NCAA Women's Final Four: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt on the Caitlin Clark Factor, His Favorite Tech Toys, and the Growth of the Women's Game Pratt and the rest of the production team relish the excitement around this year's tourney By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, April 5, 2024 - 4:11 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Big-time events are nothing new to Jimmy Platt, who has directed Monday Night Football, the CFP Championship Game, and countless other high-profile sports broadcasts during his decorated career. This weekend, however, will be different. Platt will be directing his sixth NCAA Women's Final Four with seemingly the entire country fixated on the biggest star in all of sports: Caitlin Clark.
ESPN's Jimmy Platt began directing the NCAA Women's Final Four in 2018.
In addition to directing college-basketball games for more than a decade - including the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four in 2018, 2019, and 2021-23 - Platt has worked a variety of other high-profile sports throughout his career, including NFL and college football, MLB, and lacrosse. He directed ESPN's Monday Night Football from 2019 to 22 and was named director of ABC's Saturday Night Football primetime package in March 2023.
SVG sat down with Platt to discuss what he expects from this weekend's telecasts, the key cameras and production tools at his disposal, how he balances covering Clark with the rest of the game's storylines, and how he has seen the women's game explode in popularity over the past few years.
CLICK HERE for SVG's full story on ESPN's NCAA Women's Final Four production.
How is the production team looking to ride the momentum from the Elite Eight into this weekend's Final Four?
We have some amazing momentum not only from last year's championship game and, obviously, the [Iowa-LSU] game this past Monday, but [the momentum] has been all season long. When you go back and look at viewership from the regular season and the early rounds, it is awesome to see. It has taken the buzz from last year and carried it on throughout this season as well. It's remarkable.
What are a few of the key cameras and production tools you're most excited about this weekend?
The camera complement is largely similar to last year: Railcam and Skycam are both back, along with a drone outside the building - and we will do virtual graphics on all of those. We have a plethora of things at our disposal not only to help us capture the scene but also to allow us to showcase how much the event has grown over the years.
We did go way more robust in terms of high-frame-rate cameras. We'll be running seven high-speed cameras compared to three last year. That's a big upgrade for us and was long overdue.
We're also adding one additional cinematic camera that we also had [for Elite Eight games] in Albany, which we placed on the far-side baseline. [The Sony HDC-5500] bounced either left or right based on what bench was the story. And also we're able to provide all that footage to our edit team in a [format] that they prefer when they're editing teases, high-end features, and that sort of thing. We're testing out a brand-new lens that Fuji just came out with recently: their new Duvo 24mm-300mm lens, and the quality is just stunning. That has been really cool to see. We were able to capture some nice images in Albany, and we'll obviously continue to do so here in Cleveland.
We also have an HDC-Sony 4800 as a slash camera with a specialty Fuji cinema lens - the Duvo 25 1000 box lens - that they came out with a while back. We had that last year for the Championship Game and the Final Four as well as in Albany, and it's back again with us as well.
We had both of those cinematic cameras [for the Elite Eight games] in Albany to capture those key moments in a cinematic capacity, and we're excited to have them here in Cleveland. What those [cameras] have been able to capture has been a game-changer [in terms of] creating an emotional connection for our viewers at home as they're watching these women play basketball at such a high level.
Let's go back to Monday's Iowa-LSU game. What was it like to be at the front bench for such an unforgettable game?
It's why you do this job: moments like that. When you see the matchup potentially happening, you just pray it lines up the way you hope it will. Thankfully, we got what we had hoped for with Iowa and LSU on Monday night. You just have to pinch yourself because there aren't many opportunities where you will get an event that is as memorable as that show. Last year's championship game is something that I'll always remember, and I knew going into Monday night in Albany that it was going to be something special. Quite frankly, you know that every game you get to do of Caitlin's is going to have that magnitude, so it's phenomenal to be a part of that.
It's our job to be positioned to cover her and the stories behind it all. It's why you put in all the preparation and work that goes unseen except for that two hours when everybody's watching. The amount of time and prep that goes into just that two hours is astronomical. But, after you put in that level of preparation, you get to go out and just have fun with your teammates. From our tape room to our camera folks to graphics to video to audio, we all get to laugh and enjoy and embrace the moment as it unfolds. The best part about doing sports is that you never know exactly what's going to unfold when the story begins. It's the only true version of reality television that exists, because there's no predicting exactly what will happen. It's our job to react and capture those special moments as the story of the game is unfolding, and that n
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
NCAA Women's Final Four: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt on the Caitlin Clark Factor, His Favorite Tech Toys, and the Growth of the Women's Game Pratt and the rest of the production team relish the excitement around this year's tourney By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
