
ESPN's Live From Home' Studio, Commentary Kits To Remain Key Production Asset Post Pandemic At-home operations allow live coverage of more and lower-profile sports By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 - 9:14 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
What began as an innovative emergency solution early in the pandemic has become a permanent tool in ESPN's production arsenal. Even as the sports world begins to normalize and production crews and announcers head back to venues, ESPN's Live From Home at-home studios and remote-commentary kits have become a staple of its production operations - and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
This is here to stay; there's no doubt, says Chris Calcinari, SVP, remote operations, ESPN. Do I see us migrating talent back to site for a good majority of our major sports? Absolutely. But, when you do thousands of events [per year] like we do and they all need commentary, this is a model that will be here for the long term. We have very reliable technology in place to support all of this, and it has obviously been proven over the past year. So it's here to stay, without a doubt.
It Has Grown by Leaps and Bounds' ESPN anchor Hannah Storm gets a Live From Home studio setup at her home, with help from Live From Home support team member.
When the pandemic shut things down in March 2020 and safety precautions essentially barred ESPN talent from its studios, the network quickly formed a Live From Home committee to evaluate options that would allow on-air talent and crew to produce live studio shows from the safety of their own homes. In the ensuing months, efforts by the committee - led by the Remote Operations department and comprising 30+ staffers from several ESPN departments - resulted in the launch of dozens of at-home studios for talent, a half dozen remote-commentary kits for live KBO League (Korean Baseball Association) telecasts, and a full REMI production workflow for several ESPN studio shows by mid May.
In the year since, ESPN's remote-ops team has continued to ramp up its Live From Home efforts to serve ESPN's live game productions and studio shows. Today, ESPN has a whopping 575 remote studios and 220 remote-commentary kits in the homes of on-air talent across the globe. Countless hours of studio content and more than 2,000 events have been produced with Live From Home studios and commentary kits.
It has grown by leaps and bounds, says Calcinari. What started off as a studio initiative, where we were just putting studio kits into talents' homes, has turned into something so much bigger. And I think, most important on the studio side, it has improved our content because, whenever a story breaks, we basically have 575 talent that we could call on instantly. Whereas we used to send talent to a third-party location or fly somebody into [one of our studios] to do an on-camera, we now can have them [do it] at their homes.
Commentary Kits Expand ESPN's Events Coverage Even Post-Pandemic ESPN MLB analyst Eduardo Perez was among the first on-air talent to have a Live From Home remote-commentary system installed at his home, for coverage of KBO Korean baseball in the early days of the pandemic.
In terms of live game coverage, Live From Home commentary kits played a vital role in the return of sports last summer and fall. Although COVID-related restrictions prevented many announcers from calling games onsite, many were able to do so from their homes using Live From Home remote-commentary kits. As more and more sports properties have come back, the commentary kits have continued to play a vital role in ESPN's coverage of lower-profile events on ESPN+, such as college Olympic sports.
In the past, when maybe we wouldn't have been able to put some of these events on the air, we can now do it in a very cost-effective manner, says Calcinari. We have thousands of Olympic sporting events every year - such as softball, lacrosse, and volleyball - and all of these tools are being used heavily on those events. The economics are obviously much better when you have these kinds of tools available to you, which means we are able to deliver more events than ever.
Like other ESPN graphics operators, May Forges is able to work remotely from her home via Live From Home kit.
In addition to studio and commentary operations, Live From Home systems are deployed by ESPN graphics operators and some other crew members. The broadcaster is also currently implementing Live From Home setups that allow producers and directors to produce shows from home.
We're setting them up with all the necessary tools to be able to have the monitor wall in front of them just like they would in the [control room], says Calcinari. We're setting them up with multiviewers at their house, the necessary communications, access to research and statistics, etc. For example, if we had an event happening at a [college campus] and wanted to have our own producer, we can easily do that with the tools that we put in place.
Support Team Continues To Improve Live From Home Kits In addition to working from home, ESPN commentators can call games from off-tube announce pods, such as this one for Big 12 Championship baseball in Bristol, CT.
As part of this initiative, ESPN has formed a dedicated support team to ensure that all Live From Home events maintain the quality expected by viewers.
We have a good-size group now that supports Live From Home on a full-time basis, says Calcinari. Every single one of the 2,000-plus events we've done has a person assigned to it to help the talent check in, monitor their levels, and monitor that game throughout its entirety. If there are any problems, we have a skilled person to address them quickly so that we don't have an on-air impact. And tha
Most recent headlines
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
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....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...