MLB 2024: MLB Network Showcase Opts for Secaucus-Based Remote Production The league's production arm marks 15th-anniversary season with packed schedule By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 12:38 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2024 MLB regular season begins today, and, with storylines galore around the league, the Casamigos Tequila MLB Network Showcase schedule will once again offer 26 games. Besides providing services and infrastructure for four international series, production and operations for Apple TV's third season of Friday Night Baseball, and studio programming at tentpole events like MLB at Rickwood Field on June 20 and MLB All-Star at Globe Life Field in mid July, MLB Network is deploying a Secaucus, NJ-based remote-production model that relies on the onsite trucks and personnel of the clubs' regional sports networks.
Jason [Hedgcock, senior director, remote technical operations, MLB Network] and his team have been incredibly innovative and came up with this workflow to ensure the success of our [international] broadcasts, says Susan Stone, SVP, operations and engineering, MLB Network. [This workflow] is how we'll be handling Showcase this year.
Green-Lighted: New Workflow Refined on MLB Dominican Republic, Seoul Series MLB Network's revamped remote-production model was first used for Red Sox vs. Rays during the MLB Dominican Republic Series March 9-10.
MLB Network's live game coverage on Opening Day begins with the St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at 4 p.m. ET, but the production method used to distribute the game was tested earlier this month. The 30 clubs and their respective RSNs were in full swing throughout March with Spring Training games, but four teams - Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres - played two games in other countries.
The most notable matchups, the March 20-21 MLB Seoul Series featuring two National League West rivals, put the reimagined remote-production strategy to the test to serve the needs of PADRES.TV, Spectrum SportsNet LA, and ESPN in the U.S. and TV Asahi and NHK abroad. Building on that experience, the setup features a flypack sending feeds from trucks of the home-team RSN to Secaucus, an onsite Dante system for audio, and cloud-based BitFire software. (In South Korea, instead of a flypack, the team used a renovated 30- x 8-ft. shipping container positioned outside Gocheok Sky Dome.)
We wanted to utilize the robust facilities that we have available in our studios, Hedgcock explains. We took a raw MADI feed and video feeds from the host truck, but we didn't need to take the host truck offline while faxing for our show. We developed a system that allows us to give all our rightsholders their own program feeds, and comms were unique to each network.
The remote workflow went overseas to help ESPN, PADRES.TV, and Spectrum SportsNet LA during the MLB Seoul Series March 20-21.
The workflow was initially tested on the Red Sox-Rays' matchup during the March 9-10 MLB Dominican Series. The games were available to fans across the nation on MLB Network, but Boston-area fans were able to view them on NESN. During these exhibition games, video signals from NESN were used to remotely produce the domestic feed from Secaucus. A similar workflow was also used for games played at Taichung International Baseball Stadium in Taiwan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. For the highly anticipated MLB Seoul Series, the turnaround time was quite impressive despite the nearly 7,000-mile distance between the stadium and the MLB Network facility.
It was a big effort to reduce latency to be sub-2-second round trip for elements coming from South Korea to the U.S. and back, says Hedgcock. Our [remote] comms was no different from how they are inside an onsite mobile unit. In fact, the show director for PADRES.TV sat in the shipping container in Seoul and was able to direct his team in their dedicated mobile unit that was parked at Petco Park in San Diego.
Going Remote: RSN Trucks, MLBN Flypack Sends Feeds to Secaucus After the two successful international series, MLB Network is relying on this workflow for its entire Showcase schedule. Instead of deploying this model for a world-feed production for international rightsholders, however, MLB Network will leverage the onsite mobile units of each team's RSN or the infrastructure of MLB Local Media for games featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and Padres. This iteration of the workflow builds off the one deployed during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
Marking Baseball Eve, the MLB Network team in Secaucus, NJ, produced nine studio shows in one day on March 27.
Remote workflows have increased greatly since the pandemic, notes Hedgcock, but something that needs improving is making those workflows replicable for the whole season. [The industry] sort of rushed into it, but, now that we've had time to digest and refine things, we had to make the user experience palatable without crushing the home-show truck. Working hand in hand with our broadcast partners, we'll look to combine the video and audio feeds in the most efficient and timely manner possible.
The biggest change from COVID-era productions is that all talent, including play-by-play announcers and analysts, will be in the booth at each ballpark. For Cardinals-Dodgers, this means that play-by-play announcer Bob Costas, analyst Dan Plesac, and reporter Jon Morosi will be at Dodgers Stadium on Thursday afternoon. Besides the main announce team, a handful of veteran talent will be used throughout the year, including Matt Vasgersian and Tom Verducci.
With the broadcast talent that we have, I think it's important to have them onsite, explains Chris Pfeiffer, VP, live events, MLB Network.
