
ESPN Launches Slick New DC Studio for SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt Debuting on schedule despite the pandemic, the set is new but familiar By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 2:05 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In January, Scott Van Pelt (SVP) announced that he was heading home, shifting the nightly SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt from ESPN's Bristol, CT, headquarters to a new studio in Washington, DC, where he grew up. And, even though the pandemic threw the sports-media world for a loop just two months later, SVP's new DC studio opened on time on Monday with a new yet familiar look for viewers.
Our goal was to not take anything away from SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt but only add to it, says ESPN Coordinating Director Marti Hanzlik. We wanted to be really careful with the brand. He's so popular you do not want to mess with that. We just wanted to enhance it. And we tried to do that by giving it the DC feel, but he still has his regular canvas, all of his franchises.
SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt debuted its new studio in Washington, DC, on Monday
SVP's new SportsCenter set has been built across from ESPN's Pardon the Interruption set in the ABC News Washington Bureau building, in space previously occupied by Around the Horn, which moved to ESPN's Seaport Studios in New York City in late 2018.
Although Van Pelt and the studio have been relocated to DC, the show is still being produced remotely out of a control room in Bristol. The SVP control room in Bristol is connected to DC through ESPNet (ESPN's private fiber network) by way of its Seaport Studios in New York City. In addition, because the DC facility is a 720p plant and ESPN produces SportsCenter in 1080p, the end product from DC is being upconverted to 1080p for distribution (signals from Bristol to the monitors bypass the 720p plant and go direct to the monitors as 1080p).
Inside the Studio: Smaller Footprint, Same SVP Style Although the official announcement came in January, development on the new studio started just under a year ago. During that period, Hanzlik worked closely with ESPN VP, Production, Mike McQuade, who oversees the show, and Senior Director, Studio and Lighting Design, Noubar Stone.
The most apparent challenge right off the bat was to find a way to replicate the look and feel of SVP's sprawling Bristol studio in a much smaller footprint - a roughly 2,000- to 2,550-sq.-ft. shared space - at the ABC News Bureau in DC.
Our primary goals going into the launch were how to share a studio space and design a set that was familiar like the Bristol set while giving a nod to DC, says Hanzlik. I give credit to Noubar Stone for working with the set-design folks to re-create a new version of Scott's set in Bristol. Now the studio space is much smaller than what he had in Bristol, but the way it was designed makes it feel just as large with the ability to be more intimate.
The same cameras that shoot Pardon the Interruption are turned around to shoot SVP's SportsCenter.
ESPN created scenic walls that represent the environment of DC, such as a granite building reflecting the city's iconic architecture and a pattern resembling the inside of the DC Metro transit system. DC-focused footage and bumpers will be regularly featured going in and out of commercials. And the program has new theme music recorded by DC-based go-go band Trouble Funk.
The studio features several large LEDMAN COB 1.9-mm LED displays with Novastar NovaProHD processors. These displays are sourced remotely with graphics/animation from ESPN's new 4K OctoViz platform. Although on-air talent does not have a physical touchscreen in DC, analysts will be able to use Midas software to telestrate their storylines using large LED displays.
Everything on the set is new except for the customary SVP desk props (helmets and a baseball bat) and his favorite desk chair, all of which were moved from Bristol.
Basically, we took the model of the existing studio [and] gave it a bit of a fresh face but kept the elements that were unique enough that the viewers could relate and that Scott could be comfortable.
COVID Impact: Ops Team Runs the Show From Afar Of course, COVID-related health and safety restrictions complicated matters, forcing the teams to manage the project remotely and mitigate onsite issues that traditionally would have been handled from afar. Normally, there would have been one or more site surveys by the engineering and network teams, and additional staff would have been onsite for the integration and final configuration, but the DC studio was closed until the second week of July.
The SportsCenter With SVP crew in DC has full communication with the control room in Bristol that is producing the show.
Travel was limited, Hanzlik notes, adding, We had to be creative in our communication and operational workflows to adapt to the split crew and staffing setup. We were able to do all of this while working through the challenges of COVID. The set building vendors worked under unusual circumstances, and Scott's desk had to be redesigned to accommodate social-distancing mandates.
In addition, due to the pandemic, production and operations teams have been spread throughout the Bristol campus instead of operating in a single control room, adding further complexity to the live operations. The SVP production team is using Unity comms software to connect to both the control room and the DC facility.
Team Effort: Disney-Owned Properties Come Together for SVP Hanzlik says the biggest challenge from a technology-planning perspective was aligning all the different departments, including multiple teams within Disney DTCI (Direct to Consumer & International), ESPN, ABC News, and third-party vendors.
In addition to McQuade and Stone, among th
Most recent headlines
14/03/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has expanded its executive leadership team (ELT) with the appointment of three experienced executives: Tom Sharma as chief technology off...
14/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. TVU Networks, a pioneer in live video production and a leader in cloud-based media solutions, is marking its 20th anniversary at the 2025 NAB ...
13/03/2025
(L-R) Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, and Juliette Lewis attend the premiere of Opus at Eccles Theatre in Park City. (Photo by...
13/03/2025
Spotify took center stage at the London Book Fair this week, reaffirming our commitment to the audiobook market and showcasing our impact on the publishing indu...
13/03/2025
At Spotify, we work every day to lift up new voices, giving creators the opportunity to live off their art. Through Spotify Audiobooks, our in-house publishing ...
13/03/2025
Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...
13/03/2025
Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...
13/03/2025
On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...
13/03/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Roku Debuts NWSL Zone' Within Roku Sports to Spotlight Live Games, Content Feature marks Rokus first women's league-branded zone within service By Bra...
13/03/2025
Pixels, Images, Video, AI - and Us: A Perspective on AI from NDI Inventor Andrew...
13/03/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lighting Design Group's Steve Brill, Dennis Size ...
13/03/2025
IOC, Comcast NBCU Ink $3B Media-Rights Extension for Olympic Games Through 2036;...
13/03/2025
NCAA March Madness Live Returns with Expanded Availability of MultiView Vertical...
13/03/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive...
13/03/2025
Sky Business, Sky's B2B division, providing connectivity and content to busi...
13/03/2025
Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S NRP140TWG(N) thermal power sensor: A new benchmark ...
13/03/2025
We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey.
Our 2025 survey p...
13/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...
13/03/2025
Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025
Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...
13/03/2025
Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...
13/03/2025
A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....