
MLB Postseason: Turner Sports Sets Up Onsite Presence for Wild Card, Will Debut Base Cam in Later Rounds A new national studio show will air at ALDS and ALCS By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - 11:43 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Over the past week, Turner Sports has made a massive splash in the Major League Baseball waters. Following its recent seven-year multimedia-rights extension through 2028, the broadcaster is making its onsite return to the compound at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL, for the AL Wild Card series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. In addition, a studio show and Base Cam will be introduced during the American League Division Series (ALDS) and American League Championship Series (ALCS).
It has taken a good bit of coordination with Major League Baseball, says Chris Brown, VP, operations and technology, Turner Sports. We're looking forward to capturing every shot and every angle and producing the postseason in a way that baseball fans are used to.
At the Ballpark: Production Crews Return to a Familiar Setting The past two months have been new territory for Turner Sports production and operations teams. Over the course of the 2020 regular season, many networks have relied on RSNs to send footage to their respective production facilities. During this peculiar season, MLB on TBS relied on remote workflows in maintaining consistency on its productions, but now, through diligent work by the league, a majority of staffers will be onsite in Tampa Bay for the duration of the opening series.
Major League Baseball decided to host the Wild Card in the higher seed's hometown. In some respects, it's easy to do because waiting to figure out [where we're going] is something we face every year, Brown points out. In a world where you'd like to try to implement COVID-19 testing and things like that, it creates some logistical challenges.
To adhere to health and safety protocols, the compound will consist of multiple mobile production units to ensure necessary social distancing. For each five-game set of the ALDS, each locale will have its own dedicated trucks. In San Diego, NEP TS2 and Supershooter 8 (the company's IP-based unit launched in late 2019) will handle the production; in Los Angeles, NEP ND7 A, B, C, and D will be onsite. The ALDS compound in San Diego will remain until the conclusion of the ALCS since the penultimate series also is taking place in Petco Park.
Although this isn't the first time games have been produced in a traditional way since the resumption of sports (the team recently left the NBA bubble in Orlando after the conclusion of the Western Conference Finals on Saturday, Sept. 26), this will be the first instance when the broadcaster's MLB staffers will be onsite to produce a game since Game 4 of the 2019 NLCS.
It's going to be a massive shift, Brown says, because we're going from a [remote production] where signals were being sent back to Atlanta for us to cut a show to actually being back onsite again. We're all pretty excited to be back on the ground and produce coverage in the way that we would like.
In the Base Path: Base Cam Offers Viewers a Baserunner's POV As the main headliner of Turner's MLB postseason, Base Cam will offer a unique vantage point near the end of the postseason coverage. Inserted at the 45-degree angle of any given base, two cameras (an incoming view and an outgoing view) will enable fans to see up and down the baselines and between the base paths during different parts of the game, including double plays, tagging up after a flyball, and close plays that involve a judgment call by the umpire.
Philosophically, we're about creating as much access to the players, the game, and the field as possible, says Turner Sports EVP/Chief Content Officer Craig Barry. Over the course of the last couple of years, we were trying to be really thoughtful about technology or enhancements that would bring editorial value to the broadcast.
Before signing off on the end product, Barry and company conducted ample testing and experimenting, which included use in minor-league contests and offline use during a handful of major-league games.
We went through this [testing] process with MLB to see if the camera was stable and making sure that the picture quality was good, he adds. We'll start slow and then ramp it up for the ALCS.
For this gradual approach, each ALDS will include a Base Cam setup in two of the three possible bases. For the ALCS, with the team more comfortable from a production perspective and with more available equipment, all three bases will have access to this technology.
You try to think about all the variations that the camera will work for, says Barry, but the truth is, some other variation could bubble up as we start to use this camera. We may also capture a great play at shortstop or a diving play right near the base, so it continues to be an experiment and an innovation that we think will both add value and bring the fan closer to the field.
Additional Firepower: Super Slo-Mos, Potential Onfield RF Handheld By shifting back to how sports were conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Turner has full rein over the technologies deployed inside each stadium.
After deploying a standard tech arsenal during the AL Wild Card round, Turner will expand its camera fleet for ALDS and ALCS games. The Base Cam will have a prominent position, but the team will use five cameras with super-slow-motion capabilities. In addition, the production will feature the graphics and other onscreen information that MLB on TBS has become known for, including Pitchcast and Statcast integrations.
New MLB on TBS studio show will debut during the American League Division Series.
Enhancements in
North America Stories
08/04/2026
The September 19, 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a group visit to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, where participants explored exhibits showcasing the art...
08/04/2026
The L3Harris HBTSS satellite is proven on orbit, successfully demonstrating trac...
08/04/2026
Image Credit: NASA. Artist rendering of a space communications satellite in orbit, representative of the resilient, multiband infrastructure supporting mission ...
08/04/2026
Latest evaluation validates image quality, Inertial Navigation System performance and long-range tracking in operational flight conditions....
08/04/2026
New Gracenote study finds behavioral change well underway, but trust in AI-gener...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Integration eliminates ingest bottlenecks by ensuring content is immediately usable across cloud and hybrid editorial workflows. See it at NAB 2026.
Nevada Cit...
08/04/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the commercial availability of Dalia, its media-aware, agentic AI...
08/04/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced Senza Ignite, a cloud-based platform that transforms existing connected devices through a single firmw...
08/04/2026
Modernised architecture increases operational control and agility, while reducing cost and simplifying nationwide media transport across affiliates and news bur...
08/04/2026
Company to Feature DMX Dual Relay, High-Density 48-Channel Relay Panels, and New Private Label Power Program
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of innovative ele...
08/04/2026
Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a European media technology and services partner, today announces a technology partnership with BCNEXXT, a Netherlands-based c...
08/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media today announced the expansion of its Master Control Room (MCR) facility in Riga, Latvia, establishing it as one of the most advanced and...
08/04/2026
Leading video solutions provider Synamedia is back at The 2026 NAB Show with innovations that connect tomorrows audiences today. On display will be a range of t...
08/04/2026
COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
Brie Clayton April 8, 2026
0 Comments
Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
March 17, 2026COW ...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Marshall Electronics introduces its latest POV camera with the new CV376 Compact NDI |HX3 HDMI POV Camera at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). Designed for versatile 4K c...
08/04/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, enables interoperable live video workflows across multi-vendor environments, helping broadcast...
08/04/2026
Back to All News
Agent from Above' Celebrates Divine Ascent to Global Rank...
08/04/2026
Back to All News
Official Poster Revealed for My Two Cents, the New Animated Se...
08/04/2026
Scripps Research scientists uncover new mechanism cancer cells use to survive DNA damage Discovery reshapes understanding of how tumor cells repair broken DNA, ...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA will launch a refinement to the UHK-X700 and UHK-X750 3-CMOS -in. UHD cameras in the UNICAM XE series plus two new 7-in. viewfinders at NAB 2026 in...
07/04/2026
The NAB Leadership Foundation and NAB PILOT will host a career mixer for technology students at NAB Show 2026 on April 18, 5-6:30 p.m., North Hall, Room N225/22...
07/04/2026
Audinate Group Limited and Futuresource Consulting have published results from a...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has announced the commercial availability of its Content Fabric Bucharest...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has unveiled a new architecture for video AI and an updated Eluvio Video Intelligence Editor (EVIE) ahead of NAB Show 2026. Eluvio AI runs analysis and i...
07/04/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a deal with Sky New Zealand...
07/04/2026
The NBA and Enjoy Basketball, the digital media company co-founded by YouTube cr...
07/04/2026
The 4,000-sq.-ft. space in Frisco, TX, has produced live and packaged programmin...
07/04/2026
What began as a referee training tool is evolving into a powerful production ass...
07/04/2026
Manifold Technologies will announce at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C.1808) that its manifold CLOUD platform will be available as a deployable application within NEP Pl...
07/04/2026
Shaquille O'Neal, Authentic Brands Group, and TNT Sports, in partnership wit...
07/04/2026
Telos Alliance will debut the Omnia XII, a new FM/HD/DAB audio processor, at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas.
Built on a 2RU hardware platform, Omnia XII features a...
07/04/2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W1701), with demonstrations, speaking sessions, and int...
07/04/2026
Synamedia will demonstrate AI by Quortex at NAB Show 2026, a framework that applies AI capabilities to video workflows on demand rather than continuously. The s...
07/04/2026
TVNewsCheck will present its 15th annual Women in Technology Awards on Tuesday, April 21, at 5 p.m. PT at NAB Show, in the Media and Entertainment Theater (W146...
07/04/2026
Akta will demonstrate its AI video platform at NAB Show 2026, highlighting new capabilities in media processing and vertical video formatting alongside its exis...
07/04/2026
ESPN and Disney have announced the launch of ESPN on Disney in Europe and select Asia-Pacific markets, bringing the offering to 53 countries and territories a...
07/04/2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, April 7, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2026 Native Lab, the signature initiative of the ...
07/04/2026
The November 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a recent YEP Coffee Chat, offering members the chance to connect with industry professionals in an informal setting ...
07/04/2026
The December 2025 YEP Newsletter includes a Spotlight on Emily Vail, showcasing her career journey and work in the industry, alongside Mentorship Reflections by...
07/04/2026
Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) telescope operated...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Catgut Sound Owner and Production Sound Mixer Chris Welcker, CAS, has built a career at the intersection of music and film. A former musician and composer, Welc...