Super Bowl LV: NFL Media Leans on Culver City HQ for Week-Long Extravaganza in Tampa With safety as top priority, NFL Media reduced its on-site Super Bowl footprint By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Thursday, February 4, 2021 - 2:33 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
As the home of pro football, NFL Network always goes all out for Super Bowl Week. And, while its onsite presence has been significantly slimmed down due to the pandemic, NFL Media is still delivering more than 70 Hours of live Super Bowl coverage this week from Tampa; its broadcast center in Culver City, CA; and its Good Morning Football studio in Manhattan.
NFL Networks' Super Bowl Live has set up an idyllic set location outside Tampa General Hospital.
NFL Media is using five control rooms in Culver City and one at NFL Films HQ in Mt. Laurel, NJ, as part of its largely at-home productions. These facilities are working in conjunction with Game Creek Video Glory A and B units, located at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, to produce a cavalcade of preview programming throughout the week, along with pre/postgame shows from the stadium on Sunday.
Despite the challenges due to COVID, our team has executed a great plan so our productions for NFL Network, says Dave Shaw, VP, production, NFL Media. And our various digital programming remains second to none for superior coverage in our week-long pregame coverage heading into Super Bowl.
Onsite in Tampa: A Smaller Crew Across Three Main Locations NFL Network's Super Bowl Live set serves as the hub for its coverage leading up to the big game.
Remote production at the Super Bowl is nothing new to NFL Media, which produced much of its Super Bowl LIV coverage from Culver City and Mt. Laurel last year as well as that of Super Bowl LIII in 2019. However, in an effort to travel fewer personnel because of the pandemic, NFL Media has leaned into remote production even further and reduced its onsite crew from 583 in Miami last year to 217 in Tampa this week.
This year, in reacting to COVID, we've gone even more [remote] than in years past, says Shaw. Essentially all productions this week are based in Culver - unlike in previous years when it was more of a mix. On game day itself, we would normally just throw to the host city, and then Culver would be used for backup and relief. Not this year, though Sunday's programming will still be very exciting because we have people in Tampa at multiple locations. The programming will be great, but we also get to have added disaster recovery and can keep everyone safe.
To enhance safety, the network has reduced the number of locations for originating content, deploying sets in three places in Tampa. The primary set on the concourse of Raymond James Stadium will be the home base for its NFL Game Day Morning pregame and NFL Game Day Final postgame coverage on Sunday.
Leading up to the Big Game, NFL Media programming will be located at the Tampa Convention Center (where Radio Row, the media center, and Thursday's Half Time Show press conference are held) and at nearby Tampa General Hospital, which is serving as the main location for Super Bowl Live throughout this week.
Tampa General Hospital is a great location for us, says Shaw. It's got a beautiful view of Tampa. Plus, it has an overhang for any [inclement] weather. We really feel like we carved out a nice spot for Super Bowl Live there.
In addition, NFL Media has a small setup at Amalie Arena for the commissioner's press conference on Thursday and has reporters at the Buccaneers' and Chiefs' hotels.
Dedicated crews are assigned to each location, and strict limitations restrict people from moving from set to set. In addition, many meetings that would normally be in-person are being held virtually or have been eliminated. And, of course, consistent testing, mask-wearing, and social distancing have all become the way of life for the NFL Media team.
We have COVID managers onsite everywhere, says Shaw, and we've spread out people so that you don't have too many people in any one room. In case we have a positive case, it doesn't take out a whole crew. Typically, our crew members are jumping from one place to another, but, this year, we dedicated crews to each location, and they stay put. Everybody has adjusted really well, though, and is doing a phenomenal job to keep each other safe.
In the Compound: Game Creek Glory Serves as Home Base Game Creek Glory is onsite this week for NFL Media
Game Creek Glory is onsite this week to capture camera/audio paths and pass them through to Culver. On game day, NFL Media will implement a precut workflow, with director Steve Beim located in the truck for Game Day Morning and Game Day Final to precut cameras. All camera sources from postgame press conferences and various events will still be delivered discretely to Culver along with this precut feed for the primary studio show.
In addition to Game Creek Glory, NFL Media has rolled out HFI Flex 11 support unit at the stadium, a pair of American Satellite Uplink production/uplink trucks at the convention center and Tampa General, respectively, and Digital Comm Link's K2 Ku-band uplink truck. LTN is on hand with its facilities to handle encoding and muxing.
NFL Media Director, Media Operations, Adam Acone and Senior Manager, Remote Technical Operations, Bjorn Estlund are once again overseeing the operation onsite for Super Bowl Week.
NFL Media has established direct fiber circuits between the locations and Culver, using Lumen Technologies and The Switch for redundancy, including six fibers (each with 10 muxes) handling 60 signals plus 100-MB data lines between the stadium and Culver. The convention center, Tampa General, and Amalie Arena also have multi-fiber paths running to Culver. NFL Media's stadium presence is connected
North America Stories
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13 with guest ...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
04/12/2025
Lightware, a global specialist in AV connectivity, is looking back on a year defined by new advancements, strong collaboration and continued growth. Across the ...
04/12/2025
Riedel Communications today announced a new partnership with Haivision, a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual col...
04/12/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) and Normann Engineering today announced a major milestone in their strategic collaboration, celebrating 20 successful broadband deployme...
04/12/2025
Creative software developer Foundry today announced Mari 7.5, the latest iteration of its artist-friendly paint toolset that can handle large, detailed assets w...
04/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS), a leading provider of wireless audio solutions and RF management, was on site at Dreamforce 2025 in San Francisco providing...
04/12/2025
LTN's purpose-built IP video network brings all-movie diginet to over 100 stations and streaming platforms in just three months while eliminating satellite ...
04/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with ThinkAnalytics, the global leader in AI-powered data a...
04/12/2025
The HELM, a global expert in cinematic live broadcast and high-end production workflows, has signed a partnership agreement with Keslow Camera, one of North Ame...
04/12/2025
At ISE 2026, LiveU will showcase its expanded IP-video EcoSystem, enabling broadcasters, sports, production companies and pro-AV professionals to share their st...
04/12/2025
Since the beginning of commercial television, advertising has been a key part of broadcasting. Over the years, the technology for inserting ads into programs ha...
04/12/2025
MUNICH and MILAN Warner Bros. Discovery said HBO Max is expanding into Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein on Jan. 13, 2026, and ...
04/12/2025
SAN FRANCISCO AudioShake has launched its first streaming-capable software development kits (SDKs) designed specifically for real-time music detection and copyr...
04/12/2025
NASHVILLE The mobile and REMI production company TNDV has announced that it headed south into Mexico to live-produce the three-day 2025 Zane Grey Championship P...
04/12/2025
BURBANK, Calif. Hollywood Professionals Association Executive Director Phil Kubel has stepped down from the organization to pursue new opportunities, the group ...
04/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission said it has closed 2,048 inactive proceedings, the largest number of dormant dockets ever terminated in a singl...
04/12/2025
A new tech blog from Netflix highlights the importance of the AV1 open video codec, which now powers about 30% of the platform's streaming and discusses a v...
Super Bowl LV: NFL Media Leans on Culver City HQ for Week-Long Extravaganza in Tampa With safety as top priority, NFL Media reduced its on-site Super Bowl footprint By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
