YES Network Brings New Look to Scorebug for 2021 Season
Senior coordinating producer Jared Boshnack breaks down the design
Story Highlights
The YES Network’s 2021 MLB efforts are underway, and they began in spring training coverage with the launch of a new scorebox, a new app (launched last week), and a new energy as the team looks forward to a full season of New York Yankee baseball. “We have used our knowledge that we gained from last year’s sprint for 60 games and now we are applying that to this season,” says Jared Boshnack, YES Network, senior coordinating producer. “How do we make this the best possible product on the air? That’s our focus.”
Every broadcaster on the planet responded to the pandemic last year in a different way and for the YES Network that meant embracing having talent working from home. This year talent will have virtual graphic backgrounds behind them to give a more uniform look to the broadcast.
Boshnack says the scorebug is a beautiful new addition to the broadcast and the result of a process that began with deconstructing it.
“Once you do that you ask what is most important?” says Boshnack. “I think our [senior director of creative design, Rick Deutschman is one of the best in the business and he looked at every one of his design books and examined font sizes and things like how extra-long names would look, and also color palettes.”
Adding color, he says, was important and by tying the colors of the teams playing into the graphic the result is a scorebox that pops.
“When we get to the reds of the Red Sox or Twins or the Orange of the Orioles or Kelly green of the Oakland A’s it’s going to explode off the screen,” says Boshnack.
While the new look gets a workout in spring training so will the production team. A Game Creek video truck is in Tampa Bay with the technical director, EVS operators, Vizrt graphics equipment, and cameramen on site. Meanwhile Troy Benjamin, lead Yankees game producer, and Dan Barr, lead Yankees game director, are at the YES broadcast facility in Stamford, CT, along with Graphics Coordinator Sean Sullivan and Tape Producer Luke Miller.
And, yes in a year of Zoom calls Zoom, is involved as a net return tool.
“You can use it to bring back what is being broadcast with very minimal delay so that is a good safety valve so that everybody is monitoring in real time,” he adds.
This season YES is using Game Creek Video Production fly kits to make things easier for production operations.
“It’s part of the reason the talent looks so good at home,” says Boshnack. “We put those systems in talent homes to give the talent multi-viewer capabilities so they can look at the score board in the ballpark and everything else they need.”
The regular season plans are still being ironed out but Boshnack says to expect at least seven hard cameras and then upwards of four robotic cameras and Marshall cameras as well.
“Plans are still in the works as [YES President of Programming and Production] John Filippelli and CEO Jon Litner give us guidance as we want to bring the best quality product,” adds Boshnack. “We’ll see where it goes but the plan is to have a broadcast that is second to none.”
The technology will make a difference but Boshnack says so will having fans back in the stands. New York guidelines are developing on a weekly, if not daily basis, so it is unclear how many fans will be allowed in on opening day. But they will be there.
“We want to see as many fans as possible as it is better for our broadcast,” he says.
Those fans will take away some of the freedom the YES team had with respect to camera positions but that is fine by Boshnack.
“We’ll take what we learned from those positions last year and apply that to our next steps as we work hand-in-hand with the stadium,” says Boshnack.