
CFP National Championship 2025: Van Wagner To Hype Up Buckeyes, Fighting Irish Fans From New IP-Based Control Room Facility was upgraded prior to latest Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United seasons By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Monday, January 20, 2025 - 11:33 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Fans of the two best college football programs in the nation - the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish - will fill Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium tonight for the title game of the College Football Playoff National Championship. The venue will be alive with excitement, and the Van Wagner crew will fire up the fans even more with a videoboard show from a new IP-based control room.
The in-venue production team during rehearsals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium over the weekend
This has been one of our lighter shipments of equipment because of the new workflows, says Patrick Stedman, tech manager, Van Wagner. The building can pretty much handle most of what we need.
IP-Driven Show: Team Adapts to New SMPTE 2110 Workflows Mercedes-Benz Stadium isn't unfamiliar territory for Van Wagner. The in-venue-production company played a role in back-to-back major events shortly after the stadium opened in 2017: the CFP National Championship in 2018 and Super Bowl LIII in 2019. A lot of the LLED video displays are still the same, including the massive Halo Board above the playing surface, but the behind-the-scenes workflows received an upgrade after the conclusion of the 2023 NFL season. Among the changes are routers upgraded to SMPTE 2110, new Ross Video Acuity production switchers, and a communications backbone bolstered with 35 Riedel Bolero beltpacks.
I supported their NFL games for the Falcons during the 2023 season, so I know the facility relatively well, says Stedman. The bulk of their workflows went to IP, and they're still in that process: they're building a secondary control room to produce smaller shows without activating their full control room.
The view of the field from the control room
When the venue opened, the massive Halo Board display was one of the largest double-sided LED fixtures in any building. Now seven years old, the stadium is still a huge draw for fans and still requires much coordination and planning in laying out content. After many seasons of Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United games, populating the display and executing a show with it at the center has become easier, but the new IP-centric workflows need to be factored in.
MORE FROM THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
It's All Hands on Deck for ESPN's Massive Production in Atlanta
ESPN To Deliver Main Game Telecast in 4K for the First Time
ESPN's MegaCast Menu Highlighted by REMI Production of Field Pass With The Pat McAfee Show
Inside Ohio State Football's Creative Storytelling at Monday's Title Game
It's an added layer, notes Daniel Zerunyan, senior producer, Van Wagner. There have been little challenges that have taken away from our programming time, but preparation has gone really well. We were lucky that the Falcons didn't have a home game because a bunch of contingency plans were put in place. It wouldn't really impact us if there was a game two weekends ago, but, if there was one this past weekend, we would have been in and out of the control room.
Collaborative Effort: Stadium Staff, Ross Video Offer Helping Hand As with any large-scale show that Van Wagner participates in, the host stadium's internal staff and vendors are crucial to the show's success. In this case, the staffers responsible for Falcons, Atlanta United, and other sports events at Mercedes-Benz Stadium are assisting on the production and operations fronts. From Stedman's point of view, any tech or engineering inquiries have been answered by Chief Broadcast and Network A/V Engineer Cole Gallagher. Zerunyan's team worked with Senior Director/Executive Producer, Game Presentation and Stadium Productions, Julia Chongarlides, but the main production contact has been Producer, Third Party Events/Game Presentation, Steve Smith.
The IP-based control room will house Van Wagner's crew as well as staffers from the stadium.
A key contributor to many of Van Wagner's shows, Ross Video Senior Graphic Programmer, Content and Workflow, Sports and Live Events, Josh Weber is onsite to manage and troubleshoot graphics-related issues.
Josh has been helping us on the content side of things for the last few years, including at the NCAA Final Four, says Zerunyan. [The stadium] has full-timers that handle a lot of their XPression [solutions], but he's working with their in-house team and being our lead [contact] that reports to their team.
Telling the Story: Production Folds-In Content From Each Program's Postseason Run The culmination of the college football season is an opportune time to tell the fans in the stands how each university got to the championship game. In previous years, Van Wagner would mix in regular-season highlights with footage from their respective semifinal games. In the new era of the 12-team expanded playoffs, Zerunyan and company couldn't possibly fit everything in this short hype video played before kickoff.
We're just going to focus all of our footage from the College Football Playoff and not the regular season, he says. Since they played in the first round [of the bracket], we had more footage to utilize from ESPN and Two Circles, the social team that the CFP hires.
Another view from the control room
With the Halo Board available, Van Wagner is supplementing its open with other elements. An NFL-style venue offers a variety of capabilities for entertainment in the lower bowl, including a top-tier lighting system that adds to the cinematic atmosphere.
We're going with this d
North America Stories
05/06/2026
The university-wide initiative has pushed their creative content to a new level
Although collegiate athletics at a single institution can contain numerous spo...
05/06/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
05/06/2026
Synamedia has announced that Lumine Group has agreed to acquire its Video Network business. The company is positioning the transition as the start of a new phas...
05/06/2026
Ateme, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), and Scaleway have announced a strategic partnership to deliver a cloud-based media supply chain covering ingest through...
05/06/2026
Audinate has announced three new additions to its Dante AVIO Install adapter series: a 4-Channel Analog Input, a 4-Channel Analog Output, and a 2-Ch In/2-Ch Out...
05/06/2026
Sportradar Group AG has announced a multi-year extension of its exclusive global...
05/06/2026
The M6 Group will broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026 matches live and in Ultra High D...
05/06/2026
The Athletic has announced that PGA TOUR highlights will be integrated into its golf coverage beginning with the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. PGA T...
05/06/2026
When the FIFA World Cup arrives in North America in 2026, it will bring more tha...
05/06/2026
FIFA and DAZN have announced the launch of FIFA exclusively on DAZN, consolidating FIFA's content portfolio within DAZN's sports platform. The move fol...
05/06/2026
Telemundo's exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 G...
05/06/2026
Dolby Laboratories and NBCUniversal have announced that Peacock will stream Tele...
05/06/2026
Formula 1 has announced a 10-year extension to keep the Las Vegas Grand Prix on the F1 calendar through 2037. Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc., Clark County, and the ...
05/06/2026
The broadcast-engineering team overcomes wind, speed, and salt water - and dista...
05/06/2026
Deploying both onsite and remote crews, the company is providing calibrated-came...
05/06/2026
With Inter&Co Stadium unavailable, ESPN's UFL team rebuilt its broadcast pla...
05/06/2026
One of the most exciting and informative events on the SVG annual event calendar is the Regional Sports Production Summit, an annual gathering of industry profe...
05/06/2026
For the race's third year at the historic racetrack, the broadcaster has added cameras and will incorporate multiple drones
The 158th edition of the Belmon...
05/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
05/06/2026
MRI-Simmons and S&P Global Mobility are expanding advanced audience capabilities...
05/06/2026
New Nielsen data shows insurance ad spend grew 11%, while consumers remain highl...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
ASG Promotes Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO
Brie Clayton June 5, 2026
0 Comments
Appointment to Support Engineering Alignment and Client Experi...
05/06/2026
Stargate Studios Colombia Uses DaVinci Resolve Studio for Vertical Microdramas
Brie Clayton June 5, 2026
0 Comments
End to end post in one platform al...
05/06/2026
People Need to Come First When We Use AI
Andy Marken June 5, 2026
0 Comments
It's just surviving. Life's very existence requires destruction....
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
05/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering many of the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced the launch of In-Scene Advertising, a new monetiza...
05/06/2026
Berklee Study Reveals Video Has Become Essential to Music Careers Survey findings show social platforms have become the primary source of music for video cont...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...