Commitment to Storytelling, Flexible Facilities Keep San Francisco 49ers on Cutting Edge of Team Video Operations 49ers Studios' Robert Alberino, Aron Kennedy offer peek inside impressive infrastructure By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 - 3:09 pm
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Story Highlights
Robert Alberino Jr. is a football lifer, dirtying his hands and knees not with a set of pads on his shoulders but, rather, with the weight of a video camera.
49ers Studios, the in-house media-production team of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, features robust technology for video production, including this studio in Levi's Stadium that can be converted to shoot content in seven positions.
Schooled on the streets of Philadelphia and the studios of Steve Sabol, Alberino has forever altered the video-production landscape. (Okay, okay, this might be a little dramatic, but that's the way Alberino likes it). In a media era that seems to reward churning out quantity, he remains a staunch disciple of the Church of Quality.
High-end storytelling is his mantra and plays a major role in the direction of the video-production group he leads as VP/executive producer for the San Francisco 49ers.
Football's Storytelling Roots
With a career in which he has built up and overseen in-house media operations at the Kansas City Chiefs (2010-13) and the Philadelphia Eagles (1997-2010) after cutting his teeth as a young editor at NFL Films (working under the late great Sabol), Alberino is a key figure in the history of the NFL video industry. He has seen the concept of team-produced media from the days of its early infancy. In fact, his roots at NFL Films have played an incalculable role in molding the approach to video storytelling that he instills in his producers today.
To this day, there is not a time when I don't think What would [Sabol] do?' says Alberino. How would he create? How would he take music and emotion and cultivate this incredible product that we have? My entire philosophy is based on what NFL Films would do: not news and fast food but filet mignon made with an incredible soundtrack and imagery. Storytelling.
MORE: 49ers' Robert Alberino Talks Video Strategy on the latest episode of The SVG Podcast
It's the philosophy he has worked to instill in the organization since he came to town in spring 2013. His calling was to build the 49ers in-house media operations, with the understanding that a brand-spanking-new stadium would soon be completed.
Today, Levi's Stadium is one of the top sports facilities in the country, and his staff has grown to approximately 35 strong, led by Director, Game Day Production and Broadcast Operations, Aron Kennedy; Director, Production, Wil Blackwell; Director, Digital and Social Media Marketing, Meghan Ryan; and Art Director Aaron Llavore. Everything - from production to digital media to social media, creative, and marketing - falls under Alberino's purview. Basically, any piece of content that meets the eyes of a fan is produced by his team.
We believe that we are the direct connect to the fan, he says. We are the window to the world.
How Flexibility Keeps 49ers Studios on the Technological Forefront
Alberino's approach to media and storytelling began with establishing a solid technological infrastructure, and anyone who has built out a major video facility gets it: you have to make your one shot count because it might be the only one you get.
That's where Alberino called on the help of Kennedy. A longtime friend and a former colleague, he joined Alberino in the Bay Area in winter 2013. Armed with a robust budget, the two laid the groundwork for what keeps Levi's Stadium and 49ers Studios humming at a high level today.
San Francisco 49ers' Aron Kennedy (left) and Robert Alberino Jr. built an infrastructure designed to keep 49ers Studios nimble.
For Kennedy, the key was to keep his facilities nimble enough to meet the needs of any major outside league or broadcaster that might want to push the envelope - be it WWE's Wrestlemania or the NHL's Stadium Series (both of which were here in 2015), CBS and Super Bowl 50 (which rolled into town in 2016), or the College Football Playoff National Championship Game (just last month).
The technological key to 49ers Studios' success rests in its flexibility to accommodate future growth and its ability to welcome in those major outside events. That is attributed to the investment in and commitment to an infrastructure built around single-mode and SMPTE fiber.
The vision to implement all of that back in 2013, says Kennedy, was very forward-thinking.
Today, 49ers Studios remains built around a baseband core but with a conscious push to begin branching out into IP. The rack room inside the Levi's Stadium control room features an Evertz Magnum Unified Facility Control system (with Vistalink Pro for monitoring) and an Evertz EQX router. Recently, the 49ers installed new Evertz EQX-IP cards (providing 32 IPGs in and out) to support future IP-based workflows.
Kennedy acknowledges that it doesn't make sense to go all-in on IP just yet, although the recent ratification of the SMPTE 2110 standard does have the industry moving in the right direction.
We're not going to rip everything out and go all IP-based video at this point, he says. Maybe in five, six years when we redo everything. I wanted to have that ability to add equipment that is IP-based instead of SDI-based. Now we have the best of both worlds.
Although the Levi's Stadium videoboard is not a 4K screen, 49ers Studios has worked in some 4K for replay and high-quality archival content. The main control room has five Evertz DreamCatcher replay systems and a series of Sony-based gear that is very 4K-friendly. In addition to the Sony MVS-7000X producti
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Commitment to Storytelling, Flexible Facilities Keep San Francisco 49ers on Cutting Edge of Team Video Operations 49ers Studios' Robert Alberino, Aron Kennedy offer peek inside impressive infrastructure By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
