Sports Video Group

08/19/2024

We are sad to share that Ernie Watts, a legend in sports broadcast engineering, passed away last week.

Ernie worked for Turner Broadcasting (and, in turn, was a key part of Turner Sports field operations) for 40 years.

“We worked hard and had fun doing it and that is what made Ernie so special: he could see past the pain and bring joy to even the most daunting of situations.” - Tom Sahara, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer

SVG sends its deepest condolences to Ernie's family, friends, and colleagues.

Ernie Watts, who worked for Turner Sports for 40 years, passed away last week. A celebration of life will be held on August 20 at 11 am at Believer’s Bible Ch

07/21/2024

The NBC Sports Open Championship team has weathered the elements of Royal Troon and is set for the final round today...up next for much of the crew? The Paris Olympics! Read on to learn about this year's effort...
https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/07/21/live-from-the-152nd-open-nbc-sports-set-for-final-round-expands-remote-operations-for-top-tracer-live-from-cameras/

06/21/2024

In a cool nod to baseball television's past, FOX Sports broadcast the top half of the 5th inning of the MLB at Rickwood Field game in Birmingham on Thursday night in black and white and at a 4:3 aspect ratio.

For the game designed to celebrate the history and impact of the Negro Leagues, FOX Sports' production leads wished to bring the broadcast back in a way that paid tribute to what a televised baseball game might have looked like at the time of Willie Mays’ famous “The Catch” in the 1954 World Series.

In addition to the changes in color, framing, and audio, the production also switched the main game camera angle to a camera up behind home plate, which was standard on baseball broadcasts many years ago.

Read more about it: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/06/20/live-from-mlb-at-rickwood-field-fox-sports-broadcasts-inning-of-game-in-black-and-white/

05/29/2024

Thanks to ESPN's Roddy Jones for hosting the 2024 SVG College Sports Media Awards!

05/29/2024

Jeff Hanel, University of Texas at Austin Assistant AD, video production, discussed the efforts to build a team that can execute content creation effectively for everything from social media to big board productions and more with SVG's Brandon Costa.

05/29/2024

It's case study time! Ben Reynolds, Co-Founder and CEO of Spalk chats with Dennis Trapani of the University of Wyoming about how AI and the cloud are allowing content creation teams to work better. Look for the full video at SVG Play soon!

05/29/2024

the 2024 SVG College Summit us underway! kicking things off with a great panel featuring Justin Brandt of University of Alabama, Imry Halevi of Harvard, and Jacob Potter from the University of Oklahoma. The insights into how video departments are evolving to meet growing production needs have been great and look for video of the session on the SVG Site in the coming weeks!

04/01/2024

Last week, the industry lost Steve Gorsuch.

A 40-year vet at both CBS Sports and the US Open tennis, Steve redefined how tennis and golf broadcasts were produced for television.

“Steve’s true superpower was his ability to build strong relationships. He had the respect of every person he worked with. As much as he loved the US Open, he was loved by everyone around him. The US Open would not be what it is today without Steve Gorsuch. To say he will be greatly missed is an understatement.” - Lew Sherr, CEO, (USTA) United States Tennis Association

“Steve was instrumental to our success across a variety of sports and was the cornerstone to our golf operations on CBS Sports. His contributions are immeasurable, and his impact will live on for years to come. Steve was a friend to all and a mentor to so many across our industry. - Patty Power, EVP, Operations and Engineering, CBS Sports.

SVG sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the late, great Steve Gorsuch.

Steve Gorsuch, who spent decades at CBS Sports in a variety of roles and then spent 15 years as head of broadcasting for the US Open tennis tournament, died thi

03/16/2024

The 2024 PLAYERS Championship this weekend is simultaneously the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The new era: the debut of the PGA TOUR fleet at t

03/13/2024

Charles Steinberg, a sports broadcasting industry icon, passed away this week.

Steinberg, a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer and longtime top exec at both Ampex and Sony Broadcast, passed away peacefully at his Woodside, CA home on March 12.

For more than 35 years, Steinberg played an integral role behind the scenes at Ampex and at Sony Broadcast, turning the technical visions of industry leaders like Roone Arledge, Jules Barnathan, Don Ohlmeyer, and Ken Aagaard into sports-television realities.

In 1955, he joined Ampex where he was involved in designing the first system that allowed TV programs to be recorded in color on one reel of videotape.

Steinberg played a major role in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics which marked the Olympics debut for two technologies: handheld color cameras and the HS-100 color video magnetic-disk recorder that allowed slow-motion instant replay. The Olympics once again drove technology forward in 1980 at the Lake Placid Games. Steinberg and Ampex turned another of Barnathan’s visions into reality: bringing digital video effects to the electronic still store. ABC Sports and Ampex together developed a system that allowed ABC Sports to take a single frame of video and apply digital video effects.

Steinberg's transformative work as president of the Sony Electronics Broadcast and Professional Co. from 1988 to 1999 is widely credited with birthing the modern age of broadcasting: digital and high-definition TV.

SVG sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Charles Steinberg. For information on memorial services and donations, contact our Ken Kerschbaumer at [email protected].

MORE: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/03/13/charles-a-steinberg-sports-broadcasting-hall-of-famer-and-longtime-ampex-and-sony-broadcast-leader-dies/

02/01/2024

CBS Sports has released their comprehensive production plans for Super Bowl LVIII.

These plans include the main broadcast, the 'Nickified' alt-cast, and the NFL Today production. 165 cameras will be used on the big game, 48 of which are super slow-motion and 24 have 4K zoom capabilities.

This will also mark the first time CBS Sports is broadcasting the Super Bowl in 1080p High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 4K HDR.

To learn more: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/02/01/165-cameras-at-center-of-massive-cbs-sports-super-bowl-lviii-production/

01/16/2024

Monday was the NFL Wild Card game where the Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Buffalo Bills on their home turf, the beginning of a four week playoff run dictating which team will get to head down to Las Vegas in February.

CBS Sports’s is prepping for their final NFL run, as Super Bowl LVIII closes in. These next four weeks are a test run for the crew of what is to be expected in February, and ensuring that everything goes off without a hitch. The team is working with both NEP Group, Inc. and Game Creek Video for trucks, and will have four Sony HDC-5500 4K cameras for 4k zoom replays stationed at each goal line. Pylons with 200 degree cameras will also be capturing the action.

At the divisional level, AR graphics courtesy of Silver Spoon will be incorporated throughout the game, Beverly Hills Aerials will be supplying drone coverage and a Skycap will round out the arsenal.

“It’s easy to say that there’s a tremendous level of excitement and passion and optimism as we kind of march through this run" - Jason Cohen, Vice President - Remote Technical Operations at CBS Sports

For CBS Sports, the NFL Wild Card Game between the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers in Buffalo on Sunday begins a four-week postseason run that will culmin

12/13/2023

Over the past 30 years, one studio show has cemented its place as the greatest in its class: TNT’s Inside the NBA. Although he would be the last to admit it, much of the program’s success reflects its smart, steady, and gifted host, Ernie Johnson Jr.: one of sports broadcasting’s great audience surrogates.

In addition to hosting Inside the NBA for 34 years, the six-time Sports Emmy Award winner has hosted studio coverage for TNT Sports and CBS’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship since 2011 and has been an integral part of MLB on TBS game and studio coverage since 2007. Throughout his storied career at TNT Sports, Johnson — son of former longtime Atlanta Braves radio and television commentator Ernie Johnson Sr. — has been a mainstay of TNT sports coverage from professional golf — PGA Championship, British Open, PGA Grand Slam — to NFL, Wimbledon, and Olympics in the early ’90s.

In one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony, Johnson’s longtime Inside the NBA cohorts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith surprised him on stage as he accepted his award.

Over the past 30 years, one studio show has cemented its place as the greatest in its class: TNT’s Inside the NBA. Although he would be the last to admit it,…

12/13/2023

From the greens of Augusta National to the gridiron of Super Bowl Sunday, Lance Barrow has had an indelible impact not only on the CBS Sports legacy but on the entire sports-broadcasting industry. During more than 40 years at CBS Sports, he created some of the most memorable moments in sports-television history as coordinating/lead producer of CBS’s golf coverage and NFL coverage for two decades.

The 13-time Emmy Award winner started his career at CBS Sports as a spotter for Pat Summerall in 1976 and proceeded to produce the Masters, the PGA Championship, PGA TOUR golf, four Super Bowls, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Olympic Winter games, Daytona 500, and more.

From the greens of Augusta National to the gridiron of Super Bowl Sunday, Lance Barrow has had an indelible impact not only on the CBS Sports legacy but on t...

12/13/2023

In the storied history of sports broadcasting, few stories are as expansive as that of Tony Petitti’s career. In key roles overseeing programming and production, running TV networks on the local and national level, in Major League Baseball’s front office, in corporate America, and now as commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, he has seemingly done it all in more than three decades in the business. And he has done it all while maintaining his status as one of the most respected and esteemed figures in the industry.

Prior to becoming Big Ten commissioner, Petitti served in senior executive roles for ABC, CBS, and NBC Sports. He helped create the Bowl Championship Series to determine college football’s national champion and joined Major League Baseball in 2008 to create, launch, and oversee programming at MLB Network before being promoted to the league’s chief operating officer.

In the storied history of sports broadcasting, few stories are as expansive as that of Tony Petitti’s career. In key roles overseeing programming and product...

12/13/2023

It isn’t very often that a child in front of the camera becomes enraptured by what is going on behind it, but that is what happened to Jeff Zachary, who, as a child, appeared in Armour hot-dog commercials. That youthful interest became a Hall of Fame career for Zachary, who is considered one of the all-time-great Steadicam operators.

The first person to bring Steadicam to NFL coverage and the winner of 11 Sports Emmys, he brought a new angle of coverage to countless events. Among the highlights of his 47-year career as a camera operator: Ali vs. Holmes 1980; FIFA World Cup Finals 1994; 26 NBA All-Star Games/Slam Dunk Contests; 12 Super Bowls; 15 Kentucky Derbys; 13 MLB All-Star Home Run Derbys; U.S. Open Golf; 36 years of ABC’s Monday Night Football, ESPN’s and NBC’s Sunday Night Football, Fox NFL, CBS NFL, TNT NFL; nine Presidential Inaugurations; four Olympics; 33 years of boxing; and three America’s Cups. Always an innovator, he introduced the RoverCam at CBS’s PGA Championship, providing a new perspective for sports coverage.

It isn’t very often that a child in front of the camera becomes enraptured by what is going on behind it, but that is what happened to Jeff Zachary, who, as ...

12/13/2023

Firsts are always an important part of a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame résumé, and Steve Hellmuth, recently retired EVP, operations and technology, NBA and former chairman of the SVG Advisory Board, oversaw his share of firsts. Under his guidance, the NBA became the first league to develop an advanced statistical system that drove a wide variety of services and to deliver live scores and statistics to the internet. In addition, the NBA was the first league to develop a centralized instant-replay system, to develop a digital archive, and to tackle new technologies — live streaming, 3D, VR, volumetric capture — in a meaningful way.

In a career spanning nearly 45 years, Hellmuth enjoyed working on a mix of production, live events, systems design, and technology. At the NBA, he developed statistical systems, directed facility construction, and created digital-media archives. Before joining the NBA, he spent two years as SVP/GM, Major League Baseball Productions, supervising the programming and production departments.

Firsts are always an important part of a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame résumé, and Steve Hellmuth, recently retired EVP, operations and technology, NBA an...

12/13/2023

During a career that spans nearly 30 years on the national stage, Andrea Joyce has spent time at ESPN, CBS Sports, and now NBC Sports, building a reputation for solid reporting on a wide range of global and national sports events. Since 2000, she has been a reporter for NBC Sports Group. She has served in a variety of roles at 12 Olympic Games, including the past eight with NBC. She has served as a reporter for NBA on NBC and WNBA on NBC broadcasts.

Joyce debuted as a reporter for ESPN at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Summer Games and worked three Winter Games for CBS: 1992 in Albertville, France; 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway; and 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Since her first Games, in 1988, she has embraced the Games’ communal nature, which brings countries of the world together. An appreciation for sports, the tact to comprehend others’ situations, and the ability to grab the story without being inconsiderate or disrespectful has carried Joyce to the pinnacle of her profession.

During a career that spans nearly 30 years on the national stage, Andrea Joyce has spent time at ESPN, CBS Sports, and now NBC Sports, building a reputation ...

12/13/2023

Many familiar angles of sports coverage did not exist before Tom Fletcher: in NBA and big-time college-basketball coverage, for example, the ubiquitous “Above the Rim” (atop the shot clock) or remote-controlled “Slam Cam” (behind the glass) camera position. Coverage has come a long way since the days of the 1991 NBA Finals with a full-size Hot Head or the 1994 NBA All-Star game, which deployed an industrial security camera requiring two people to operate it.

Transforming sports production with such innovations as the super-slo-mo camera and smaller remote-controlled and RF cameras, Fletcher changed the nature of sports coverage by allowing cameras to be located to deliver maximum emotional impact. Tom and his father, Archie, started Fletcher Chicago in 1987, and the company now provides specialty cameras to NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL broadcasters throughout North America.

Many familiar angles of sports coverage did not exist before Tom Fletcher: in NBA and big-time college-basketball coverage, for example, the ubiquitous “Abov...

12/13/2023

Few people in the history of sports business and media have built a more successful and impactful career on making the sports world better than she experienced it than Val Ackerman. Founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). President of USA Basketball. An executive behind the iconic “Dream Team.” Commissioner of the Big East Conference. Ackerman’s life has taken her across the executive offices of her beloved game of basketball and forever reshaped the world of sports — for athletes, for fans, for television, for women, for all of us.

A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Ackerman has served since 2013 as commissioner of the Big East Conference. She previously served as an attorney and senior executive at the NBA and, as founding president of the WNBA, helped lead the groundbreaking launch and the day-to-day operations in the league’s formative years. She has served as president of USA Basketball and as U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and advised various organizations on women’s sports strategies.

Few people in the history of sports business and media have built a more successful and impactful career on making the sports world better than she experienc...

12/13/2023

Hanging up the cleats after a 15-year playing career and moving directly into sports broadcasting can be quite daunting, but no one has transitioned as seamlessly as Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Cris Collinsworth. Becoming synonymous with immense energy, the expertise of breaking down a play with precision, and the smoothest entrance to a broadcast in the business, the 17-time Sports Emmy Award winner — nine as game analyst, eight as studio analyst — is one of the most accomplished on-air talent in sports television.

The only NFL analyst other than John Madden to receive a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Event Analyst, Collinsworth has taken home the award nine times. He currently sits alongside Mike Tirico in the NBC Sunday Night Football announce booth. His career began in 1990 when he joined NBC Sports as a game analyst for NFL coverage and selected college-football broadcasts. In 2005, he entered the NFL on Fox broadcast booth alongside play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and former quarterback Troy Aikman to form the broadcaster’s lead broadcast team.

Hanging up the cleats after a 15-year playing career and moving directly into sports broadcasting can be quite daunting, but no one has transitioned as seaml...

12/05/2023

This month’s World Poker Tour (WPT Enterprises, Inc.) World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas will provide a marathon of live-streaming content for poker fans across the globe. On Dec. 7, WPT and its streaming-production partner ShareHand will kick off 14 days of live coverage from Vegas with each day running as long as 12 hours.

SVG sat down with WPT CEO Adam Pliska to discuss how this firehose of live-streaming content is being produced at the Wynn, the evolution of the WPT since its founding in 2002, how the consumption of live poker has changed over the years, and his key goals over the coming weeks in Vegas.

This month’s World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas will provide a marathon of live-streaming content for poker fans across the globe

11/30/2023

After their expiration of their partnership with FIFA, Electronic Arts (EA) released their next iteration of the popular soccer game, entitled EA Sports FC 24. For EA’s Group Director of Esports Content and Programming Joseph Lynch, this meant recreating how they present live esports competitions and promotions for the product as well as create new relationships with production partners.

At the 2023 SVG Esports Production Summit, he highlights the challenges and triumphs of this process and details the work that went into creating this year’s program as Committee Chair.

11/21/2023

With REMI/remote productions becoming ubiquitous throughout the industry in recent years, the number of video and data paths between the venue and the broadcast center has exploded. As a result, the majority of live sports productions require a new level of connectivity. Transmission experts at broadcasters and vendors discuss how they are confronting connectivity needs to deliver live games to fans.

Panelists included:
Tom Buffolano, The Switch, Head of Business Development, College Sports
Janel (Fleming) Moorefield, LiveU, VP of Sales, Sports
Brian Nelles, PSSI Global Services, LLC, CTO and EVP
Stephen R., Ross Video, Vice President

With REMI/remote productions becoming ubiquitous throughout the industry in recent years, the number of video and data paths between the venue and the broadcast center has exploded. As a result, the majority of live sports productions require a new level of connectivity. Hear from transmission ex...

11/14/2023

On Tuesday, ESPN is joining the sports betting scene with ESPN Bet, a mobile app allowing those living in legal states can bet on games from their phones.

Using the branding and design from ESPN entities, it will be partnering with PENN Entertainment, Inc to utilize their tech stack. This allows for the ESPN team to integrate the app and its entities into other facets of the brand.

Despite entering a market that is heavily dominated by other sports betting groups, ESPN Bet’s goal is to make sports betting engaging, easy and accessible to all sports fans.

On Tuesday, the ESPN Bet app is expected to launch and begin taking wagers in the 17 states where mobile sports betting is legal in the U.S. It’s a significan

11/02/2023

Take a look back at the 2023 World Series and see how the Texas Rangers triumph was captured!

The FOX Sports arsenal for the matchup featured 52 cameras, including custom drones from Beverly Hills Aerials , three Dirt Cams, 13 super slo-mo cameras and an Ump Cam. The drone arsenal had a custom fleet for the game, which was used in-between moments such as pitching changes and other dead-play moments. These cameras will be incredibly small in order to ensure that there are no distractions for fans as well as ensuring that there are no injuries or problems that occur.

The Ump Cam also made its World Series debut, as it opened up new angles for fans to see how fast the pitches are coming over the plate. The footage being captured from both the studio and game will be produced in 1080p HDR.

We’re just all excited to get to tonight after a great season that started off on Fox and FS1, which showed our commitment to baseball” - Brad Cheney, VP, field operations, Fox Sports.

The 2023 World Series is set to start tonight on Fox Sports, and, with 52 cameras overall — including a custom drone fleet from Beverly Hills Aerials, three D

10/18/2023

This season, Green Bay Packers fans are able to enjoy game day in a new way, as Lambeau Field got major upgrades throughout their entire stadium.

Adding four new LED displays, two 4K HDR-capable main displays measuring 48 ft. high by nearly 220 ft. wide and two 7-ft.-high by 74.5-ft.-wide auxiliary scoreboards and a new control room, its a top to bottom upgrade. The biggest goal of Tundra Vision, the club’s in-venue production department, was to allow for the iconic stadium to keep its traditional charm while bolstering its technology and media assets.

From the control room side, Ross Video powered a variety of the workflows including Ross’s XPression Studio, Piero Live, Ross Tally, Ultrix Carbonite and more. In addition, Ross was tapped to help create a new graphics and animation package that elevated the fan experience. As the crew gets more comfortable with the updates, they expect to have bigger and better changes with the years to come.

“There’s an excitement about bringing new technology and more content to our fans. We’re all happy with how it’s coming together and how [the videoboards are operating] from a game-presentation standpoint. - Kregg Shilbauer, director, broadcast and game presentation, Green Bay Packers

Fans of the Green Bay Packers are enjoying an entirely new game-day experience at Lambeau Field this season. During the offseason, Tundra Vision, the club’s i

10/10/2023

After Diamond Sports Group was unable to make payments to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and DSG’s contract was subsequently rejected by a bankruptcy court judge, Major League Baseball’s Local Media department sprung into action and took over production and distribution of all local games starting on July 18. In addition to their local production of ballgames for the San Diego Padres, the league implemented a handful of new technologies that aren’t typically seen at the local level.

In this latest edition of SVG Rewind, we speak with MLB’s SVP/Executive Producer of Local Media, Doug Johnson, about the acquisition of both Ump Cam and Wire Cam for regular season DBacks games, moments where these two pieces of equipment made a difference on the broadcast, his transition from the regional-sports-network sector of the business to his current role, reflects on how the entire regular season went, and what’s in store for the 2024 season.

After Diamond Sports Group was unable to make payments to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and DSG's contract was subsequently rejected by a bankruptcy court judge, Major League Baseball's Local Media department sprung into action and took over production and distribution of all local games starting on ...