Australia’s NRL Brings 4K Production to U.S.; FOX Sports U.S. and Australia Collaborate on Production

Historic show features two studio sets, onsite operation from NEP trucks

Australia’s National Rugby League opened its 2024 season far from home, with two matches played this past weekend at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. For FOX Sports Australia, which produces all its events in native 4K, it was an opportunity to bring a historic moment to viewers back home and an opportunity to work side-by-side with the U.S.-based FOX Sports team.

FOX Sports Australia’s Joe Bromham on the broadcaster’s studio set on Las Vegas Boulevard

The NRL is the biggest sport FOX Sports Australia produces, says Joe Bromham, executive producer, FOX Sports Australia, describing the trip to Las Vegas as a historic moment for the game.

“If you do a recap of the history of Rugby League in the future,” he asserts, “this will be one of the top main occasions. The fact that the NRL has decided to take their game to the world is the dominant storyline ahead of this weekend. But it’s also a season kickoff as well, and, obviously, those games always hold a place of importance. To have them abroad in a city like Las Vegas, which has become the entertainment capital of the world, is a key storyline for us.”

Discussions for the collaboration began last August during the FIFA Women’s World Cup tourney in Australia, says Mike Davies, SVP, technical and field operations, FOX Sports.

• “Joe and David [Ward, head of remote operations, FOX Sports Australia] were gracious enough to allow us to assist them with this event, and it has been great,” Davies says. “We brought in Director, Remote Studio Engineering, Greg Pfeifer; Senior Manager, Operations and Engineering, Patricia Fischer; Audio Guarantee Matt Rosetti; and Technical Director Colby Bourgeois to help out. The guys from Australia are obviously the experts in doing rugby, but we wanted to make sure that there was no impediment to doing what they’re best at. There are very few things where the NRL would make a bigger statement than to move these shows to America. From what I can tell at Resorts World, which is the epicenter, a hell of a lot of fans came over, too.”

From left: FOX Sports’ Mike Davies and Greg Pfeifer and FOX Sports Australia’s David Ward were part of the two broadcasters’ collective effort at the NRL matches in Las Vegas.

FOX Sports Australia had two points of presence in Las Vegas: a set in front of Resorts World along Las Vegas Boulevard (with NEP NCP 4 production unit on hand to handle the 1080p production) and a compound at Allegiant Stadium, where the two matches were played. The matches were produced in native UHD and out of NEP Supershooter 4, which handles CBS Sports’ NFL B-game coverage.

The NRL coverage began with studio-show coverage from the Strip last Thursday and Friday nights. FOX Sports Australia treated its two studio shows very differently for this special occasion. “Back home,” Bromham explains, “we would have more taped content and taped pieces. We are treating this as a live show and trying to engage the live audience that has turned up here in Las Vegas.”

ENG crews captured footage around Las Vegas and followed the teams, which arrived earlier in the week and trained in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.

The games also received special treatment. All NRL matches played in Australia are produced from the NEP Production Hub in Sydney: the signals are sent from the stadium via fiber to the Hub, where the production team remotely cuts the show. Although that workflow was possible for the matches in Las Vegas, the planning and cost of transporting the large UHD signals halfway around the globe made an onsite operation the best option.

Supershooter 4 was rolled in for the game, but, because the game was shot completely in 4K, some special adjustments needed to be made. “It was a bit of a challenge getting things up and running over here in UHD,” explains Ward. “The NEP truck has had a full TFC [Total Facility Control] upgrade, but NEP had to bring the Grass Valley K-Frame production switcher over from the NEP Hub in Melbourne.”

Bromham notes that FOX Sports’ landing cricket rights a few years ago provided the opportunity to jump to 4K, with immediate and tangible benefits for the sport as well as for fans. “The images with 4K on a fully lit cricket venue are just unbelievable. Cricket is a game of absolute millimeters with a ball passing a bat or a ball hitting a pad. The ability to have 4K for that resolution on cricket was a real-world first. And the uptake on 4K in Australia was huge. We followed in with our other sports: we went to our AFL, which is our Australian-rules football, and now Rugby League as well.”

The advantage of doing everything in UHD is that a single format is used for graphics and other elements. The decision was made a couple of years ago, Ward says, noting that even the free-to-air networks have begun UHD production for shows that will ultimately be delivered in only HD via their broadcast service. “It’s a selling point for us and allows the marketing team to say we can do something the free-to-air networks can’t. People are paying a premium for 4K, so, in good conscience, we don’t want to upconvert 1080p to 4K. If it’s not native, it doesn’t go on the channel. That’s the rule.”

The games were shot with 11 cameras: three main cameras near the center of the pitch, a camera in each corner of the stadium, two handhelds, a jib, and a sideline studio camera added to the coverage when not shooting the studio show.

Although the production team is in Vegas, the NRL referee-review operation is at home in “The Bunker” at NEP’s Sydney Hub. “All the camera splits were fed to The Bunker in Sydney,” says Ward, “and they operated as they would’ve through any NRL ground in Sydney; that’s where they do the video review. An output of that came back here in 1080p for us to put into the broadcast.”

FOX Sports Australia brought a production team of about 40 to ensure that those at the center of the production had a full understanding of Rugby League (which, it should be noted, is not Rugby Union, the sport considered by most people around the world to be “rugby”).

“We have senior EVS operators, a couple of senior audio guys, and about a half dozen cameramen who know the game,” says Ward. “It’s critical that the game has the look and feel of a regular game. NEP have been terrific and have helped guide us along and also supplied the cameramen and a tech manager who works on the NRL.”

The small team from FOX Australia was complemented by a larger team from FOX U.S. “The one thing that has enabled us to do this,” says Bromham, “has been the assistance of the FOX Sports U.S. remote-studio guys, who have worked tirelessly on this for three months. Making great content is all about relationships, and we’ve developed a great relationship with them. NEP have been sensational as well.”

Adds Ward, “The FOX U.S. team has been amazing and helped out with a lot of logistics on the ground, particularly the staging stuff and getting the Resorts World shows up and running. They’ve driven a lot of that because it’s just too hard to get all that in place when you are on the other side of the world.”

The event relied heavily on relationships to make it all possible (and easier), and Davies notes that the production benefited from an unlikely relationship: Resorts World Director, Entertainment, Matt Fruitman used to work at FOX Sports.

“It gave us this fantastic opportunity for working with Matt on the completely other side,” says Davies, “but the whole Resorts World team has been great.”