USFL Championship Game: NBC Sports’ Hybrid Remote Production Loaded With Specialty Cameras, Mics on Multiple Players, Coaches
Producer Matt Marvin: ‘The USFL provides an incredibly unique opportunity to try things you wouldn’t normally be able to attempt.’
Story Highlights
NBC Sports will deploy 32 cameras, 78 microphones, and an onsite crew of approximately 90 in Canton, OH, when the defending champion Birmingham Stallions take on the Pittsburgh Maulers in the 2023 USFL Championship Game on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock).
The finale to the second season of the Fox-owned spring professional football league puts NBC on the stage to crown a champion following a campaign in which the two broadcasters again collaborated on some of the more experimental live game productions.
The Birmingham Stallions face the Pittsburgh Maulers in the 2023 USFL Championship Game tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock from Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, OH.
“The USFL provides an incredibly unique opportunity to try things you wouldn’t normally be able to attempt in other leagues,” says NBC Sports Lead USFL Producer Matt Marvin. “Fox has been a fantastic partner and deserves a lot of credit for trying so many new techniques. Over the past two seasons, the use of various tools like drones; helmet cams; ref cams; handhelds on the field; Skycams in front of the offense; microphones on players, coaches, refs; and the replay room — the list goes on. It has been a great place to try new ideas and show off the fact that these ideas can be executed and enhance a broadcast.”
Marvin, who will sit at the front bench on Saturday alongside director Tim Nelson, notes that Saturday’s show will feature four of the Fox-supplied Helmet Cams. The camera lineup will also include four 6X super-slo-mos (two low end zones, near and reverse carts) and four 3X super-slo-mos (near and far handhelds, reverse slash, on the Skycam).
On the audio front, four players from each team and both head coaches will be miked.
This USFL Championship Game is an NBC show with Game Creek Video Larkspur truck parked in the compound. The production team, however, will be working from NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, CT. On-air talent will be at the stadium.
NBC Sports Lead Production Manager, USFL, Kregg Van Meter has been onsite all season, working with NBC Sports Lead Tech Manager Brett Fifield and Fox Sports Technical Producer Bill Moore (who will serve as transmission manager on Saturday).
Among the storylines for this USFL Championship Game, the defending champ is looking to repeat while Pittsburgh has the opportunity to accomplish a worst-to-first turnaround having finished in last place (winning only one game) in 2022.
“The fact that it is a championship game has the crew fired up,” says Marvin. “Add to that some of the great storylines these two teams provide, and it makes for an intriguing matchup. You have the best offense in the league with the presumptive MVP in quarterback Alex McGough going up against the league’s best defense, so that should be fun. Both coaches have interesting father/son stories: Skip Holtz, the USFL Coach of the Year, is son of the legendary Lou Holtz; Ray Horton’s son, Jarren, is his defensive coordinator and just won Assistant Coach of the Year.”
NBC Sports and Fox Sports, the USFL’s official media partners, combined to broadcast all 43 league games live during the 2023 season. Twenty-nine games aired on the NBC and Fox broadcast networks (a six-game increase from the league’s inaugural season). NBC Sports delivered 18 games across NBC and Peacock (11) and USA Network and Peacock (7). Fox Sports spread its 25 games between Fox (18) and FS1 (7).
