College Football 2022 Preview: As Conference Grows, BTN Continues To Innovate Its Live-Production Models

Network is slated to produce 43 football games this season

How was your summer vacation? Was it as wild as the Big Ten’s?

Following an off-season that saw the conference announce a massive new media-rights agreement and unveil surprising plans to welcome two new affiliates (UCLA and USC in 2024), the fall sports season is here, and it’s back to the business of producing games at Big Ten Network (BTN).

Football is back at BTN. This season, the network will produce 43 football games. (All photos: BTN)

It’s a somewhat unusual start to the football campaign for BTN: for the first time in its 15-year history, the network had a Week 0 game (Illinois defeated Wyoming). Week 1 is a relatively tame start to the year with three games on the schedule this Thursday and Saturday. Then, things go bonkers in Week 2, when BTN has eight games on Sept. 10, the second-busiest day of football in the history of the network.

All in all, BTN is poised to produce 43 games for its air this football season.

“I can’t overstate how much [BTN Senior Director, Production Planning and Operations, John Sugihara and his team] take care to make sure we get on the air without issue,” says Alex Bertsche, VP, remote production, BTN. “John’s goal is to maximize what we can do on our productions from a technology standpoint so that our shows can look great, but he’s always there to keep me in check or to let me know that we can do more.”

BTN doesn’t hesitate to go big on football broadcasts, especially when games shift to conference play. A typical game broadcast usually features 12 cameras, which include standard hard, manned positions and selected super-slo-mos and POVs. Big shows typically feature a SkyCam and the on-field Megalodon handheld shallow–depth-of-field camera system as well.

Although the network does rely on top-flight trucks from Mobile TV Group, BTN’s football slate does feature an element of at-home workflows on some games. In those cases, announcers are onsite, but truck-based positions are run from one of four control rooms at BTN’s Chicago headquarters. Camera operators, audio personnel, sports and statisticians, and other staffers will be onsite, but producer, director, replay, graphics, A1, etc. will work from Chicago.

Bertsche credits BTN Senior Director, Engineering, Wes Goldstein with perfecting this model, one that proves critical for establishing enough resources to produce games on the busiest Saturdays. “[It] enables us to continue to create great broadcasts at a high level and at a high volume,” says Bertsche, “something that was especially needed — and especially successful — over the past two years specifically.

BTN’s traveling pregame show B1G Tailgate returns this Saturday for its sixth season. Week 1 brings the show to Lincoln, NE, for North Dakota at Nebraska.

“Every summer, while we production people are enjoying the weather in Chicago,” Bertsche continues, “Wes and his team are working hard on technical improvements in our in-house control rooms to prep us for the fall.”

Although there are no major changes to the production plans this year (BTN rolled out a new graphics package and new music over the past couple of years), the network did make some key investments in audio, installing new Calrec audio boards in  the four at-home control rooms in the Chicago facility and adding new Riedel intercom systems. Bertsche also notes that BTN will be able to add more super-slo-mo cameras on the games produced via the at-home model.

Selected football games are produced via a hybrid at-home production model using one of four control rooms at the BTN’s Chicago headquarters.

Football is, of course, just one piece of the puzzle. BTN’s linear network will air roughly 150 live productions ranging from football to volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey, and cross-country.

Volleyball is receiving a noted increase in coverage this season. Over the summer, the network aired the conference’s first Media Day for volleyball. BTN Senior Coordinating Producer, Remote Production, Sue Maryott spearheads that effort and oversees much of the Olympic-sport production that BTN takes on.

Additionally, Student U, BTN’s well-established program of on-campus student-produced shows will deliver a whopping 750+ live-streamed events to the network’s direct-to-consumer app, B1G+.

Week 1 of the football season at BTN begins Thursday night as Minnesota hosts New Mexico State (9:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. CT). The network returns with two game broadcasts on Saturday, including Buffalo at Maryland (noon ET) and North Dakota at Nebraska (3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT)