KCAL, NESN tap NMT, Bexel to provide services for historic MLB telecast from L.A. Coliseum

By Andrew Lippe

National Mobile Television (NMT) played a key role in the KCAL Los Angeles and NESN broadcasts of an MLB pre-season game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox held at the L.A. Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. The game marked the 50th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers move to the West Coast, and more than 115,000 fans packed the park. The Dodgers played in the famed Coliseum from 1958 to 1961. NMT has been working on the project since February.

“This is a novelty game,” says Frank Coll, NMT senior vice president, operations. “Baseball is being played inside a football stadium.” The baseball diamond was carved in the west end of the football field with some abnormal dimensions that included a left-field line that was barely 200 feet from home plate.

“Most of the low cameras were on the field and exposed because there was not a camera wall,” says Coll.

The game was broadcast in high definition on KCAL Los Angeles and in standard definition on NESN. NMT’s HD11 truck, with seven Thomson Grass Valley LDK6000 HD cameras, a Kalypso switcher and Calrec audio console, served KCAL while NESN used DX18 and its GVG 4000 switcher and Yamaha console. NESN had six Ikegami HK-388 cameras to capture the action in SD.

Bexel providing triax and copper cabling for the game. “The cameras are well suited to triax so it was not a problem having fiber,” says Coll.

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