Live from Super Bowl LIII: NFL Films Ready to Serve Up World Feed; Record Number of Rights Holders On Site

Live from Super Bowl LIII: NFL Films Ready to Serve Up World Feed; Record Number of Rights Holders On Site By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Saturday, February 2, 2019 - 4:34 pm

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The NFL Films world feed of Super Bowl LIII will once again play a big role around the world as it will ultimately be seen in more than 180 countries and territories and in 25 languages. And in a sign of the game's growing popularity outside of the U.S. broadcasters from 25 countries will be on site, the most ever. Twelve of them will actually have studios while another 13 will be commentary only.

Lauren Bartomioli, NFL Films, manager, international production operations, and

Jeff Lombardi, NFL Films, senior director, international production operations.

They will do anything from a full show with their own cameras and trucks to just radio with commentary back to their host facility, says Jeff Lombardi, NFL, senior director of international production.

Countries broadcasting the game with on-site crews include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and the United Kingdom and Lombardi said there was interest from others to do more as well.

We reached studio capacity early on, in October, and then people asked about wanting to expand and bring in a couple of cameras and do a studio show, he says. Unfortunately, we had to turn them away or tweak their commentary space to use a Cueball camera rather than being able to do a two-camera shoot.

Lombardi says the interest from foreign rights holders depends on everything from where the game is being played to the global economy. But also helping is what the NFL production team is doing with respect to things like fiber deployments that can get more signals to more locations.

That brings our costs down so we can offer a better rate to the broadcast partners, he says.

The vast majority of international viewers will be treated to a world feed that is built around the CBS clean feed. The NFL team has four cameras and then isos for cutaways during commercial breaks or CBS elements that are sponsored. Joe Zucco will direct while Brian Hennessey will serve as producer, a role they have embraced over the past few years.

The CBS commercial breaks vary in timing, but we will make all of ours 90 second and then our announcers, Bob Papa and Charles Davis, can vamp during those breaks and broadcasters can use that as a guide track or use it in their broadcast.

NHK is on site producing the game from its NHK-K4 production unit which has an Evertz router, a Sony MVS-8000X production switcher, and a Lawo audio console.

NHK is always trying to push the envelope with things like 4K or even 8K, says Lombardi. Here they will font their own graphics and they are also looking to use specific camera angles.

Televisa is another broadcaster that has stepped up their game as they are on site with their own Televisa production unit as well as an uplink.

Televisa is going to incorporate their own Phantom slo-mo camera that is positioned in the low end zone position into their broadcasts, adds Lombardi.

The biggest change on the international front is ESPN International which is on site working in NEP EN2 A and B units and Game Creek Video's Spirit A and B units.

They've really expanded this year as they have brought in the announce crew for Monday Night Football' for the ESPN Australia feed, says Lombardi. ESPN Brazil is doing a commentary show only as they will downlink the feed in Brazil while ESPN Latin America will font their own graphics from here.

BBC is calling the Gracie truck from Harb Production Services home and it will carry the CBS broadcast rather than the world feed.

They have turned their announce booth into a makeshift studio where they will do the pre-game, quarter breaks, and commercial breaks from on site, says Lombardi. But during the broadcast BBC viewers will hear [CBS announcers] Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.

Broadcasters on site will produce their coverage in a total of 10 languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Canadian French, Danish, English, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. And the Super Bowl LIII Cybercast, which is streamed SuperBowl.com, SiriusXM Radio, and TuneIn, will offer listeners nine languages: Mandarin Chinese, Canadian French, Danish, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

roducing a unique SB World Feed, while servicing 25+ int'l broadcast partners from the stadium, is no small task. Having the right boots on the ground, with such a hard-working team working towards a single goal, is what makes all of it possible.

We have a really good team here, says Lombardi. Producing a unique Super Bowl world feed while servicing more than 25 international broadcast partners from the stadium is no small task. Having the right boots on the ground with such a hard working team working towards a single goal is what makes all of it possible.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/02/02/live-from-super-bowl-liii-nfl-f...
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