MLB 2022: Fox Sports Looks To Build on Landmark 2021 Season, Will Mix Onsite and HRP Workflows

The broadcaster’ first Home Run Productions 1080p HDR control room opened recently

After a fraught offseason, baseball is finally back, and, once again, MLB’s biggest games will be on Fox. Now in its 27th season of MLB coverage, Fox Sports is looking to build on last year’s monumental production effort, which included the debut of several new technologies; a record number of 4K HDR broadcasts; and trailblazing production workflows at the first-ever MLB Field of Dreams game and the MLB All-Star Game, MLB Postseason, and World Series, as well as throughout the regular season.

“We’re ready again for baseball,” says Fox Sports VP, Field Operations and Engineering, Brad Cheney. “We’re working each year to innovate our coverage to bring the fans closer to the beauty that is baseball, which has had a home here at Fox for the last 26 seasons.”

With 70-plus games set to be broadcast on either Fox or FS1 (as well as simulcast on Fox Deportes) this season, Fox Sports’ MLB regular-season productions will be a mix of full onsite operations at the ballpark, Home Run Productions (HRPs) using its L.A.-based broadcast center, and Enhanced World Feed shows based on the home-team RSN’s clean feed.

“We will be onsite will full production for many of our games this season,” says Cheney. “We’ll do more onsite productions than Enhanced World Feeds this year as we continue to expand our coverage.”

He notes that the “World Feed Plus” model, which uses the RSN’s clean feed plus two unilateral cameras, will be Fox Sports’ base production this year. Announcers will call action remotely off monitors in L.A., but, in many cases, reporters will be onsite.

Having produced and distributed the entire 2021 MLB Postseason — as well as the 9/11 remembrance game at Yankee Stadium and the Field of Dreams game — in 4K HDR, Fox will continue to build on such efforts, with more regular-season games delivered in 1080p HDR than ever. At its L.A. facility, the broadcaster recently launched its first 1080p HDR-capable HRP control rooms, which will allow the team to produce more of these broadcasts this season.

“We will continue to use our HRP workflows,” says Cheney, “which will include some 1080p HDR productions this year utilizing our current HRP kits that we’ve used in prior years.”

Fox will also look to continue to build on its next-gen technologies: AR graphics, EVS XtraMotion, Megalodon shallow–depth-of-field cameras, 5G-HDR drones, wired aerial camera systems, DirtCAM, and more.

“We’re always working to build upon and enhance the technologies like EVS XtraMotion and AR graphics, which have been deployed over the past few seasons,” says Cheney. “The team is excited to have more-capable systems covering the game from new angles as well as better optics on some of our mainstays like our DirtCAMS.”

Fox Sports’ season starts on Saturday, April 9 with the Boston Red Sox heading to the Bronx to face the New York Yankees at 4 p.m. ET on FS1. The pregame show begins at 3:30 p.m.