After primarily producing its MLB regular season games remotely, the full production teams will return to on-site trucks for the Postseason
Beginning with tomorrow’s MLB Postseason action, TNT Sports will be the exclusive home of the ALDS and ALCS with games simulcast on TBS, truTV and Max. TNT Sports’ 18th consecutive season of MLB Postseason coverage will feature a variety of tech toys for the production team, including BaseCam, UmpCam, and live drones courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery’s in-house drone team.
“Everybody is excited for the postseason because is what we spend all year working towards,” says Chris Brown. “You spend the whole season getting yourself ready for this and we’re finally here. Between the UmpCam, BaseCam, drones and a few other things we may have up our sleeve, we’re over the moon about our plans [for the postseason].”
TNT Sports will also feature MLB DataCast throughout the entire ALCS – an analytics-driven alternative broadcast experience on truTV and Max. The broadcast will partner with multiple dynamic data providers including StatCast, Inside Edge and Ross to take fans deeper inside the game of baseball, including individual player batting, fielding and pitching trends, analysis of player strengths and weaknesses, as well as real-time custom graphics and 3D renderings of the biggest moments of the series.
Returning for postseason coverage, Camera Corps Basecam has gained acceptance with ground crews since 2020, and Brown says the looks only continues to get better.
“If you look at where it started and where it is today, it’s really impressive to see how much it’s improved,” says Brown. “I think it’s added an entirely new element [to our broadcasts] and been a lot of fun for the fans.”
RF Wireless’s UmpCam system will also be deployed for the majority of the ALDS and all of the ALCS.
“[UmpCam] is new for us so we’re thrilled to add it to the broadcast,” says Brown. “We’re working closely with the league and umpires’ association to make sure that everything is being done the right way and we’ve been really happy with what we’ve seen thus far.”
TNT Sports will team up with its colleagues at CNN and the in-house WBD drone team to fly a live drone both inside and outside the ballpark during the ALCS (except at Yankee Stadium, in which case it would just be inside the venue). The project has been in development for months and TNT Sports ran a full test during an Atlanta Braves game last month in order to get the league to give the in-ballpark drone a thumbs up.
“The big difference is going to be inside the stadium,” says Brown. We’ve been able to use drones outside of the stadium for quite a while, but we have generally not been able to fly them inside so that’s going to be big. They will primarily fly outside the field of play and never while play is happening.
“One of the other big concerns for the league was noise since we would like to be able to come in as low as possible,” adds Brown. “But we didn’t want it to be disruptive to player-coach conversations or anything like that. In the end we found a great solution and I think it’s going to be a game changer for us.”
Lastly, TNT Sports has installed a unique Fletcher monopod robotic camera in order to attain a low-home angle at the Kansas City Royals’ Kauffman Stadium that wouldn’t have been available with a manned camera. TNT Sports is also exploring possible use of bodycam and wired-aerial systems for the ALCS, but those plans are still in development.
After primarily producing its MLB regular season games remotely from its Techwood facility in Atlanta, the full production teams will return to on-site trucks for the Postseason. NEP’s ND6, Supershooter 1, Supershooter 8, and Supershooter 24 will handle the ALDS game productions.
WBD is transforming the Techwood facility – already a major production hub for the company – to better serve remote production workflows for a variety of TNT Sports properties, including MLB and NHL. Warner Bros. Discovery is currently building remote-production control rooms at their Techwood campus in Atlanta as part of its new Multi-Feed Production (MFP) model. By embracing the REMI model, TNT Sports believes it will be more agile and flexible in future productions, while reinvesting savings into the product without compromising quality.
“[The regular season] was our first big foray into the remote production workflow, by all counts on our side, it was a major success. I feel like we were able to achieve the production team’s main goal, which was to make the shift fully to remote production without sacrificing any production quality and without the viewers taking note of the fact that we’ve shifted that model. We’re very proud of that and excited to keep moving forward with remote production.”
In addition to the quintet of control rooms, the new Remote Operations Center at Techwood will manage remote EVS replay servers, graphics control, and other MFP production workflows.
With the MLB Postseason starting this weekend and NHL and NBA regular season right around the corner, Brown is taking a moment to look back at an action-packed year that’s included its share of highs and lows.
“The company [Warner Bros. Discovery]as a whole has gone through so many changes over the past couple years and we’ve faced a lot of challenges,” says Brown. “But through all the change and turbulence, our team has been able to remain focused and the execution has been solid across the board. The Postseason is a great opportunity to let those folks shine and show what we can do on the biggest stage. I could not be prouder of how we’ve all come together and delivered the best possible product for fans.”
