
NFL Kickoff 2024: CBS Sports Overhauls Studio 43 for NFL Today'; Renames Facility in Honor of Sean McManus Revamped set offers sleek new look, increased flexibility for production team By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, September 6, 2024 - 3:44 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Although most of the buzz around CBS Sports' revamped NFL Today studio show centers on the on-air talent shakeup, there's another notable overhaul that will have just as big of an impact for viewers: a soup-to-nuts redesign of the studio set at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. The newly christened Sean McManus Studio 43 - honoring the recently retired CBS Sports chairman - offers a sleek new look and increased flexibility for the production team.
Photos credit: Mary Kouw/CBS
With new additions to our talent lineup and new technology available out there, we felt it was time to redo the studio to give it a more contemporary and modern look that was also warm and inviting, says Harold Bryant, executive producer & EVP, production, CBS Sports. At the same time, we didn't want to overdo it with the amount of monitors and technology; we wanted to get a good balance between modern and classic. Our goal is to make people feel like the show is continuing to evolve while also sticking to its roots.
The new look had its soft launch last weekend with CBS Sports' College Football Today, but the real debut takes place this Sunday with the season-opening edition of the NFL Today when host James Brown and analysts Bill Cowher, Nate Burleson, JJ Watt, and new addition Matt Ryan go on air. In addition to the NFL Today, Sean McManus Studio 43 will be utilized for a variety of CBS Sports properties including March Madness and college basketball, college football, and studio shows like We Need to Talk.
It's a true renovation from top to bottom, says Tyler Hale, SVP, studio production, CBS Sports. Having this new facility, with the new bells and whistles and a totally new layout, will allow us to present some shows more dynamically and in a more contemporary style. We think it's going to be a great environment for the gang we have on the set now.
Get on Your Feet: Revised Layout Offers More Space to Move and Create The overhaul of the studio - its first in nearly a decade - was completed in just eight months. Although it occupies the same footprint inside the CBS Broadcast Center, the layout was totally rejiggered in an effort to provide the production team additional space and flexibility.
It's not a large studio space compared to a lot of other [major broadcasting facilities], says Bob Matina, director of NFL Today. So one of my objectives was to create more positions for talent to be located. We took our main desk, which has always been facing one of our four walls, moved it so that it's facing a corner. That freed up another wall for us to create a whole other talent position. We want to move around the studio as much as possible and I think we've created a design that really gives us the opportunity and flexibility to do that.
With the revised layout, Matina and his production team plan to get our talent on their feet more than ever before this season. For example, Matina says that roughly half of the Week 1 edition of NFL Today will take place away from the main desk.
One of the driving factors in this design was how to maximize the space as much as possible, says JP LoMonaco, VP, graphics & design, CBS Sports. We have a lot of premier programs that flow through here and it's only one room, so we want to get the most out of it. So versatility was really a big factor for us. We wanted to be able to move cameras and be able to present multiple settings within a single show. The idea was to give [Matina] the tools to create unique areas that could serve different types of segments.
A TechFacelift: LED Displays and Lights, Xpression Tessera Graphics, and the Move to IP Chief among the technological enhancements are an army of new LED displays throughout the studio that are driven by Ross Video's Xpression Tessera graphics system. The new displays include two Planar 1.8 TVF LED screens (1920 2340 pixels) and one Planar 1.8 TVF LED screen (2560 900), a Planar 1.9 CarbonLite Flex LED (1408 320) as the desk screen, and five 98 vertical displays (3840 2160).
In addition, the network completely revamped the lighting grid by converting all units to LED lights that can be remotely controlled from a central lighting panel. In addition to providing the production team with a more seamless workflow, the LED-based system is more energy-efficient in accordance with CBS's sustainability efforts.
While there were no major upgrades made to the Studio 43 control room, which was updated recently, VP of Studio Engineering & Technology, Greg Coppa, and his team did use the studio revamp as an opportunity to continue its evolution from SDI to IP.
We are removing SDI components wherever we can and attempting to get to a fully ST 2110 infrastructure, he says. [For example], we replace our existing color correctors with 2110 color correctors. That significantly improves the picture quality because we're not going back and forth between gateways.
CBS Sports worked with Video Visions to integrate the LED display system and Time Frame Productions for the overall systems integration for backend of the new studio.
Designing for a New Generation of Fan: A New Look for a New Era In terms of the overall look of the studio, LoMonaco and his team knew they had to create a space that could serve not only the NFL but CBS's litany of other properties.
Who we are spreads out over several sort of entities so we had to take all of that into account, he says. We also were very aware that we're going to live with this for a lo
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
10/04/2026
The Invisible OPEX Killer: Is Your Server Room Dragging You Down? In the broadcast world, we talk a lot about uptime. We talk about talent retention, latency...
10/04/2026
Imagine Communications will showcase its multiviewer portfolio at NAB Show 2026 (April 19-22, Booth N1328, Las Vegas Convention Center), including Prismon and t...
10/04/2026
Chyron has released PRIME VSAR 2.3, an update to its virtual set and augmented reality solution for broadcast. The release adds compatibility with Unreal Engine...
10/04/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2267, April 19-23, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating new tx darwin features including consumer multiview,...
10/04/2026
NDI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026, demonstrating its IP video ecosystem through live partner integrations, NDI 6.3 features, AI metadata workflows, and creator ...
10/04/2026
FOR-A has announced the acquisition of all shares of Tamu Radiance Corporation, a new company spun off from the Information Equipment Business of Tamura Corpora...
10/04/2026
InSync Technology will showcase new and updated video conversion products at NAB...
10/04/2026
TNT Sports and DAZN have announced a partnership to air monthly boxing events in the United States under the brand The Fight. The series will be promoted in p...
10/04/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display has announced the SQ3 Series of 4K LCD displays as part of its MEVIX professional display portfolio. All sizes will be available...
10/04/2026
Amagi has announced the addition of Agentic Media Operations to its Amagi NOW platform, integrating AI reasoning agents across its media supply chain workflows ...
10/04/2026
LTN has announced enhancements to its global IP video network targeting broadcasters transitioning from satellite distribution. The updates come ahead of US fed...
10/04/2026
Daktronics has installed new LED displays at Yankee Stadium, upgrading the main centerfield board, two flanking boards, and two ribbon displays spanning the 200...
10/04/2026
Harmonic has announced updates to its hybrid streaming solution, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectivity for AI applications, cloud-native deploymen...
10/04/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will introduce two new fiber transport products at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C4425, April 19-22): the FiberSaver-10G waveleng...
10/04/2026
Telos Alliance and ip-studio will demonstrate STUDIO ZERO, a cloud-hosted virtual studio, at NAB Show 2026. First introduced at NAB Show 2023, STUDIO ZERO integ...
10/04/2026
d&b solutions, a London-based audio-visual, lighting, and media integration grou...
10/04/2026
ARRI and SmallHD have announced a new expansion license for ARRI's Hi-5 and Hi-5 SX hand units that displays lens data overlays on supported SmallHD monitor...
10/04/2026
Roku and the Banana Ball Championship League (BBCL) have announced an exclusive streaming partnership to bring five BBCL games to the Roku Sports Channel in 202...
10/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
10/04/2026
The Peabody Awards don't just recognize great storytelling, they spotlight t...
10/04/2026
After launching the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico last year, we brought the fan-voted celebration to Paris this week for its first edition in France. Hosted ...
10/04/2026
Powered and unpowered live PA ranges upgraded
Yamaha have just refreshed four of their hugely popular PA speaker ranges, delivering significant improvements...
10/04/2026
Underlying plug-in & VI technology now available to others
UJAM's latest announcement sees the company open up' Gorilla Engine, the development pla...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 10, 2026 Bitcentral, a leading provider of professional media solutions for broadcast and digital video, will showcase its latest...
10/04/2026
Ikegami to Introduce Expanded Range of Broadcast Production Solutions at NAB 202...
10/04/2026
AJA Debuts SMPTE ST 2110 and openGear Solutions Ahead of NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 10, 2026
0 Comments
New gear and updates address evolving hybrid ...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind the worlds leading streaming television channels, today launched its AI platform for Frequency Studio, powering the entire channel ...
10/04/2026
What can I watch on UKTV and stream on U this week?
This week on UKTV and the free streaming service U, viewers can watch a range of new and returning programm...
10/04/2026
J nger Audio Joins EBU ADM Integration Group as Founding Member to Help Advance...
10/04/2026
Five-part Sky Original drama airs nightly on Sky Mix and Sky Atlantic from 20 Ap...
09/04/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 09, April, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynam...
09/04/2026
just:play pro 2026 and just:live pro 2026 Sneak Preview News for NAB 2026
More Details:At NAB 2026, ToolsOnAir will showcase just:play pro 2026 and just:live p...
09/04/2026
just:in mac pro 2026 - The Next Level of Professional Recording on macOS at NAB ...
09/04/2026
Zixi will demonstrate IP-based live video workflow solutions at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2057).
The industry is moving quickly toward IP-based distribution as br...
09/04/2026
Global women's elite sports revenues are expected to reach at least $3 billi...
09/04/2026
Monitor engineer Gavin Tempany mixed Kylie Minogue s Tension Tour on a Solid Sta...
09/04/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5507), debu...
09/04/2026
With the 2025-26 NBA regular season concluded and the playoffs beginning next we...