
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...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
Last night, the Spotify Podcast Awards in Mexico returned to the country's capital. Now in its second year, the evening honors creators whose voices are hel...
18/05/2026
ZEN-Core synth goes mobile
Roland's powerful ZEN-Core software synthesizer has just been introduced to the iPad, offering a convenient entry point into ...
18/05/2026
Versatile new limiter plug-in announced
Based in Sheffield, UK, fedDSP offer a range of plug-ins that span the music production, live sound and high-end med...
18/05/2026
A new use for convolution?
Viiri Audio's debut plug-in aims to do something a little different with convolution processing, allowing users to adjust all...
18/05/2026
Delta Goodrem shines for SBS as more than 3.27 million Australians tune in for E...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
Agentic AI inference at one-tenth the cost per token with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL7...
18/05/2026
18 May 2026
Dubai and New York, May 18, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a glob...
18/05/2026
Monday 18 May 2026
Sky News offers ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes for just...
18/05/2026
Comscore March 2026 Consumer AI Chatbot Usage Rankings Show Claude Gaining Share OpenAI's ChatGPT maintains lead while Anthropic's Claude continues to c...
17/05/2026
Delta Goodrem's Eurovision Eclipse marks end of a stellar run
17 May, 2026
Media releases
Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026
Relive every spellbinding mome...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Helps to deliver a clean, balanced midrange
Developed alongside Newfangled Audio, the latest plug-in in Eventide's software collection has been designed...
16/05/2026
Brings onboard stem rendering to RANE System One
Engine DJ have just released Engine DJ 5.0, a free update for their Engine DJ OS embedded hardware and Engi...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...