NFL Draft 2024: NFL Network Embraces Motown Groove With Massive Production That Goes Beyond Detroit

In addition to sizable onsite presence, NFL Media brings in dozens of remote video feeds

This week’s NFL Draft in Detroit marks the 10th edition since the league opted to take the event on the road to Chicago in 2015. In the years since it departed New York City, it has become NFL Network’s largest and most complex production of the year — in terms of both its onsite presence and the coordination of live remote feeds from coast to coast.

NFL Media’s Adam Acone (left) and Dave Shaw on hand in Detroit

“The Draft has become the biggest event we do year after year,” Senior Director, Media Operations, Adam Acone, who will be retiring from NFL Media following the Draft, having played an integral role in the broadcast’s exponential growth over the past decade. “Of course, the Super Bowl and our game productions are extremely important, but, from a sheer size and scale perspective, I think this one stands alone. It’s the show that we bring in the most crew and have the most assets to utilize — and it deserves that.

“It has grown into this massive event that is truly a celebration of football,” he continues. “Each city, each venue has its challenges, and it has become my favorite [event] to work on as it has continued to grow.”

In total, NFL Media is providing more than 60 hours of live coverage throughout this week (across NFL Network, NFL Films, NFL.com, NFL+, the NFL App, NFL RedZone, and the NFL FAST channel) and has set up shop in the middle of the action in Detroit.

Says Dave Shaw, VP/ head of media operations, NFL Media, “You have to hand it to the NFL events team for getting this all set up right in downtown Detroit in the heart of the city. They have fenced off different areas so that the [crowd flow] goes right from the riverfront all the way to the stage in the central area of the square. It’s awfully impressive and gives us a great look from a TV perspective.”

Detroit Rock City: NFL Media Aims To Capture Excitement in the Heart of Downtown 

NFL Network has once again worked with Filmwerks on its primary set, which is located in Cadillac Square just outside the main Draft Theater. With five cameras and a large footprint, the set will look out onto both the crowd and the main stage, with Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, Charles Davis, and Joel Klatt hosting the network’s coverage. A second set is situated inside the theater, with Insider Ian Rappaport and other reporters reporting on breaking news and trades.

View from NFL Network’s exterior set in Cadillac Square

“The beauty of this Draft is, it creates this festival environment in the heart of downtown Detroit,” says Acone. “We wanted to be able to capture that excitement and scenery while also making sure we could appropriately cover the Draft itself. I think we’ve done that with our two stages.”

A third set has also been erected inside the OCM building, where the Draft will move in the event of inclement weather. “Because it’s Detroit and there are potential of weather changes, the contingency space is a big deal,” says Shaw. “Thankfully, we’re ready. The Draft will go on if the weather is good or bad. It’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of how we televise it.”

Game Creek Video has rolled out its Prime (A, B, C, and D) mobile units to serve NFL Network’s needs in Detroit. Also in the compound are an HFI truck for QC, transmission units from The Switch and AT&T, and a satellite uplink from Arctek. BSI is providing four RF cameras and RF coordination; CP Communications, RF audio; AY Productions, comms; and Filmwerks/Sunbelt, generators powering the compound and the sets. In addition, Bexel is supplying fiber, cameras, lenses, and monitors for the production.

NFL Media worked with ESPN, Van Wagner, and the league’s events team to lay down approximately 20,000 ft. of fiber to move the multitude of signals throughout site.

NFL Network has more than 20 of its own cameras strewn across the Draft festivities and is also sharing seven feeds from Van Wagner and six from ESPN. With the throng of remote video feeds coming into the compound, the production team has close to 100 sources to handle within the broadcast.

In terms of specialty cams, NFL Media has also brought back the JitaCam that hangs from the top of the theater and offers a sweeping aerial perspective of the stage and the fans in the tent.

NFL Network production room inside Game Creek Video Prime truck

Also included in the camera arsenal are three RF handhelds and an RF Sony HDC-P50, a Steadicam from BSI, and six robos from Fletcher positioned across the campus: three Peapod robos with 40X lenses and three Sony HDC-P50’s with 14X and 24X lenses.

“The robo that’s going to give us some of the best looks is up on a corner rooftop of the Chase Tower that’s looking down into the Draft site,” says Acone. “It captures the Fan Experience area, fans walking up Woodward Avenue, and the Draft site itself in the square. The robotic up on that rooftop is able to shoot all the way down to Hart Plaza and all the way up the street and into the Draft site, providing a look at the entire scene out here.”

Beyond Detroit: Live Feeds From Draft Room, Prospects’ Homes, Team Parties, and More

Of course, NFL Media’s presence on-site in Detroit is only a portion of the overall broadcast, which integrates dozens of feeds from around the country – and the world – including Draft Room feeds from all 32 clubs, 30+ remote prospects, a dozen team parties, and draft picks announced from outside the U.S.

Managing the Draft Room feeds, remote prospect feeds, club-party feeds are (from foreground) Thomas Huff, engineer, NFL Network; Jessica Lee, VP, operations, NFL Media; and Ferdinand Delostrinos, senior assignment manager, NFL.

NFL Media is managing 32 remote club Draft Room feeds with individual return SRT streams. These are a mix of iPhone kits and PTZ cameras — all delivered via TVU IP transmission systems. These 32 feeds are made available not only to the NFL Network broadcast but also for ESPN’s show and Van Wagner’s in-venue show.

“All 32 rooms come into me,” says Jessica Lee, VP, studio operations, NFL Media. “I distribute four out at a time to the production so that the switcher doesn’t have to take in an additional 32 sources. As the Draft is happening, I put in the club that is on the clock and the next three clubs back. If there’s a trade, I have to act fast because we want to be able to grab that shot of [the GM] picking up a phone call and getting that reaction as close to real time as possible. That’s when the real craziness happens throughout the night.”

A total of 25 remote prospect feeds (with return program) are being produced by ENG crews and delivered via TVU packs at the homes/parties of prospects. Six additional remote prospect feeds are also being delivered to NFL Network’s production from ESPN.

Eleven club parties (plus a 12th from ESPN) are delivered — via a combination of LiveU and the NFL TeamCam network powered by Azzurro — to NFL Media’s L.A. facility and fed to the onsite production in Detroit via three dedicated transmission paths.

“In L.A.,” says Lee, “our news team works with all the clubs to manage the viewing parties, and we coordinate with them. As the teams go on the clock, the L.A. team will send over the appropriate parties to the trucks for use [in the broadcast]. That makes it much easier than bringing everything directly into the trucks.”

In addition, Van Wagner is providing NFL Media with feeds for the international picks being made from Brazil and Australia.

“This is definitely the event that has the most moving pieces for us all year,” she continues. “I’m always very proud of how the team is able to manage signals 50-60 remotes and keep them all organized so our production team knows exactly where things are. The more years we do it, the more our communication improves — to the point where we can almost predict what our production team needs before they ask for it. We’ve gotten into a good rhythm from our operations to engineering to production teams.”

In L.A., NFL Media’s digital team is producing a pair of live shows for NFL Channel and NFL+, respectively. Additional live coverage of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit is available on the NFL Channel, the league’s free ad-supported streaming offering, with NFL Draft Center throughout all three days. Immediately after the conclusion of the first round on Thursday, The Fantasy Footballers Draft Special streams exclusively on NFL+, marking NFL Media’s first-ever live fantasy reaction show during Draft Weekend.

“We also make as many feeds as possible available to those two shows coming out of our L.A. studios,” says Lee. “We do pay attention to the L.A. side of it — not just what’s coming from L.A. but also what we’re sending to L.A. because of those shows. We’re also supporting Good Morning Football out of L.A. for the first time.

Setting the Stage for Success: The MVPs Behind the Scenes

As the NFL Draft grows bigger and more complex, the team behind the scenes faces new challenges with each passing year. Senior Assignment Manager Ferdinand Delostrinos coordinates with the clubs on team parties and manages the ENG crews for the 25 remote venues/homes of the prospects. Senior Technical Manager Rhett VanBuskirk manages all technical aspects of the site in Detroit, ensuring that the truck and components, feeds, sets, and cameras are all connected. Senior Production Manager Wade Marshall manages an onsite team taking care of all the logistics, including weather concerns in doing a remote show in Detroit. VP, Broadcast Engineering, Bruce Goldfeder oversees all engineering for the content to and from the L.A. facility. And Director, Engineering, Lorey Andres integrates the complex intricacies of feeds, encoding, paths, control rooms, etc. based in Los Angeles.

Downtown Detroit NFL Draft set

And then there’s Acone, who has orchestrated the operational complexities of the production planning and onsite execution since the first NFL Draft moved out of Radio City Music Hall in New York City to an indoor/outdoor venue in Chicago in 2015. “You have to give Adam a lot of credit here for pouring everything he has into this event over the last few years,” says Shaw. “There has been a lot of reminiscing here with it being his last year with us, but he never takes the foot off the pedal. We really appreciate what Adam has put forth. It’s hard to even put into words what his contributions have meant to [NFL Media].”

Looking back on a decade of Drafts with NFL Network, Acone says, “It has been a very surreal week, but I’ve always been about the team first and foremost. From runners to executives and everybody in between, this doesn’t happen without every single person here. The best part of all this has been to watch this team come together and pull off such a challenging event year after year. You can trust everyone to get the job done, and I think that’s pretty special.”