As Pac-12 Schools Ride High in NCAA Men's Tourney, Network Reflects on Unusual Season Pandemic drives decentralized production, increased efficiency By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, March 23, 2021 - 11:49 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Pac-12 Networks' coverage this month of the 2021 Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament, at T-Mobile Arena, and the Women's Tournament, from Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas was another achievement for a network that will ultimately produce about 425 events this academic year. Though maybe half what the network usually produces, it's an accomplishment, given how things were at a standstill for the conference last fall.
Pac-12 Networks will have produced 425 events this academic year, fewer than in pre-pandemic years.
The basketball season was a huge undertaking and fascinating because, every day, things were moving - dates, opponents, and venues, says Larry Meyers, VP, content, Pac-12 Networks. It has been a battle, but everybody just kept going and learned how to work from home and, I'd add, very successfully. And we're not done.
The centerpiece of the two tournaments was NEP Mira M12 mobile production unit, which operated more as a contribution center than a full-fledged production unit because the Pac-12 Networks team produced the coverage from its facility in San Francisco. Each game was produced with six operated cameras and two robos, and onsite personnel included truck engineers, two A2s, a tech manager, utility, and field producer. The announcers also were onsite.
Transmission from Vegas involved units that incorporated encoding and other transmission gear.
We have two shipping units that are self-engineered, self-integrated, and serve as the demarcation networking points for both the conference's digital needs and ours, says Meyers. Our encoder system hasn't changed that much as we continue to use JPEG2000 because of its inherent low latency.
The two kits transported all audio, video, data, and comms signals between Mandalay Bay, T-Mobile Arena, and San Francisco, with most signals outbound from Vegas.
Pac-12 Networks Broadcast Engineer Emery Hudson at work in San Francisco
In San Francisco, every control room was in use: the director, technical director, and producer were in one control room, and statisticians were located in a second. On a Zoom call with announcers in Vegas, the statistician would hold up stats to the screen, and the announcers would give a thumbs up when they saw it. The bullpen area in San Francisco was home to graphics and the EVS slo-mo operator.
With only an hour between games, according to Glen Stilwell, senior audio operations manager, Pac-12 Networks, the biggest challenge was getting all IFBs, PLs, tape machines, and panels swapped out when coverage changed between Pac-12 Network and ESPN.
Jumping back and forth is a really intense 45 minutes, he says. I'm a big believer in checklists.
This year's 425 events are produced out of a mix of Gravity Media facilities, some NEP trucks, and, occasionally, a scoreboard-control room.
Lessons From Pandemic Productions There have been plenty of lessons this past year, including the need to innovate and learn new ways of working with partners like ESPN and Fox.
A number of games for ESPN and Fox were produced out of our facility, says Meyers. We hadn't done that before. We're glad to have them in the building while Gravity provided the hardware and crews at the event site. We provide the controls and crews at our end.
Pac-12 also makes use of robust scoreboard-control rooms and the production team working there. We can basically have them do the productions for us, notes Meyers. We also will use a ProAngle Media or some other small-footprint, self-contained production system.
Pac-12 Networks A1 Andy Roundy works on a Calrec Summa audio console at the Pac-12 Networks facility in San Francisco.
For on-campus productions that require a production vehicle, Gravity Media Sprinter vans have built-in encoders compatible with Pac-12 Networks encoders. Setup requires simply camera and audio setup and signals flowing over the fiber network that connects the 12 campuses to the Pac-12 facility.
Looking ahead, Meyers says, the expectation is that, next fall, the network will be back to delivering more than 850 events. That's what we do in a normal academic year, and we have every expectation that that will be the case starting in August.
Decentralized production will be more prevalent, he adds, noting that cloud-based production is starting to become a reality. You can see it evolve.
The goal is to continue to drive efficiency, allowing as many sports as possible to get exposure.
It's good for the school's program, recruiting, and fundraising, the athletes' family relationships, and alumni relationships, he explains. If we can do these productions in a more efficient manner, that means more will get on-air.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
As Pac-12 Schools Ride High in NCAA Men's Tourney, Network Reflects on Unusual Season Pandemic drives decentralized production, increased efficiency By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
