Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL Kickoff 2024: NBC Sports Starts the Party with Thursday Night Opener; Adds Peacock-Exclusive Friday Night Game From Brazil

05/09/2024

NFL Kickoff 2024: NBC Sports Starts the Party with Thursday Night Opener; Adds Peacock-Exclusive Friday Night Game From Brazil Crew bolsters super slow-mo tally; takes advantages of greater on-field access By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Thursday, September 5, 2024 - 3:06 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The NFL is back and the action begins in earnest tonight in Kansas City as the defending Super Bowl Champion Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock).

For two decades, it has become a tradition for the NFL to kick off its season on a Thursday night at the home of the reigning champ. It's also become a bit of a tradition for NBC Sports to do so at Arrowhead Stadium. This is the second consecutive year and the third time in the past five years that Kansas City has hosted the NFL's season-opening celebration.

Tonight's opener is also just the first in a stretch of three games in four nights for the NBC Sports team with a new International Game in Brazil between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles being played on Friday night (that game will stream exclusively on Peacock) before the official Sunday Night Football opener brings the Los Angeles Rams to Detroit for a playoff rematch with the Lions.

More High-Frame Rate Cameras; Added Audio Access It's a hot start for the team at the helm of primetime television's #1 show for the past 13 consecutive years but for SNF coordinating producer Rob Hyland this is a job that his team has been preparing for all year.

We dissect and break down every single element of the production, says Hyland, who is entering his third season in the lead chair. We truly do. We challenge every element and how we've done it. I watch tape of other broadcasts.

These days nearly every NFL game is treated with an A game complement of production tools. Elements like SkyCams, PylonCams, and augmented reality graphics with AWS Next-Gen Stats are seemingly a part of every single broadcast. Hyland admittied that the more you watch, the more you see that everyone is basically doing the same show.

So how does NBC and Sunday Night Football continue to differentiate itself and retain its position as the elite NFL broadcast of the weekend? For this season, Hyland says that his crew is pushing for more audio access in the way of landing in-game interviews with and placing microphones on more players and coaches.

On the imaging front, he said in a media call last month that every camera on the show a high-frame-rate camera. That includes all standard game cameras including slashes, high end-zones, pylons, etc. with the only exception being the announce booth camera and the All-22.

Given the fact that I can use my iPhone to record broadcast-quality super slow-motion footage of my daughter's gymnastics practices, I challenged our crew to make every camera on our show a high-frame-rate camera, says Hyland. We converted seven more cameras to be high-frame-rate super slow-motion cameras. There's no excuse not to have every frame available. There are calls that come down to the centimeter sometimes, and I just really wanted to challenge our group to make sure that we had the best possible video available for our viewers to experience Sunday Night Football. That might look and feel a little different to a sophisticated eye.

NBC and Sunday Night Football will also benefit from a couple of new wrinkles being allowed by the NFL this season. NBC is going to be allowed to speak to a home team player in full uniform either at the end of warm-ups or just after run-outs and all head coaches are required to conduct an in-game interview with a sideline reporter. Also, all network partners for the first time will have locker room access after the field clears with a cap of 20 seconds of video per team allowed in the live broadcast.

Friday Night Game in Brazil Adds Operational Challenges The major new wrinkle to this opening weekend for NBC Sports is the addition of a Friday night game between the Packers and Eagles on Friday night. A different production crew both behind-the-scenes and on-air are on-site in Sao Paolo to produce that game which will be streamed exclusively on NBC's streaming platform, Peacock.

NBC Sports turned to EMG/Gravity Media to design a flypack to help handle the unique operations and engineering loads of broadcasting this game from Corinthians Arena.

The live production solution from EMG / Gravity Media is a specially designed baseband fly-away system for rapid deployment, that delivers 1080p HDR visuals with immersive Dolby 5.1 audio. Key components of the setup include a high-capacity, modular Grass Valley Sirius 850 routing system, an EVS Cerebrum centralized interface for broadcast control and monitoring of custom workflows, and a Calrec ImPulse core with extensive audio processing power to handle complex mixing and routing tasks. Grass Valley's K-Frame XP mainframe delivers advanced processing capabilities, powering a 4ME Kahuna panel for seamless integration of switching and effects.

We look forward to working on this landmark game with our longstanding partners EMG and Gravity Media, whose expertise and reliability will help us deliver a best-in-class presentation, says Craig Bernstein, VP Remote Technical Operations, NBC Sports.

MORE: NBC Sports Selects EMG/Gravity Media for NFL's First Game from Brazil

Last year, NBC and the NFL made headlines by distributing a Playoff game (between the Miami Dolphins and the Chiefs) behind Peacock. It was the first time a postseason game was not broadcast on television. As a part of that stream, NBC Sports presented 40% fewer commercials than it normally would on broadcast television. Additionally, NBC Sports presented a regular season game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers without c
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/09/05/nfl-kickoff-2024-nbc-sports-sta...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

23/07/2026

Scaling Smart with Vivid Broadcast

Download Now! To receive a short case study showcasing Vivid Broadcast's audio setup, please enter the following details: -- First Name* First Name ...

23/07/2026

Sony Unveils FX5 Full-Frame Camera

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

Sachtler To Show Akti8T Fluid Head, Flowtech75 Tripod At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

NextGen TV Launches in Cleveland

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

Yospace Stitched 11.57 Billion Ads into Live Streams During World Cup

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

At IBC2026 Witbe Will Showcase Tests That Build Themselve...

Witbe brings its AI-native testing and monitoring infrastructure to Amsterdam: demonstrations on real devices, a peer-reviewed technical paper in the conference...

23/07/2026

Quickplay Caretta Research Evergent and Yospace Announce...

Quickplay, Caretta Research, Evergent, and Yospace have announced that the renowned IBC Pride Happy Hour will once again bring the vibe and fun back to IBC on F...

23/07/2026

IBC2026 Interra Systems Brings Trusted Media Intelligence...

At IBC2026, Interra Systems will present this year's focus: operational AI at scale for QC, monitoring, and captioning workflows. The industry has moved pas...

23/07/2026

Illusionfx is finally coming!

Illusionfx is finally coming! Alex Perea July 23, 2026 0 Comments The new website is now live to mark the occasion. Since the last update, feedback h...

23/07/2026

Evergent showcases AI agents for streaming retention at I...

Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...

23/07/2026

Brian Jones Named NCTCs New CFO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

Scripps Unites TV Operations Under Dean Littleton's Leadership

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

23/07/2026

2D House is First North American Rental Facility to Offer...

David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...

23/07/2026

Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program

Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026 Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...

23/07/2026

Centra returning as the official food partner of The Traitors Ireland

RT Commercial has today announced Centra as the official food partner once again of The Traitors Ireland, coming to RT One and RT Player later this year. Ce...

23/07/2026

Honda sponsors Today with David McCullagh on RT Radio 1

RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am. Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...

23/07/2026

RT NEWS ANNOUNCES NEW JOURNALIST REPORTING FROM ACROSS CORK AND KERRY

RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region Working al...

23/07/2026

GeForce NOW Sets Sail With Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame' Joining the Cloud

Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...

22/07/2026

ESPN's AutoMic Technology Pays Off at Wimbledon; Baker Credits Team, AELTC for Successful Fortnight

Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...

22/07/2026

Australian Sports Technologies Network Reports Industry Growth of 16% in 2026

The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...

22/07/2026

Production Wins, Man!': Men in Blazers' Founder Roger Bennett on Winning the FIFA World Cup as a Digital Media Brand

From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...

22/07/2026

TMRW Sports Appoints Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football

TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...

22/07/2026

Stephen Arnold Music Creates Audio for FIFA World Cup Projection Mapping Display at Rockefeller Center

Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...

22/07/2026

Harmonic Donates $25,000 to Venezuela Earthquake Relief Through Global Empowerment Mission

Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...

22/07/2026

Telemundo Acquires Exclusive U.S. Spanish-Language Rights to UEFA Mens Club Competitions Beginning 2027/28

Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...

22/07/2026

The Rest Is Football Returns to Netflix for 2026/27 Premier League Season Through 2028 European Championship

The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...

22/07/2026

Sports Studio and TheSoul Group Announce YouTube and Social Distribution Partnership

Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...

22/07/2026

Daktronics Concludes 2026 High School Video Summit

Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...

22/07/2026

FOR-A America to Exhibit at MMCA 2026 with First U.S. HVS-Q12 Sale Announced

FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...

22/07/2026

New York Yankees Select Lumen Technologies for Stadium and Data Center Connectivity

The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...

22/07/2026

IBC 2026: Calrec To Exhibit IP Audio Ecosystem, Announce New Products

Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...

22/07/2026

Solid State Logic Appoints Algam EKO as Italian Distributor

Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...

22/07/2026

FloSports Launches Free Streaming Channel on Prime Video

FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...

22/07/2026

Savannah Bananas Deploys Calrec Audio Infrastructure for Banana Ball TV REMI Broadcasts

Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...

22/07/2026

SiriusXM and Audacy Announce Agreement To Add 42 Local Stations to SiriusXM

SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...

22/07/2026

Overtime, FOX One Partner on Social-First FIFA World Cup Series Race to Glory for the Creator Generation

The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...

22/07/2026

Green Bay Packers Escalate In-House Video Production With New Content Studio

At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...

22/07/2026

ERA II Vocal Codex from Eduardo Tarilonte

Library now available in Engine Player Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...

22/07/2026

Cloudvocals improved FlashTrack FT-15 DSP Microphone

All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...

22/07/2026

Electro-Harmonix launch the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2

The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...

22/07/2026

Clear-Com Delivers Integrated Communications for Fryderyk Awards Gala in Krakw

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......

22/07/2026

IAB Tech Lab Updates Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/07/2026

FCC Adopts Plan for C-Band Auction in July 2027

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/07/2026

LTN surpasses 3000 satellite-to-IP migrations as FCC vote...

Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...

22/07/2026

Chaos Releases V-Ray 7 Update 4 Connecting Real-Time Work...

Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...