ARENA BOWL XXI goes HD

By Andrew
Lippe

Arena
Football takes center stage this Sunday on ABC as the Arena Football
championship will hit the airwaves in HD. “HD translates so well and definitely
increases quality of the show,” said Bryan Ryder ESPN producer. The Arena
Bowl marks the first time this season an AFL game will be in HD.

“Our
production is comparable to what have to done all year round,” says Ryder. The
production crew will be integrating the same graphics solutions they have used
during the regular season. ESPN will mic up three players and coaches from the
Columbus Destroyers and from the San Jose SaberCats. They will also install
cameras in the locker rooms of both franchises as well as conduct pre and post
game interviews.

ABC will
broadcast the big game using 17 cameras. They will be using the Game Creek
Freedom production truck and will have a crew of close to 100 on hand in

New Orleans. ESPN
has added a hand-held RF Steadicam to its camera list and will also incorporate
the flying camera system Skycam into the worldwide telecast.

The game
comes live from the New Orleans Arena and brings with a degree of extra
excitement for the fans of

New Orleans.
It is exciting for the city of

New
Orleans to have a game of this magnitude in their
city. The city is still impacted from Hurricane Katrina but ESPN expects no
technical issues as last fall’s Monday Night Football game between the New
Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons production had no production problems.

ESPN
earlier this year amped up their arena football coverage and once again Mike
Greenberg and Mike Golic will be there to call the action. “They like each
other so the broadcast is very engaging,” added Ryder. The coaches and
players will talk with Greenberg and Golic directly during the game broadcast.
Fans will also have special opportunities during the game to hear coaches play
calling.