Live From 2022 NFL Draft: NFL Media Stitches Together City-Wide Canvas With Powerful Connectivity, Broadcast Tech

Live From 2022 NFL Draft: NFL Media Stitches Together City-Wide Canvas With Powerful Connectivity, Broadcast Tech The league's centerpiece is located on the waters of the Bellagio Fountain and Caesars Palace By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor

Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 4:16 pm

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Whether it's the arrival of the Raiders in 2020, the Pro Bowl in 2021, or the future site of Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, Las Vegas has become a major hub of activity for the National Football League. Always seen as one of the more ambitious productions on the league's calendar, the 2022 NFL Draft is in Sin City this weekend. Both at-home and in-person fans will be dazzled and entertained, and that's a testament to the hard work of NFL Media's production and operations teams.

NFL Media's Dave Shaw (left) and Adam Acone on the floating set at the Bellagio Fountain and Caesars Palace

We try to have a presence that shows off the flavor of the city, says Dave Shaw, VP/head of media operations, NFL Media. It's going to be an amazing show, and we've given our fans a really great event to enjoy.

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Planning in the Desert: Operations Mixes New Ideas With 2020's Original Idea Every single NFL Draft is meticulously sketched out in advance, but this year's edition has had the longest run time in terms of planning. It was slated to be held in April 2020, and NFL Media Senior Director, Media Operations, Adam Acone and the rest of his team began making the blueprint for this spectacle in early 2019. After numerous site surveys of locations both on and off the Strip, the crew began the next stage of making the concept into reality. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the plan and prevented further progress on the project, going to a fully virtual Draft. Even though the logistics, digital renderings, and original ideas aged over the two years, the focus on the Las Vegas project remained the same.

The Red Carpet show and other entertainment will set the scene on South Las Vegas Blvd.

We started coming back here in early fall of 2021, and much of the setup was still the same, says Acone. The overall planning from an events perspective hadn't changed much, but the Bellagio Fountain became our anchor to showcase Las Vegas.

Some highlights from the 2020 plan didn't make it into the final edition, including players' being escorted to the Red Carpet stage by boat. Although this item was left on the cutting-room floor, NFL Media is taking highly-visible real estate on the corner of South Las Vegas Boulevard and West Flamingo Road. The activation's centerpiece is a large stage that floats in front of the famous fountain. The structure will host the pre-Draft Red Carpet and other performances that capture the essence and eccentricity of the city. Down the road, NFL Network's main set is another stage floating above the surface of the water with the fa ade of Caesars Palace as a dramatic backdrop. Through diligent work with Filmwerks, which constructed both sets, and a team of specialists who scuba-dive underwater to maintain the Bellagio Fountains, the set gradually came into being piece by piece.

NFL Network's Draft set will be in the southwest corner of the Draft theater.

This will be the first time that any media has ever built a studio set on the fountains, adds Acone. We're really excited about that opportunity.

The setup will be the home of NFL Network's main broadcast crew, featuring 2022 Sports Emmy nominee and the longest-tenured current Draft host, Rich Eisen; Draft expert Daniel Jeremiah, analyst and CBS's No. 2 NFL team analyst Charles Davis, and Stanford Head Coach David Shaw. The quartet will report live from the desk starting at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 28. Coach Shaw will be replaced by Fox Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt on Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. ET. Peter Schrager will assume Klatt's role for coverage starting at noon on Saturday, April 30.

A jib camera on the sidewalk is only one of many cameras at the Bellagio Fountain location.

The scenes at the Bellagio Fountain and Caesars Palace are gaining a lot of attention, but it's not the only fixture that NFL Media has planned for covering the league's next class of superstars. Positioned adjacent to the High Roller - a 550-ft.-tall, 520-ft.-diameter Ferris wheel - the network will have another set with the main Draft stage as its backdrop. Built with the help of event planner C3, this structure will host Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner and Klatt on Thursday night and Chris Rose and Schrager on Friday night.

NFL Media's Jessica Lee is handling 53 total virtual feeds of team Draft rooms and remote prospects.

From a planning perspective, stitching these two locations together was a concern. Notes Acone, Our primary challenge is connecting both sets to make it a seamless experience for fans watching at home.

Tech Foundation: 36 Onsite Cameras Include Live Drone, Shallow-Depth-of-Field To cover the large area, NFL Media is deploying a handful of technologies for its onsite studio shows. A total of 46 cameras - 36 dedicated, 10 shared with ESPN - will be deployed in Las Vegas, with some of the more notable toys providing different angles on the festivities. At the Bellagio Fountain and Caesars Palace, a live drone will be flown by Ka

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2022/04/28/live-from-2022-nfl-draft-nfl-me...
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