiates its coverage from other broadcasters by incorporating NFL Nation coast-to-coast.
NFL Media's Mark Quenzel: This year is especially exciting because, for the NFL100 celebration, we're doing [live shots] from all 13 original NFL towns, including eight towns that aren't [currently NFL cities].
NFL Network's Draft coverage and onsite presence this year really emphasizes the culture of Nashville. How did your team go about coming up with the Nashville-esque concepts here at the Draft?
The first thing we wanted to do was learn the city. Obviously, we come to Nashville for [Titans] games, but we're in and out. So we came here for a walk-around to really get the vibe of the city. Where are the important places to be, and where are the important landmarks? Then we built our production plan based on that: how we are showing off the city and showing that we truly understand what their culture is all about.
That's why we ended up selecting Tootsie's for our big set. It's an amazing [structure], and that will tell you everything you need to know about [our philosophy] here. We literally built two stories [protruding] right out of the building, and it's designed to look exactly like Tootsie's. It looks like an extension of the building, and a lot of [visitors] don't even know that it's not a regular part of the building.
Nashville is also a big little city, and Broadway is the epicenter, so we wanted to have that surround. We decided we were going to put one set on the Main Stage at the bottom of Broadway and another one five blocks up at Tootsie's. And we have a two-point [SupraCam] cable camera system running all the way down Broadway back and forth. That allows us to show off those two locations, as well as all of the music and the bars.
And we have Good Morning Football every morning inside Tootsie's to give that honky-tonk bar feel.
How does Nashville differ from previous Draft locations, and what unique challenges does it present for you and your team?
Last year [at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX] was more the exception to the rule now. We had it at the stadium, and it was all about football and less about the city. Texas is the epicenter of football, and it was a football draft from start to finish. And that's the way we played it, generally speaking. [Our coverage in] Chicago was focused on the parks and Lake Michigan; Philadelphia was all about the steps [at the Museum of Art] and the incredible architecture of the city. Here we focused on the music and the culture of Nashville. And Vegas will be very different next year as well. That's the fun part about the Draft now: each city is just so different from the previous city, so we basically start from scratch.
How has the shift to making Day 3 picks from around the country affected NFL Network's coverage and production philosophy?
When we started doing the picks from the cities on Saturday, we made a strategic philosophical decision to cover the Draft as a national experience, not a local experience in the city [where it's taking place]. In 32 cities, fans care a great deal about what their team is doing. So we decided to take the broad perspective and serve as air-traffic control for [live shots from] cities around the country.
The draft is like Christmas. You're unwrapping the presents in 32 cities, so we need to capture the excitement in 32 cities. We work very hard on that. It's very much a hub-and-spoke model: the first two days, we focus on the hub, and, on Saturday, we focus on the wheel.
This year is especially exciting because, for the NFL100 celebration, we're doing [live shots] from all 13 original NFL towns, including eight towns that aren't [currently NFL cities]. We also have a live pick from an Army base in South Korea on Day 1, so it's truly a global event.
How has NFL Media's coverage evolved over the years from a production perspective?
Remember, it hasn't even been a decade since the Draft moved to primetime. That was the seminal moment that led to everything else. I think the evolution has been focused on how we have broadened it to become a fan event no matter where you were a fan. For the first 50 years, it was New York City and Radio City, and that was great. Now we are focused on fans in cities everywhere - both nationally and internationally.
It has truly become a pillar for us, along with the Combine. The Draft is the connective tissue that gets us from last season to next season. In order to do that, it's important that this event continue to grow and be as big as pos
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Live From the NFL Draft: Q&A - NFL Media's Mark Quenzel Puts Nashville in Spotlight Reaching beyond Music City, NFL Network is also taking 60 live feeds from NFL cities By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
