SVG Summit 2017: MLB Telecasts Get Boost From Statcast, High-Speed Cams, 4K, and Low-Home Position
Story Highlights
Major League Baseball dominates the sports calendar for nearly nine months of the year and continues to use new technologies, new statistics, and new production techniques to ready the nation’s most traditional sport for the future. At the SVG Summit, top execs from the production, operations, and emerging tech sectors took the stage to discuss how they are improving the storytelling around America’s Pastime and cultivating the next generation of fans.
This “State of the Game: MLB”, session moderated by SVG’s Brandon Costa, featured a panel of experts —Brad Cheney, Fox Sports, VP, Field Operations and Engineering; Phil Orlins, ESPN, Senior Coordinating Producer for MLB; Kevin Prince, MLB, VP, Emerging Technologies; and Michael Santini, MLB Network, VP, Production— addressing topics ranging from the maturation of MLBAM’s Statcast, the return of the “low-home” camera position this season, 4K production on the diamond, and much more.
Watch the panel in its entirety here:
Here are some highlights from the session:
Brad Cheney, Fox Sports, VP, Field Operations and Engineering, and Phil Orlins, ESPN, Senior Coordinating Producer for MLB detail how they were able to bring the beloved low-home camera back to their MLB telecasts this year.
Cheney detailed Fox’s 4K production of ALCS Games 3 and 4 and how 4K resolution allowed viewers to see a more detailed image of Aaron Judge making a great catch against the wall in Game 3.
Statcast was a hot topic throughout the panel. Santini addressed the maturation of MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast next-gen stats platform and how MLBN will will work closer together with MLBAM to create more high-quality content in the future.
Prince details how MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast next-gen stats platform can help to better tell the story of the game and even create automated game notes immediately after a play takes place.
With more slow-mo cams than ever on MLB telecasts, Cheney and Orlins addressed how they are trying to find the sweet spot for high-speed imaging and if all cameras will be high-speed one day.
