SVG Summit Draws Packed House for 14th-Annual Gathering of Sports-Production Pros

Panels and workshops, groundbreaking productions, cutting-edge tech fill two days

The 14th-annual SVG Summit brought together a record crowd of more than 1,500 sports-production professionals at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel on Dec. 16-17 for two days of star-studded keynotes, informational panels and workshops, and an inside look at some of the most groundbreaking productions of 2019 and coming up in 2020. With 50 sessions featuring 170 speakers and 75 cutting-edge technology showcases, exhibits, the 2019 SVG Summit was the largest yet. 

Stay tuned to Sportsvideo.org for full video recaps, podcasts, and further coverage of the 2019 SVG Summit in the coming days.

Day 1: Ten Tracks Include SVG Digital and a Look at the Future of Live Production 
The first day of the SVG Summit once again featured a full day of workshops — a whopping 10 in all — offering a deep-dive look at the industry’s latest technology trends.

More than 1,500 sports-production professionals attended the 2019 SVG Summit at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel.

The annual SVGW Breakfast kicked the morning off with a panel of top female execs from Dome Productions, USTA, and Eluvio. The morning also included workshops addressing IP production and engineering, live HDR production, and cloud services.

The fourth-annual SVG Digital was headlined by a State of the OTT Business report by William Mao, VP, Global Media Rights Consulting Division, Octagon; Keynote Conversations with Sinclair Broadcast Group Distinguished Engineer Jason Justman and fuboTV CTO Geir Magnusson Jr.; and panels addressing the next generation of the OTT stack and the promise of what’s to come in 2020 for sports betting.

The DTV Audio Group hosted a workshop covering production audio for Tokyo 2020, workflows for Atmos in live sports, audio and communications for virtualized remote production, meeting the challenges of esports audio, and much more.

This year’s general sessions kicked off in the afternoon of Day 1 with a focus on the future of live production, which kicked off with the annual “State of the Remote Production Business and Technology Trends” panel, comprising execs from Dome Productions, Game Creek Video, Lyon Video, Mobile TV Group, NEP, and Program Productions. The afternoon also provided an inside look at NASCAR’s at-home productions, a look at cybersecurity in the compound, and closing keynote with SVG Chairman Mike Davies, SVP, field and technical operations, Fox Sports, and SVG Europe Chairman Alessandro Reitano, VP, sports production, Sky Germany.

The afternoon also offered the annual Sports Content Management Workshop (which was headlined by a keynote by Blizzard Entertainment), along with brand-new workshops focused on sports graphics and AR and blockchain and sports advertising.

Day 2: DAZN and Facebook Keynote Plus Inside Look at Super Bowl LIV and More
On Tuesday, the SVG Summit offered a single general session featuring Keynote Conversations, panel discussions, and behind-the-scenes looks at some of the most exciting recent and upcoming live sports productions.

SVG Director of Digital Brandon Costa (left) hosted the Keynote Conversation with Joe Markowski, EVP, North America, DAZN.

In the morning, panel discussions focused on gambling and what it means to the sports-media business (featuring execs from ESPN, NBC Sports Washington, and Sportradar) and where the esports industry is headed in 2020 (with execs from Activision Blizzard Esports, NBA 2K League, and ESR 24/7 Esports Channel).

The day was headlined by a pair of Keynote Conversations addressing the latest developments in OTT and live-streamed sports with Peter Hutton, director, Global Sports Partnerships, Facebook, and Joe Markowski, EVP, North America, DAZN.

The afternoon was packed with a series of sessions discussing Fox Sports’ upcoming Super Bowl LIV production (including the announcement that the game will be produced in 1080p HDR and made available for distribution  in 4K HDR), the launch of the ACC Network this year, how CBS Sports delivered every shot and every hole at The Masters, the NBA Summer League’s 5G smartphone production in July, and Sky Sports’ groundbreaking use of volumetric capture for golf coverage.

The Summit ended with an in-depth examination of the business impact of technology virtualization with Devoncroft Partners Principal Analyst Josh Stinehour.

New this year on Day 2 was the SVG Content Security Workshop.

Plenty of Tech: 75 Exhibits Roll Out Sports-Production Offerings
No SVG Summit would be complete without a Technology Showcase featuring the latest in sports-production technology. CLICK HERE for a full rundown of the tech exhibited by these companies:

Adder Technology · AJA Video Systems · AJT Systems, A Division of Daktronics · Amazon Web Services · AT&T · Avid · Bexel · Brainstorm · Calrec Audio/DiGiCo · Camplex · Canon · Cartoni · CenturyLink · Clark Wire & Cable · Cloudian · Cobalt Digital · Comcast Technology Solutions · Comrex · CONNECT · Creative Dimensions · EcoDigital · EditShare · ENCO Systems · Eutelsat · Evertz · EVS · FOR-A · Fujifilm · GLOOKAST · Google Cloud · Grass Valley · Gravity Media · IBM Systems · IHSE USA · Imagine Communications · IO Industries · Iron Mountain · Joseph Electronics · Lawo · LiveU · Marshall Electronics · Masstech Innovations · Matrox · Mediapro · Microsoft · NEP Group · NewTek · Nexsan · Nutanix · Panasonic · Quantum · Riedel Communications · Ross Video · Seagate Technology · Sennheiser · Shure · Signiant · Simplylive · Solid State Logic · Sony · SOS Global · Spectra Logic · Stevens Global Logistic · Tedial · Telestream · Teradek · The Studio – B&H · The Telos Alliance · The Video Call Center · TSL Products · Vislink Technologies · VITEC · VIZRT · Wave Central