
SVG TranSPORT 2020: CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and Sinclair Talk Return of Live Sports, Sept. 23-24 Broadcasters will address new transmission schemes in the age of coronavirus By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 11:45 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
After a months-long shutdown, major sports leagues suddenly snapped back into live action over the summer with MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, WNBA, and others resuming live play for the first time since the pandemic began. At the SVG's TranSPORT Virtual Series (Sept. 23-24), top transmission leaders from CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and Sinclair provide an inside look inside look at how they were able to develop new tactics on the fly and create new transmission schemes to bring live sports back to the masses. CLICK HERE to register now for the panel featuring Fox Sports' Brad Cheney, NBC Sports Group's Chris Connolly, ViacomCBS's Ken Fuller, Sinclair Broadcast Group's Paul Spinelli, and ESPN's Adam Whitlock.
Whitlock will also kick off TranSPORT with an Opening Keynote detailing how ESPN has been able to deliver hundreds of live events since sports resumed despite a myriad pandemic-related challenges.
In addition to the Broadcasters Go Inside the Return of Live Sports panel on Day 1, this quintet of transmission-focused execs will return on Day 2 for the TranSPORT's annual State of the Industry panel to discuss the most pressing issues facing the industry today and how the connectivity needs for live-sports-content creators are evolving in the age of coronavirus.
Other TranSPORT sessions will include:
The Rise of IP Backhaul: How the Contribution Game Is Changing
Transmission 2020: 5G, HEVC, JPEG XS, SRT, and Beyond
Net Insight Case Study: Efficient Remote Live Sports Media Production
Video-Transport Infrastructure Tech Focus: Encoders, Decoders, and Transmission Equipment
Video-Transport Services Tech Focus: Fiber Networks, CDNs, and Satellite Services
A Live Speaker Q&A and Networking Zoom Room at the end of each day
Check out the full program below:
Day 1: September 23 Program 2:00 - 2:05 p.m.: Welcoming Remarks Presented by Telstra
Presenter: Adam Day, Telstra Broadcast Services, VP and Head of Technology and Media Sales, Americas
2:05 - 2:20 p.m.: Opening Keynote: Inside ESPN's Transmission Plan for the Return of Live Sports
After a months-long shutdown, major sports leagues suddenly snapped back into live action in July with MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, WNBA, and others resuming live play for the first time since the pandemic began. As the largest sports rightsholder in North America, ESPN was suddenly forced to deliver hundreds of live events from new venues with myriad new challenges. Get an inside look at how ESPN's remote traffic operations department was able to develop new tactics on the fly and create a new transmission scheme to bring live sports back to the masses.
Presenter: Adam Whitlock, ESPN, Associate Director, Remote Traffic Operations
2:20 - 3:00 p.m.: Broadcasters Go Inside the Return of Live Sports
Following on the heels of the Opening Keynote from ESPN, major sports broadcasters go behind the scenes on how they created new transmission schemes to bring live sports back to the masses.
Moderator: Jason Dachman, SVG, Chief Editor and TranSPORT Program Director
Panelists:
Brad Cheney, Fox Sports, VP, Field Operations and Engineering
Chris Connolly, NBC Sports Group, Senior Director, Transmission Engineering and Operations
Ken Fuller, ViacomCBS, VP, Distribution and Technology
Paul Spinelli, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Director of Engineering
Adam Whitlock, ESPN, Associate Director, Remote Traffic Operations
3:00 - 3:15 p.m.: Net Insight Case Study: Efficient Remote Live Sports Media Production
Mobilelinks, one of Northern Europe's leading partners in the delivery of broadcast media, will share exciting experiences of different at-home production scenarios - from 100-Gbps uncompressed live feeds to remote commentary working from home.
Presenters:
Andreas Langell, Mobilelinks, CEO
Per Lindgren, Net Insight, CTO and Co-Founder
3:15 - 4:00 p.m.: The Rise of IP Backhaul: How the Contribution Game Is Changing
The use of IP networks to backhaul live sports events has skyrocketed in recent years as broadcasters look to find more efficient and flexible means for contribution. In addition, with more connectivity needed for remote/decentralized productions, public and private IP networks are playing a bigger role than ever in connecting the stadium to the broadcast center. Technology leaders discuss how IP has dramatically altered the contribution landscape in recent years - and in the wake of the pandemic - as well as how they expect the use of IP transmission to evolve in the coming years.
Moderator: Brandon Costa, SVG, Director of Digital
Panelists:
Steven Dargham, Telstra Broadcast Services, Business Development Executive - Major Events
Mo Goyal, Evertz, Senior Director, International Business Development, Live Media Production
Daniel Maloney, Matrox, Daniel Maloney
Dan Pisarski, LiveU, VP of Engineering
Marcus Schioler, Haivision, Vice President of Product Marketing
4:00 - 4:30 p.m.: Video-Transport Infrastructure Tech Focus: Encoders, Decoders, and Transmission Equipment
Live sports broadcasts simply can't exist without a solid layer of backend transmission infrastructure. Leading technology providers of encoders/decoders and other transmission gear discuss their latest offerings and how they see the market evolving in the age of coronavirus.
Moderator: Kristian Hernandez, SVG, Associate Editor and Social Media Manager
Panelists:
Brandon Baker, Sencore, Strategic Account Manager
John Dale, Media Links, Director, Chief Marketing Officer
Matthew Goldman, MediaKind, SVP of Technology
4:30 - 5:00 p.m.: Live Speaker Q&
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
18/11/2025
KEIZER, Ore. Municipal broadcaster Keizer City Television, K23 TV, has deployed four Telycam PTZ cameras to upgrade the visual quality of its live meeting cover...
18/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports and Peacock have announced that they are working for the second consecutive year with the National Football League, EA Sports and Gen...
18/11/2025
LONDON A new Ampere Analysis study finds that familiar franchises are successfully driving kids' TV consumption on Netflix and that the streamers big bet on...
18/11/2025
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. TV viewers continue to find it challenging to find relevant programs in the fragmented universe of streaming content, according to new findings...
18/11/2025
20 Bob Dylan Songs That Reflect a Legacy of A-Changin On the heels of Bob Dylan receiving a Berklee honorary doctorate, we take stock of one of the most singu...
17/11/2025
EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast to Return Thanksgiving Night With Immersive, Data-Driv...
17/11/2025
Behind the Broadcast Booth: Impact Ventures' Greer Christian on Building Her...
17/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Sportradar's Brian Josephs Talks Peacock's Powerful Perfor...
17/11/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Greg Gumbel, Iconic Voice and Comforting ...
17/11/2025
ESPN, Pixar, the NFL, and Beyond Sports Team Up for ESPN's Dec. 8 Monsters,...
17/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: EA SPORTS' Evan Dexter on How the EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast...
17/11/2025
Cast your votes and sail into 2026 with the return of SBS's the Chillest 100
17 November, 2025
Media releases
Voting is now open for Australia's ul...
17/11/2025
When VSI Group, one of the world's leading localisation providers, set out to modernise its complex, multi-site operations built through years of acquisitio...
17/11/2025
Dealmaking for broadcast stations continues to heat up, with Sinclair reporting it has built up a 8.2% stake in E.W. Scripps and has been talking with Scripps f...
17/11/2025
The worlds online population grew by more than 240 million people in 2025, according to Facts and Figures 2025 released today by the International Telecommunica...
17/11/2025
ASB GlassFloor, the leading provider in LED sports flooring, today announced the opening of Athletes Lab 2.0, a premier athletic training facility designed to e...
17/11/2025
SmallHD today announced the release of its popular Camera Control for Canon cinema cameras. This new integration enables filmmakers to adjust critical camera se...
17/11/2025
Luxury is in the details, and no one captures that better than the creative team at Samuel & Sons. As the visionaries behind iconic photography and advertising ...
17/11/2025
NVIDIA Apollo - a family of open models for accelerating industrial and computat...
17/11/2025
To power future technologies including liquid-cooled data centers, high-resoluti...
17/11/2025
At SC25, NVIDIA unveiled advances across NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, next-generation networking, quantum computing, national research, AI physics and more - as accel...
17/11/2025
Across quantum physics, digital biology and climate research, the world's researchers are harnessing a universal scientific instrument to chart new frontier...
17/11/2025
It used to be that computing power trickled down from hulking supercomputers to ...
17/11/2025
17 Nov 2025
VEON Commences USD 100 million Buyback Program Dubai, November 17, 2025: VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital operator ( VEON or the Compan...
17/11/2025
Monday 17 November 2025
Sky brings top comedy talent to screens with new stand-up specials
Sky and streaming service NOW are bringing audiences a fresh dose o...
16/11/2025
L3Harris to deliver advanced electronic warfare systems quickly for worldwide F-16 programs...
16/11/2025
Upgrading your Apogee Symphony MKII from TB2 to TB3: Need to Knows Upgrading your Apogee interface to Thunderbolt 3 isn't difficult - but it's not a cas...
16/11/2025
Apogee Electronics Acquired by Dirk Ulrich's Rockforce Tech Holding, Parent ...
15/11/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The Walt Disney Company and YouTube TV have reached a new multi-year distribution agreement, ending a carriage dispute that had blacked out ABC,...
15/11/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wis. A group of about 20 TV technology vendors supporting NextGen TV are wrapping up their ATSC 3.0 Interop here at Heartland Video Systems headquarte...
15/11/2025
NEW YORK NBCUniversal has announced that it will be launching NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), a 24/7 linear network featuring a wide range of marquee sporting event...
15/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released an updated agenda for its Open Meeting on Thursday, November 20, 2025, which is scheduled to comme...
15/11/2025
JERSEY CITY, N.J. OpenVault has released new data showing that DOCSIS 3.1 and higher services are driving significant across-the-board increases in speed and co...
15/11/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has concluded an agreement with the Ohio Valley Conference ( OVC ) to broadcast OVC college basketball games across 20 Gray markets in five s...
15/11/2025
NEW BERN, N.C. Wheatstone has named company veteran Darrin Paley vice president of business accounts, effective immediately....
15/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Serves Up the Trailer for Dining with the Kapoors'...
14/11/2025
Op-Ed: The Automation Imperative - Why AI Is the Only Scalable Defense Against L...
14/11/2025
FutureSPORT 2025: Caretta Research on why streaming won't save broadcasters By Jo Ruddock
Monday, November 10, 2025 - 14:37
Print This Story
Caretta R...
14/11/2025
Daneysse Daniels, Emmy-Winning Production Manager and Beloved Teammate at TNT Sp...
14/11/2025
The NBA 2K League Returns as an Immersive Entertainment Ecosystem' With Non...
14/11/2025
Inaugural SVG LIVE! Conference Brings 250 Top Sports and Entertainment Producti...
14/11/2025
(L-R) Suzette Quintanilla, Isabel Castro, and Chris P rez attend the 2025 Sundan...
14/11/2025
This week, Casa Spotify lit up Las Vegas with an unforgettable celebration of Latin music and culture ahead of the 26th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. Hosted at th...
14/11/2025
Boston Conservatory Orchestra to Perform at Carnegie Hall for United Nations Gen...
14/11/2025
Berklee Alum Lewis Pickett Wins Record of the Year at Latin Grammy Awards Pickett, a 2009 graduate, was nominated six times across three categories at this ye...
14/11/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. A group of about 20 TV technology vendors supporting NextGen TV are wrapping up their ATSC 3.0 Interop here at Heartland Video Services headquar...
14/11/2025
What if your idle operations centers, inactive cloud time, staff or you as a freelancer could start generating revenue tomorrow?
NECF Corporation today announc...
14/11/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, today announced that it has been recognized as a Major Player in the IDC MarketS...
14/11/2025
The recent ADAC RAVENOL 24h Race at Germany's legendary N rburgring circuit marked a milestone for live broadcast production, and Clear-Com played a pivota...