Live From CFP National Championship: ESPN's MegaCast Adds New Technologies to Already Packed Arsenal

Live From CFP National Championship: ESPN's MegaCast Adds New Technologies to Already Packed Arsenal This year's highlights include options in 4K, PTZ PylonCams By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor

Monday, January 13, 2020 - 3:51 pm

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ESPN's traditional telecast of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game is one thing, but the alternative and often tech-laden behemoth known as MegaCast is in a whole different area code. Despite more than a dozen options for fans on either side of the Battle of the Tigers, the network has continued to serve up a wealth of new offerings, include one feed in 4K, the debut of Refcast, and flexible PTZ PylonCams.

We have a great relationship with the conferences, schools, and officials, so it's an area where we've been most productive with getting things approved, says Ed Placey, content innovation lead, ESPN. Our relationship has allowed them to trust that we'll be bringing things to the forefront for all of the right reasons and not just to make a quick splash but to make a difference and show how the sport is officiated, with things like replay. The MegaCast has influenced things that we do in the regular season, and it has helped the overall perception of this event and our coverage.

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In the technological barrage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome are a handful of notable appearances. For the first time in the College Football Playoff era, 4K feeds will grace the airwaves. With more efforts on this front in the regular season and during the recent Sugar Bowl, a partnership with Samsung QLED TV will bring Field Pass in this particular format for customers with Comcast, Altice, and DirecTV. For the showing on ESPN2, a pair of duos will call a casual, free-flowing game from field level. Using fan interaction via polling technology from Sparx Technology, Adam Amin and Pat McAfee will man the sidelines of LSU while Steve Levy and Dan Orlovsky reside on Clemson's.

Skycast is just one of the offerings available for fans tuning into ESPN's MegaCast.

Bristol, CT-based Refcast will be leveraging technologies seen in past years but will also provide a new flavor of commentary.

We had done something in 2015 when we re-created a mock replay booth with real replay officials and the exact equipment and feeds that they used, says Placey. We liked that so, in the last couple of months, we spoke about different possibilities. John Vassallo [senior coordinating producer, ESPN] has taken a bit more time with Rogers Redding [officials coordinator, SEC], the officiating community, and the different conference coordinators and got us talking about how interest about the work of officials has never been higher. John Parry from the NFL has really been a talented guy that has taken to putting on a headset and talking about officiating, so we decided to bring four of them [Matt Austin, Judson Howard, Parry, and an additional official] together and give them our cameras that focus on the officiating.

Some of these feeds include a RefCam mounted on the hat of four game officials, up to 10 active PylonCams (including one Line-to-Gain version on each side of the first down line), and a MarkerCam. With these features available to a staff seasoned with officiating knowledge, Placey wants fans tuning into this game to hear an authentic, real-time conversation about the rules being showcased on the field.

We're not going to have a host there to ask them questions, he says. We want them to talk at the officiating level instead of teaching audiences abut officiating. It's about how they communicate and interact with each other rather than if they were being interviewed by someone else. The people who are going to watch this are really into officiating, so we want [the commentators] to use the jargon.

Up, Down, and Around: PTZ Enhances Visual Dimensions of PylonCam

The PylonCam system has slowly become a mainstay on all college-football productions. When Placey and the technical crew were seeking a bit more from this application, they approached a familiar vendor.

We've been working pretty aggressively with C360, who we've been working with for a couple of years when they first demoed some of their products for us, Placey says. We liked the basics of what we saw, but it needed other elements to really make it productive for a live television show. We said, Hey, if you added this and made it capable of doing these things in a quick-turnaround fashion, we'd have a good product.'

In a development that will ultimately benefit both main and secondary experiences, ESPN will be using another iteration of the device.

They accomplished [an upgrade], says Placey, and we ended up putting their camera systems into wireless pylons, which have become Line-to-Gain PylonCams. We had a 1.0 version of that last year with a fixed lens, but now, we have the ability through its internal optics to pan, tilt, and zoom throughout the entire scene.

These new robotic cameras will sit within the pylons along the back line of both end zones. In terms of replays, what used to be captured by luck will now be captured with skill.

We get to see everything that happens in a play, he not

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/01/13/live-from-cfp-national-champion...
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