NBC Sports Group Technical Summit Brings Decision-Makers Together To Preview Latest Production Tech

Engineering, production execs get a peek at vendors’ latest offerings, tip-of-the-spear workflows

NBC Sports Group held its third Technology Expo this week at All Mobile Video’s Chelsea Studios in NYC, bringing together key decision-makers from across its various properties for an up-close look at the latest technology the industry has to offer and to discuss common issues and challenges.

More than a dozen technology vendors were handpicked to roll out their latest solutions for the broadcaster’s engineering and production leaders gathered for two full days of hands-on demos, in-depth presentations, and interactive workshop sessions. Spearheaded by SVP, Engineering and Technology, Darryl Jefferson and Director, Live Event Workflow and Remote Engineering, Kamal Bhangle, the gathering focused on a variety of industry trends, including cinematic tools for live broadcasts, workflow improvements and automation tools, and immersive and virtual production.

Executives, vendors, and support staffers at NBC Sports Group’s Technology Expo at All Mobile Video’s Chelsea Studios

“The timing is perfect,” says Bhangle, “because we are actively in planning stages right now for all of our fall sports launches — college football, college basketball, NFL, and NBA — and then we have Olympics and Super Bowl coming up next year. We have a lot on our plate, and this allows us to bring all the key leaders from across the company together to have open conversations with vendors and product owners.”

NBC Sports Group production stalwarts Fred Gaudelli, Mike Sheehan, and Drew Esocoff joined the tech and engineering leaders. Bhangle worked closely with AbelCine, which helped with the curation of the technology, and a variety of technology providers to put together two days of demos and sessions on the latest in sports-production technology. Additionally, Abelcine Director, Education and Product Specialization, Jeff Lee provided a high-level presentation on the future of cinematic sports technology.

“This provides our team with a place to collaborate with vendors and see what new technology options are out there while we’re actively in our planning stages,” she notes. “I’ve truly been astounded at the level of collaboration between the vendors over the last couple weeks to make this all happen. What they’ve been able to accomplish has been nothing short of amazing.”

Cinematic Broadcast: Cine Cameras, Lenses, Movement Tools Come to Sports Production

As the use of cinematic capture tools expands in live sports production, technology providers look to streamline the workflows. Thus far, a majority of the cinematic solutions deployed in the broadcast ecosystem have required workarounds and stopgap solutions.

However, major cinema-camera/lens manufacturers are expanding broadcast capabilities and offering tighter integration for Super 35 and full-format cameras in an effort to eliminate pain points for live sports production. In addition, many broadcast-technology providers are offering enhanced cinema-optics capabilities and options on existing products. At the same time, the market is seeing increased performance in capture devices across all form factors and price points.

In addition to tech demos highlighting these new solutions, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Thomas Fletcher presented on the advantages of using cinematic-capture tools for live sports production and how the market is embracing these solutions to deliver a more compelling experience for viewers.

Another session presented by Steadicam guru Rey Reyes highlighted how new movement tools can achieve cinematic vision on the field for live sports productions. The in-depth session began with a look at how the pioneering innovations of Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown have led to the dynamic tools of today and offered a look at the latest stabilized camera offerings on the market.

Other Big Topics: Cloud, Virtual and Immersive Production, 5G, Automation

Another major theme at the expo was the increasing popularity and reliability of end-to-end camera-to-cloud workflows. In addition to several cloud-based demos, a Day 2 session featured an NBC Sports Team presentation on camera-to-cloud workflows from multiple vendors.

The buzz around immersive and virtual production could be heard loud and clear, with a variety of demos highlighting XR, AR, and MR technology, frame remapping, and GhostFrame workflows. Immersive-capture solutions for innovative experiences like Cosm and Sphere were also on display.

Other key presentations and demos focused on the evolving role of 5G in live production, automation tools to supplement and support the operator, and a variety of tools to increase interoperability. Parked outside the facility, All Mobile Video’s Cinematic HDR mobile unit showcased a REMI studio-production workflow.

“I’m so grateful to all the vendors, who have gone above and beyond to make this such an amazing event,” says Bhangle. “And I’m thankful to our own folks as well. This is the only time we are able to get so many key decision-makers together in one room to have this kind of dialogue. There have been many great conversations between the [NBC Sports] folks attending and the vendors.”