As Major League Baseball enters a new season on a wave of resurgent popularity, live game streaming could soon play a bigger role than ever in drawing fans to the game. 

Looking back, the biggest changes in 2023 were the new rules created to shorten the average length of an MLB regular season game, which had grown to a record 3 hours, 11 minutes in 2021. The new rule changes in 2023 reduced the average length of a MLB game down to only 2 hours and 42 minutes. 

The shorter games, however, have not changed the fact that the upheaval in regional sports network coverage in particular, has drawn attention to team owners’ efforts to maintain TV exposure, with some streaming services rolling out new technologies that could soon be impacting fan engagement on a much broader scale. 

How fast that impact will spread depends in part on what happens next in the unfolding saga that is consuming regional sports networks, but new demonstrations of what can be done to attract online viewers are not likely to be ignored no matter who ends up with individual teams’ broadcast and streaming rights.

The RSN Mess
For the most part, it looks like traditional TV coverage, primarily through team affiliations with RSNs and national TV network broadcasts from MLB Network, ESPN, TBS and others, will continue. But where things go with many teams after 2024—especially the 12 clubs broadcasting through Diamond Sports Group’s RSNs—remains to be seen.

Diamond, rescued from bankruptcy by $450 million in debt financing, $495 million in a suit settlement with owner Sinclair Broadcast, and $115 million from sale of a minority equity stake to Amazon, will cover 12 teams in 2024. Presumably, with its commitment to ongoing operations, it will seek to stay the course with at least some of those teams in the years ahead. 

Elsewhere, the defending Texas Rangers, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners, have set up pay TV broadcasting deals in the wake of Warner Bros. Discovery’s termination of AT&T Sportsnet last year, leaving the Colorado Rockies without a TV deal after working out support for a streaming service supported by the MLB.TV platform. The 14 other MLB teams’ RSN affiliations remain intact.

An important factor in what comes next for baseball on TV will be the approach to securing rights taken by broadcast station groups, which, as reported in our cover story this month, have capitalized on sports team owners’ preference for free TV’s reach over the diminishing viewership registered by RSNs. Several NBA teams have taken this route, and it’s likely broadcasters will want to bid competitively for MLB team rights as well in light of the sport’s renewed popularity.

The improvement was confirmed in recent consumer surveys by the polling company Ipsos and sports marketer Playfly Sports, both of which ranked baseball second only to football among pro sports in the U.S. in terms of popularity. Baseball stadium attendance surged 9.5% in 2023, the largest spike in 30 years, according to ESPN, which attributes some of that increase to the shorter games.

On the streaming side, Diamond RSN games will be available at a premium to Amazon Prime subscribers, and the other RSNs will continue their streaming services, most of which, like Diamond, use the MLB.TV platform. With streaming now the default source for 73% of American adults, according to Adtaxi, the experience of viewing baseball is about to become much more engaging.

MLB.TV Innovations
The most pervasive availability of new enhancements to baseball streaming is coming by way of the MLB.TV platform. The MLB.TV streaming service supports access to all teams at $149.99 annually while the regional RSN’ streaming services focus on single teams at much lower costs. 

MLB has long been at the forefront of streaming innovation. And Apple TV+ with the streaming component of its $9.99-per-month Friday Night Baseball package built on the MLB.TV platform is adding some bells and whistles related to other options available through its app store.

Much of what’s new this year is related to enhancements of popular features from last year, including expanded availability of Catch-up viewing of live game highlights to Xbox and Roku and simultaneous viewing of up to four games on supported Apple TV, Fire TV and Google TV devices. 

Also, MLB tells us, “We continue to add tailored VOD to the MLB.TV home screen based on the user’s favorite team, going beyond the top highlights and into home runs, minor league highlights, defensive highlights, data visualizations, longer-form features, and vault and archive content.”

Mirroring the MLB Network’s TV programming, streaming subscribers will again be able to access the live “lookins” to games around the league and other highlights. And, once again, they’ll have access to 7,000 streamed minor league games from affiliates of all MLB clubs.

MLB broadcasts and streaming will also make more use of dynamically inserted digital ads appearing virtually behind home plate. “EVI [electronic visual insertions] technology dynamically overlays those ads without changing any of the physical signs in stadiums,” MLB says.

YES and MSG are GAME
Unrelated to any reliance on the MLB.TV platform, an even more cutting-edge perspective on what’s doable in the streaming domain is coming from YES Network, broadcast home to the New York Yankees. Now in its third year, the YES App—with its support for an impressive range of features and interactivity—is setting a new benchmark in baseball streaming.

It’s one that other providers may soon find is easier to reach, if things go as planned with a new business created by YES Network and another regional sports broadcaster, MSG Network. They say they’re putting their streaming expertise to work through a joint venture they’re calling Gotham Advanced Media & Entertainment (GAME).

Along with collaborating to further enhance their own streaming services, the partners will be developing a turnkey platform service designed to provide customizable support for other parties’ locally branded streaming services. 

The YES App, which also streams games from the NBA’s Brooklyn, plus the New York WNBA and MLS franchises, is better known for its enhancements to user experiences than MSG’s streaming service MSGSN, which covers the NBA’s New York Knicks as well as the New York City area and Buffalo Sabres NHL teams, and, on occasion, the NFL’s New York Giants and Buffalo Bills.

Last year the YES App was named “Best Fan Engagement Tool” in the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards competition and won two gold awards as D2C platform of the year and best in fan engagement at the global SportsPro OTT Summit Awards.

Parties to the Gotham JV declined to discuss their plans, but just judging from what’s already on offer from YES App, GAME-supported services could end up expanding user experiences with baseball and other streamed sports in multiple directions. 

As described by Matt Duarte, vice president of strategy and business development at YES Network, the refinements YES has introduced on its streaming app going into this year’s Yankee season are incremental but significant improvements to major advancements the network has been implementing since the app launched in 2021. 

Just Like Opening Day
One aspect to what YES is doing with Yankee streaming this year has to do with “revamping the look and feel” of the YES Watch Party feature “at or close to opening day,” Duarte says. The app allows any user to text an invitation to one or two other users to join in the video chat, where each user is given independent control over the volume balance between their comments and the game audio. 

The YES iteration of watch parties with backend support from two U.K.-based suppliers—Evertz subsidiary Eaves Live and start-up Sceenic—is designed to bring the video chat element of shared viewing directly into the app as a tightly synchronized first-screen experience rather than running as a second-screen complement to the primary game feed. Synchronized reception of notoriously out-of-sync live unicast streams is an innovation that obviates reliance on alternative video conferencing infrastructures like those supported by the WebRTC protocol. 

“No matter what platform, Android, iOS, or web, you’re on, we synchronize the video reception so there are no spoilers from other participants,” Duarte says. Synchronized stream reception also plays a role in other interactive aspects of the YES App, he adds. 

Amid these advances in streaming experiences, it’s clear there’s much more to come. For example, last year MLB experimented with a virtual ballpark experience tied to its Gameday 3D application in conjunction with a September 20 Angels-Rays game at Tropicana Park. 

It remains to be seen whether and when MLB will bring such experiences back into play, but they point to the types of features that can now be supported with virtual technology. Using any type of connected personal 2D display device, users appearing onscreen as avatars could navigate the 3D environment via hand swipes or cursors and audibly interact and play games with other visitors. 

They could tap into a live game feed as would be seen from different locations in the stands or watch the game on virtual jumbotrons as they moved around the virtual stadium. These capabilities were enabled in part by technology supplied by U.K. based Improbable, which uses location coordinates and other data collected by each game camera to recreate a three-dimensional animated video rendition of the entire space.

The first question being asked in various circles about the 2023 Major League Baseball season is obvious: How will the new rules—the pitch clock, a limited number of pickoff throws and the end of defensive shifts—affect the approach of broadcasters, who will have an average of 30 less minutes of air to present per game? With the pitch clock, for instance, how will talent adjust to less time for analysis between pitches? And how does the quicker pace affect the approach with replays?

 Fortunately, MLB broadcasters and the other concerned parties like the MLB office (which tweaked the new rules in late March) had spring training to adapt to this new world, make mistakes and adjust in time for Opening Day.

Early in the 2023 pre-season, one MLB superstar weighed in on the new rules. “Really, the power the pitcher has now—I can totally dictate pace,” New York Mets right-hander Max Scherzer told Fox Sports. “The rule change of the hitter having only one timeout changes the complete dynamic of the hitter-and-pitcher dynamic. Yeah, I love it.”

Native 1080p
Although the new rules justifiably got the bulk of the pre-season press coverage, there are other new developments on the tech side, particularly for the MLB Network. 

“We plan to build out new technology that we’ve been working on for the past few seasons, such as transitioning our game coverage to native 1080p,” said Jason Hedgcock, senior director, remote technical operations for MLB Network.

But that’s not all. MLB Network, via its new Graphics Central group, can fully access its trucks from Secaucus, N.J. in real time. 

“That new graphics room can support four remote productions at once,” said Hedgcock, noting its four game benches with 6-8 seats per bench, as well as three graphics chairs, plus one each for Statcast, a researcher and a graphics producer, plus in-game, off-site umpire clarifications [à la the NFL], also with real-time connections to the mobile units.” 

However, the network’s biggest innovation for the 2023 season will hopefully debut during the stretch run and in time for the postseason. 

“The big deal this year is a [SMPTE] 2110 digital backbone,” said Jacob Soto, vice president, engineering and information technology for MLB Network. To enable this transition to the advanced video networking standard, the network is building a new Ross-based control room—with elements from EVS and Calrec—from the ground up. “We hope to have it online in August and ready for the post-season,” Soto added.

Super Motion
Fox is incorporating more super motion cameras in addition to the usual (up to) two, for each broadcast. “We’re boosting that number due to more games on the network,” said Brad Cheney vice president of field operations and engineering for Fox Sports, though he doesn’t yet know just how many or how often.

Fox also plans more in-game player interviews. “With this year’s rule changes, there will be more to talk about, such as pitching sequences or what went into completing a double-play,” etc., he said. 

As for those gamechanging new rules, “they’ll make MLB better to watch and will lead to us broadcasting more games in 1080p, with more super motion,” Cheney said, noting that Fox is working with MLB to find innovative angles, etc. “There’s much to be done, just not right off the bat.”

Entering the season, Fox “will stick to a minimum of nine cameras per game,” he said. “For FS1 broadcasts, we enhance the regional sports networks show.”

Another goal at Fox is to continue to leverage the trucks with its vendors, which include Game Creek Video, NEP and Mobile TV Group, which have all been upgrading their fleets to 1080p. “About half of their trucks have that capability now,” Cheney said. “As the NBC Sports RSNs move toward 1080p, that improves our offerings as they grow. And we’ll grow with them and aim to be the leaders in that technology.”

As for new techniques,  Fox has spent considerable time with cameras in the dirt and around the bases-especially since this season’s “pizza box” bases might offer more opportunity for enhancement, Cheney added.

“We’re looking for new angles, but that may take the whole season,” he said. “We have ideas in the pipeline with MLB, as do TBS, ESPN and Peacock, that we’ve used during the All-Star Game and postseason that we want to bring to the viewer.”

Cheney said Fox also wants to heighten its emphasis on sound. “We are continuing to develop new ways to bring the sounds of the game to our viewers, especially after how unbelievably loud it was in Philadelphia during last year’s World Series.”

‘The Dynamic Has Changed’
Back behind the lens, Phil Orlins, vice president of production for ESPN said “any camera decisions have to do with documenting the game,” which has to do with its magnitude and the financial implications.

Typically, the network will use the basic complement of 12 cameras, which “are mostly a combination of Sony HDC-4300s for super slo-mo and with HDC-2500s, with the remainder hard cameras with tripods and long lenses in the typical areas,” said Orlins, noting high and low third and first; the baselines; centerfield; a robotic at the home plate screen and a wireless roving handheld, with another for outside the ballpark and beauty shots.

“We can even use FaceTime in the feed, as we did during spring training when we featured [MLB pitching legend] Roger Clemens,” he said. “But we’re basically using the same equipment complement from last year, with new data wrinkles.”

As for the new rules, Orlins says the dynamic has changed. “For instance, we’ll now only have time for two replay angles; last season, it was four or five,” he said. “It’s going to be like football with hurry-up offenses, when were accustomed to a huddle before every play.”

However like some other observers who may seem leery of the changes, Orlins has “no doubt that the on-field product will be dramatically improved and that the broadcasters will adjust. Our ultimate plan is to incorporate the pitch clock into our scoreboard in the upper left hand corner of the screen.”

Hinting at more innovation to come, particularly in this seasons’ broadcasts from London and Williamsport, Pa., he said “There will still be ‘great stories to tell.’ They’ll just be presented “in a more condensed style for a fan base that had grown weary of waiting.” 

MUNICH, Germany—Cinegy has hired Tab Butler, a former executive with the MLB Network to expand the company’s presence in the U.S. market. Butler—who was Sr. Director for Media Management & Post Production at MLB Network, where he had oversight of building the infrastructure for the initial launch of the network along with subsequent upgrades and broadcast technology deployments—has also served in senior sales roles with technology vendors such as Grass Valley, EMC, and SeaChange International as well as at NBC. He received two Emmy Awards while at NBC, and seven Emmy Awards and one Edison Award while at MLB Network.  

Commenting on his collaboration with Cinegy, Butler, whose title will be "M&E Advisor" to Cinegy said, “I am delighted to be joining forces with Cinegy to help bring to market products and systems that are leaders in their space and solve workflow problems for customers.  Defining emerging technology and workflows to meet the needs of customers as they explore hybrid Cloud—On-prem solutions and workflows is very exciting.”   

Butler says he is familiar with Cinegy products, having used them from the early days of the company and that the company's products “were pivotal, key components in large and small projects” when building solutions in his previous role at MLB Network. For example, when building MAM environments, the original Daniel codec was a critical part of the wider post-production Adobe Premier workflow, he added. 

“Cinegy’s Daniel codec enabled post-production workflows to be seamlessly integrated between Vizrt graphics engines and Adobe Premier. This allowed enhanced workflows that were simplified for the operators while increasing the speed of delivery” added Butler. “Cinegy Capture has been instrumental in scaling record environments into 100’s of channels providing rich API features, functionality, reliability, and sustainability. Cinegy Playout has complemented the Capture workflows providing a tightly integrated playback platform.  When combined with Cinegy Desktop and Archive, the power of the Cinegy tools come together to create an impressive MAM and Archive solution.”  

Cinegy Managing Director Daniella Weigner said, “We are delighted to work with Tab and tap into his deep knowledge and experience of the US market. This is one of the markets we have earmarked for growth and where we believe our flexible, scalable solutions offer customers a clear migration path to hyper agile cloud environments. Tab knows first-hand the benefits that our solutions deliver and can speak to customers from experience; together we can best serve customers as they make the futureproof investments that will enable them to create success in this dynamic media sector.” 

Butler, who is based in New York City, will join Laura Thommen and Cinegy’s Business Development Manager, Andrew Ward, for a webinar discussing Cinegy’s activities and the M&E marketplace in the US on Tuesday 15 November 2022 at 12pm EST (9am PT). Register for a free place here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8348108431154562576

Apple today unveiled details about its Friday Night Baseball games, which debut on Apple TV+, April 8. 

“Friday Night Baseball” games and additional content, including new exclusive programs such as “Countdown to First Pitch” and “MLB Daily Recap,” begin today in the Apple TV app.

The broadcast team includes Melanie Newman (play-by-play), Chris Young (analyst), Hannah Keyser (analyst), and Brooke Fletcher (reporter) will call the New York Mets at the Washington Nationals at 7 p.m. ET; and Stephen Nelson (play-by-play), Hunter Pence (analyst), Katie Nolan (analyst), and Heidi Watney (reporter) comprise the crew that will call the Houston Astros at the Los Angeles Angels game at 9:30 p.m. ET. 

Game assignments for “Friday Night Baseball” broadcasters will be announced on a weekly basis. In her new role with “Friday Night Baseball,” Newman becomes the second woman to lead play-by-play duties for a national broadcast team; she joined the Baltimore Orioles’ broadcast team in 2020.

Apple has hired MLB Network’s production team to produce the games and Apple says the coverage ”will offer a modern and dynamic broadcast experience that appeals to new viewers and veteran fans alike.”

Each game broadcast will employ state-of-the-art cameras, including high-speed Phantoms, the high-resolution Megalodon, and more throughout the season to present vivid, live-action shots, and offer immersive sound in 5.1 with spatial audio enabled.

“Friday Night Baseball” will also incorporate new on-screen graphics that include new probabilities-based forecasts of different situational outcomes, plus highlights and live look-ins from around the league integrated right into the broadcast. Throughout the “Friday Night Baseball” broadcasts, fans will be able to listen to on-screen callouts about batters’ walk-up songs from Apple Music, test their knowledge of baseball trivia with help from Siri, and more. And, in a first for MLB games, “Friday Night Baseball” will feature rules analysis and interpretation from former MLB umpire Brian Gorman.

“Friday Night Baseball” live pre- and postgame coverage will be hosted by Lauren Gardner, along with a rotating group of analysts and former Major League Baseball (MLB) players, including Carlos Peña, Cliff Floyd, and Yonder Alonso.

In addition to two marquee games on Friday nights throughout the regular season, Apple TV+ will offer new 24/7 live programming with MLB game replays, news and analysis, highlights, classic games, and more. On Thursday, “Countdown to First Pitch” will preview the week’s upcoming games, and every morning, “MLB Daily Recap” will offer highlights from across the league, both available only on Apple TV+. The “MLB Big Inning” whip-around show will feature live look-ins and in-game highlights every weeknight. Additionally, fans will be able to watch full games, as well as condensed game replays, on demand on Apple TV+ after the completion of the live broadcasts each week.

“Friday Night Baseball” games will be available on any device that carries Apple TV+, including on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K and HD, and on tv.apple.com, along with smart TVs, gaming consoles, and cable set-top boxes. “Friday Night Baseball” will be available on Apple TV+ in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and for a limited time, without the need for a subscription. 

BALTIMORE—After a contentious, months-long lockout between its players and owners, Major League Baseball got back in the game last month with a new agreement. On the heels of that announcement came news of a new player in the 2022 lineup that’s joining MLB Network, Fox Sports and ESPN: Apple TV+.

The deal between MLB and Apple TV+ is the latest extension of what’s been happening in other sports leagues, such as ESPN exclusively carrying selected NHL games on ESPN+; it calls for Apple TV+ to carry two Friday night games under a similar arrangement.

While the reportedly $85 million, seven-year deal was light on details, it led to more discussion about how viewers consume live sports, and just how Apple will present the games. Will it create its own infrastructure, with broadcast and production crews? Or stream via mlb.com?  

The economics suggest that the overall setup may soon include a variety of sports programming. Today, however, all involved are just happy to see the 2022 season get underway.

Leading Off
As the lockout ended, MLB Network was preparing to roll out a key update at its headquarters in Secaucus, N.J.: the refresh of Studio 3, so named for George Herman “Babe” Ruth.

“Studio 3 has been a workhorse for us,” said Susan Stone, senior vice president, operations/engineering for MLB Network. “It has seven distinct areas, including a spot for social media that we’ve turned into a demo area.”

That demo area, dubbed the “On Deck Circle,” features a 2.6mm LED floor in an appropriate 12-foot radius, with SemiLumen floor tiles and interactive touch capability. “It can present moving video, sponsor signage,” said Stone, “or anything we want.”

Other parts of the update include a media wall, dubbed “the Backstop,” which measures 23x13 feet, with 1.8mm SemiLumen tiles. Other new features include a curved 1.9mm LED wall, called (of course) “the Curve,” which measures a whopping 30x11 feet; and a new second news desk fronted by a curved 2x9-foot LED screen. The latter two displays are flexible.

The engines for the four new screens in Studio 3 are revved by Avid’s Maestro 4K system. The additions were created by New York-based Clickspring Design and built by Dimensional Worldwide with equipment from GrantAV. 

In addition to Studio 3, MLB Network will continue to work with its colleagues at the Office of the the Commissioner on expanded use of Statcast 3D, which analyzes player movements and athletic abilities; and FieldVision, which uses tracking data and transforms it into a 3D experience.

 Coming Soon
So, how did Fox Sports monitor if and/or when the 2022 season was going to start, and how it will start getting set up at the various MLB ballparks? 

“We didn’t really know what our schedule was going to look like if/when the players came back,” said Michael Davies, senior vice president, field and technical operations for Fox Sports. Still, “As we’ve worked on the tent poles [for the All-Star and Field of Dreams games], this preparation did not stop and kept its pace.” 

Concerning new ways to capture content, which the major networks often present during signature events, Davies was noncommittal. He did, however, hint at new approaches. 

“It’s too early to tell,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of innovation with our dirt cams and mic-ing of players,” he said. “I think that the All-Star Game will, once again, be all about access. We do have some new things in store for the ‘Field of Dreams,’ but I don’t think we’ll be unveiling them until later.  

“What I will say,” said Davies, “is that we’ll double down on drones, cinema cameras and all of the things that made the ‘Field of Dreams’ game special last year.” 

Back to School
Phil Orlins, vice president, production for ESPN, said the network’s innovation is “directed more toward MLB, with some also directed toward college” and that new technology “has more to do with information, data, screen layout,” etc., “as they are with cameras.”

Meg Aronowitz, vice president, noting that the network carries 2,000 college baseball and softball games every season, elaborated about ESPN’s extensive schedule. The hubs for its productions are the control rooms, with the spokes the fiber connections to the network’s facilities in Bristol, Conn.; Charlotte, N.C.; and The Woodlands (Houston).

As for the tech setup required when various conferences and many colleges are involved, Aronowitz discussed “The School Project,” which consists of 29 Southeast Conference (SEC) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) institutions that operate and staff their own control rooms as ESPN’s partners. “That’s where the bulk of our programming originates.”

Typical game coverage consists of five-camera coverage, with operators stationed at the traditional spots: high home, high first, centerfield, low first and low third (compared to seven or eight locations for a typical MLB regional sports net presentation), with the cameras of choice being Sony 1500s to 2500s (and perhaps 4300s for super slo-mo), and various Ikegamis and Canon lenses.

“We throw more resources at the bigger games,” she said, noting that the equipment roster is most often rounded out with Ross Xpressions for graphics, Evertz DreamCatcher replay systems and routers, and Clear-Com and Riedel for comms.

Telling Stories
Still, control room technology “can vary depending on the school, but most are multi-million dollar facilities equipped for major network productions,” Aronowitz said. For SEC and ACC broadcasts, trucks aren’t needed, but can be on other occasions. “That’s when a truck would be brought in from NEP, Game Creek or F&F. Or there could be a REMI setup when the network only does camera feeds or maybe just a sprinter van,” she said.

While college baseball is decidedly a lower-budget affair, there are still many similarities with MLB broadcasts, Aronowitz added.

That said, the college game also offers greater possibilities: ESPN just aired a softball tournament in Florida that included 40 games, with four games from four fields often aired simultaneously, with 20 on the various ESPN networks; the other half streamed via ESPN+.

“We didn’t have that option pre-ESPN+,” Aronowitz said. “We feel that there are a thousand ways to tell a story. Between Phil and I, we make the best decisions with the resources we have to get as many games on the air as possible.” 

Fox Sports' Michael Davies will discuss the network's live production strategies during the panel "New Life for Live Production Tech" at the TV Tech Summit, March 31.   

NEW YORK—Baseball fans may not have to go out to the ball game to feel like they are actually there with a newly announced partnership between Major League Baseball and Japan’s NTT technology company. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and NTT President and CEO Jun Sawada announced the multi-year partnership at MLB headquarters on Sept. 4.

The goal of the partnership is to create new experiences for baseball fans. As the new “Official MLB Fan Experience Partner for Ultra Reality Viewing” and “Title Sponsor of MLB Network Ballpark Cam,” NTT will be able to utilize MLB’s distribution platforms, including digital, mobile, social, offline and television.

NTT’s “Ultra Reality Viewing” will be a key part of its offering for baseball fans. URV is a real-time, super high-definition surround video synthesis technology that combines multiple 4K camera images into a 12K image in real time and transmits it to remote locations. Prototype URV experiences are being planned for select upcoming MLB games, with specific details announced at a later date.

NTT will also serve as the title sponsor for MLB’s Ballpark Cam technology, which is a network of cameras installed across all 30 ballparks used for pre- and post-game coverage on MLB Network.

“We’re excited NTT has committed to building an expanded baseball technology portfolio and we eagerly anticipate what the partnership will deliver for clubs and fans,” said Manfred. “Sharing, and executing on, a vision to leverage advanced technologies to benefit baseball fans will serve as the foundation for how our NTT partnership will explore and experiment with unique ways to create new baseball experiences.”

WESTMORE, VT.—Millions of Major League Baseball fans who vicariously live through their favorite players for at least a few moments each game had the chance to rachet up that experience during Fox Sports’ presentation of the MLB All-Star Game last month.

For the rest of us, who simply want a fresh, new perspective on the game, the broadcaster delivered as well with the help of a new POV camera system from ActionStreamer.

“Our company’s founder, [former NFL middle linebacker] Dhani Jones, saw that something was missing from sports coverage,” says Max Eisenberg, CEO and one of ActionStreamer’s three founders. “He had a big passion towards the end of his playing career for giving fans the first-person perspective he was having on the field.”

'NICE SOLID SHOTS'

For the MLB All-Star Game that meant outfitting several players and coaches with extremely lightweight (100 grams) POV hat and helmet camera/transmitting units to give fans a viewpoint on the game from behind the plate in the bullpen, from the first base coach’s box, inside the dugout and even of an entrance of Twins pitcher Jose Berrios from the bullpen to the mound. “That was the first-ever live in-game player perspective integrated into a telecast,” says Eisenberg.

Brad Cheney, vice president field operations at Fox Sports was particularly impressed with the HatCams worn by the first base coaches for both leagues.

“The HatCams showed us a lot of closeup action at first,” says Cheney. Taking wider shots than what Fox typically shoots, the HatCams captured whole plays developing as well as the first base coach walking up to a player and grabbing gear. “It gave us the opportunity for some nice solid shots,” he says.

Those following the game on Twitter weren’t left out of the POV action as Major League Baseball Tweeted out video highlights captured by the wearable ActionStreamer systems.

THE TECHNOLOGY

ActionStreamer systems consist of three major components: 

• wireless camera streaming system worn by players and coaches

• proprietary software and networking technology

• patented image stabilization algorithm

The wearable system consists of a camera sensor, lens, battery, digital gyroscope, computer processor and radio, he explains. “Some of this is custom; some is off-the-shelf,” says Eisenberg. “The real value we provide is the software and networking.”

The company has six patents on its approach to making efficient use of bandwidth, which taken together, enable 10 or more camera-transmitter units to operate at once, says Eisenberg.

ActionStreamer radios operate in the 3.5GHz and 5GHz band –typically less congested spectrum, he says. The amount of available spectrum is treated as a networkwide resource and allocated to each ActionStreamer unit, he says.

Every unit typically operates within its own set of assigned parameters. However, if a unit experiences bandwidth challenges, parameters such as bit rate, bit depth and frame rate can be adjusted automatically to overcome the problem.

If doing so fails to allow the camera to transmit its shot, additional bandwidth can be dedicated to the unit, shifting some of the bandwidth allocated to other cameras on the network till the feed is streamed successfully, says Eisenberg.

“It’s a very managed approach. We are able to make the most efficient use of air time and bandwidth to bring more perspectives to life,” he explains.

Another important piece of ActionStreamer intellectual property relates to image stabilization. “Using a digital gyroscope, we pull the angular velocities with each frame of video,” says Eisenberg. “That helps our system to know how much head movement there is in the shot.”

The company is at work developing a system to leverage this data to apply in real time the right amount of offset to make shots steadier and more enjoyable to watch, he adds.

SETTING UP

At the moment, ActionStreamer arrives at the game venue a day or so before the telecast to survey the stadium or arena, identify fiber drops where its receive antennas can be located so shots transmitted by its cameras can be relayed to the production compound and set up its equipment rack.

For the All-Star Game, three receive antennas were deployed: one at about the 300 level above home plate; one in the first-base-side dugout; and one in the National League bullpen, Eisenberg said.

Eventually, the company intends to do stadium installs and season installs, giving its crew more time to do testing and tuning, he adds.

Fox Sports has been looking for a technology to provide POV shots for at least the past four years, says Cheney.

The stars aligned for the broadcaster to be able to deploy the ActionStreamer system as part of its All-Star Game coverage. First, ActionStreamer isn’t “modifying actual pieces of equipment as much as it is adaption to equipment that exists,” says Cheney. That’s especially important to players, who don’t want to be hindered by some foreign apparatus, and to the league, which wants to maintain the safety and well-being of players.

Second, ActionStreamer began testing its equipment with the MLB Network and the league itself earlier in the season so both operations were quite familiar with the technology, says Cheney.

Finally, the All-Star Game is an exhibition game, not an official contest that, for example, determines home field advantage in the World Series as it has in the past, making the decision to deploy ActionStreamer easier, he says.

Cheney envisions using ActionStreamer POV shots in the Fox Sports post-season Major League Baseball coverage. “And with our regional networks, usually what we do here turns into what they do at the beginning of next season for a full season,” he says.

As for ActionStreamer, the company is looking to deploy its technology to cover other sports. “We have a deal with the Arena Football League,” says Eisenberg. “About a month ago in the AFL, we brought a livestreaming football helmet into a live game for the first time ever.

“We are now looking at a variety of other sports that can benefit from our technology.”

More information is available on the ActionStreamer website.

Major League Baseball fans can tweet all they want in the hope of catching the attention of their favorite baseball personalities. But only the Chatting Cage, a collaboration between the league and sponsor Edward Jones, gives baseball fans the opportunity to pose questions and speak directly via reliable, live video chat with the game’s biggest names.

“Video call-in is what makes the Chatting Cage a special opportunity for fans and players alike,” said Chris Lundberg, senior coordinating producer for MLB.com. “We get calls from all kinds of fans, from kids asking All-Star hitters for tips to break out of a slump to adults with thoughtful questions based on their lifelong passion for the game. The Chatting Cage brings MLB and its fans closer together.”

Stability of video chats had been a thorn in the side of producers. Last fall, the MLB.com team sat down with The Video Call Center to discuss a different approach — a complete live video call production solution built around VCC’s patented video caller management system, Caller Queue.

[Read: MLB Partners With The Video Call Center To Manage Live Video Caller Production]

The Video Call Center solution offered MLB numerous video call options. Callers use popular calling apps they already have on their devices such as FaceTime (native on iPhones), Web-RTC-based Gruveo (built into Android) which only requires a browser, or Skype. The VCC has patented reliability-enhancing technology to further stabilize and improve call quality, and according to the company it has achieved success with 99.3% of all calls the system has fielded for commercial customers.

NEW HOME, NEW TECH

As the 2018 season approached, the Chatting Cage team prepared to move from its original home within Manhattan’s Chelsea Market to the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. With the move came the opportunity to revisit the technology and workflows used to create the show’s unique fan interaction. 

“Changing technology and workflow for the show presents a variety of challenges at any time,” said Lundberg. “Having to make the shift while moving facilities probably could have been insurmountable. Along with the technical team at MLB Network, the VCC were great partners and, despite the tight timetable, we were able to successfully launch to air on time.”

With project management assistance from the VCC, system preparation began Feb 14 and by March 6, the Chatting Cage team was in rehearsal using the system. VCC’s interface system provides flexible connectivity for broadcast facilities, which helped smooth the transition. For example, VCC was readily configurable for embedded audio used in Secaucus instead of unbalanced AES3 needed in the Chelsea facility.

One of the challenges faced when bringing live video callers to air is the fact that there’s no crew at the caller’s end. While the video feed of players comes from MLB Network’s award-winning Ballpark Cam, a network of in-venue cameras, fans are using phones, tablets and laptops from wherever they happen to be.

The show’s call screener, Segment Producer Marissa Morris, serves as gatekeeper and the first person with whom every caller interacts. Morris trained with video call production experts from the VCC who went over different techniques to ensure calls are the best possible in terms of video and audio presentation. “They taught us that small changes can have a big impact,” said Morris. “Asking a person to move closer to a window or to use headphones in a public place makes a huge difference.”

CUSTOM-BRANDED

To join a show, callers first enter the online Caller Queue, the VCC’s cloud-based caller management platform which has been custom-branded for MLB. Callers provide basic identifying information, the question they wish to ask, as well as specify their preferences regarding video calling apps. The Caller Queue permits the call producers to see all the candidates for air, what devices they are on, what topic they would like to discuss, and select them for air.

After reviewing the information, Morris uses the VCC text chat feature to introduce herself and set expectations about when she will call the fan. Text chat is a new feature, integrated into the VCC platform at the request of MLB.

A few minutes before the fan joins the live show, Morris will call them via their preferred app. If the chosen app is problematic, Morris can quickly reconnect via another option. Crop marks on the laptop help her work directly with the fan for ideal framing.

“In the past, we had only one option for video chat,” Lundberg said. “If an issue popped up in making the caller’s camera work with the system, or the connectivity wasn’t great, our only choice was to move on to the next caller.”

VCC call computers are in racks alongside other MLB production equipment. Outputs are fed to a monitor in the control room so operators can QC visuals at air time. But, when it comes to running the show, all that is needed is a laptop.

ON THE FLY

Having four VCC call computers online makes it far less stressful for Morris to juggle large volumes of callers. “We have the option to have four different fans fully vetted and ready to go,” he said. “Having choices means we can bring in a caller who is relevant to what is happening at any moment in the show, rather than relying solely on chronological order. And while we have yet to experience an unresolvable technical issue with a caller, we always have a fallback option.”

When the show’s drivers bring a caller to air, the show visually shifts to a three-up screen that includes the host, guest, and the fan. VCC’s Call Manager Pro system automatically clears all the interface buttons and return video windows normally displayed by calling apps, so all viewers see is distraction-free video. After the question is posed, the show switches to a two-box for the response, with the option to revert to three-box if follow up is required. Morris explains to the fan what they will see on screen, so they aren’t surprised when their video feed vanishes.

“The Chatting Cage has been on MLB.com in various forms for several years, even prior to when I joined the show,” said Lundberg. “The VCC platform along with the helpfulness and experience of their call production team has made this the best iteration yet. The result is a completely unique opportunity to grow the connection between MLB, its teams, players and fans.”

Evan Sirof is president of Marcomm-on-Call.

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NEW YORK—Baseball season is almost here, and with it comes the traditions we all know and love; the smell of fresh cut crass, the crack of the bat, and a weekly game available on Facebook. The latter is a new addition to the 2018 baseball season, as MLB and Facebook are expanding the partnership they began in 2017 that will now see Facebook produce and broadcast a weekly game—25 in total—that will exclusively be distributed on Facebook Watch in the U.S. via the MLB Live show page.

The weekly afternoon games will be produced by MLB Network’s production team for Facebook Watch and will be available across supported devices, including mobile phones and connected televisions. MLB Network is planning to showcase new in-game production elements designed for watching, sharing and interacting on Facebook.

Specially curated content that goes along with each game broadcast will be produced and distributed by MLB, including on-demand highlight packages for all regular season games and club-specific weekly recap packages for all 30 teams. These will also be available on Facebook.

[Intel, MLB Close Three-Year Deal for VR Experiences]

Details on broadcast talent and social integrations will be announced at a later date.

The premiere of the weekly broadcast will be on April 4 with a matchup of the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets at 1:10 p.m. ET. The complete schedule for April has already been announced and is as follows: Milwaukee Brewers vs. St. Louis Cardinals, April 11 at 1:15 p.m.; Kansas City Royals vs. Toronto Blue Jays, April 18 at 4:07 p.m.; and Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Philadelphia Phillies, April 26 at 1:05 p.m. Each additional monthly broadcast schedule will be announced during the season.

Fans can add games to their Watchlists by following the MLB Live show page.

LOS ANGELES—The baseball season is in its final stretch, and while there is much excitement for this year’s postseason, the end of the regular season will also mean the end to the legendary career of broadcaster Vin Scully. The voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the past 67 years announced that the 2016 season would be his last, and this weekend will mark the final time he will call a game from Dodgers Stadium.

Vin Scully (Photo credit: officialvinscully.com)

Scully, 88, has had a national presence throughout his career and because of this multiple reports indicate that the MLB Network plans to share his final game from Chavez Ravine with the entire country. MLB Network will simulcast the Dodgers/Colorado Rockies game on Sunday, Sept. 25, at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. This simulcast will not be available in Los Angeles or Colorado per blackout restrictions, but the game will be available through its normal broadcast means.

Scully’s final broadcast will be as the Dodgers wrap up their season against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco on Oct. 2. Though the Dodgers are expected to make the playoffs, Scully will not be participating in postseason coverage.

STOCKHOLM—Ericsson’s PIERO real-time sports graphics software is heading to the big leagues, as Ericsson has signed a multi-year contract with MLB Network to provide its graphics service.

PIERO is a sports graphics software that is integrated with major sports data providers to enable data visualization. A range of graphical effects can be added to videos, including markers, counters, heat maps, formations and 3D flyarounds for either live productions or highlight shows. PIERO Augmented Reality is the latest addition to the PIERO product suite and allows broadcasters to go beyond 2D graphics.

MLB Network will utilize the PIERO system across all of its programming as the MLB season heads into the home stretch.

LIÈGE, BELGIUM—EVS is taking the MLB Network to different ball parks across the country thank to recently added systems that are helping to boost the network’s remote production capabilities. Using the EVS Xplore web-browsing interface and XSquare file exchange system, MLB Network production teams can access and enhance live content from an event venue at its New Jersey headquarters, without needing to go through the cloud.

The Xplore interface allows production teams to view live streams, create media packages and archive without impacting production truck workflows and resources onsite, per EVS. It features a multi-camera interface and provides producers instant access and selection for repurposing, re-packaging and second-screen companion apps, as well as allowing archivists to log and make content available as it occurs.

Xplore is enabled by XSquare, which provides secure file exchange through WAN/LAN connections for immediate and direct access to live multi-camera recording feeds and clips on EVS XT3 servers at the venue. Both systems are part of the EVS C-Next content contribution platform.

BURBANK, CALIF.—MLB Network kicked off Opening Day to the 2016 baseball season with some new looks graphics courtesy of Reality Check Systems. RCS and the MLB Network collaborated on a new graphics package, a cloud-based software that organizes real-time stats and combines them with appropriate designs and templates to play-out on the air.

RCS says it oversaw a renovation of MLB Network’s data center, replacing old systems with new technology and integrating it with RCS Foundation. The software aggregates and sorts incoming stats, combines them with Viz templates, and makes the graphics available in MLB Network’s Viz Content Pilot.

According to RCS’ press release, this was the first graphic redesign for MLB Network since in launched in 2009. 

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.—America’s pastime is official back for a new season, and MLB Network recently announced that it has deployed DataDirect Networks’ MEDIAScaler GS7K storage system to manage its reported 40 petabytes of archive footage storage.

MLB Network’s DIAMOND System is its asset management system for its tape-based archive system. With the new addition of DDN’s MEDIAScaler, combined with an archive middleware, to help accelerate and streamlin the network’s ability to manage and access the digital content housed in the archive.

MEDIAScaler is a file-based storage system for rich media workflows. The system provides concurrent access to content for global users while accelerating transcode, reducing hardware footprint and integrating with the Cloud. It provided end-to-end digital content management and data protection in a single unit, and enables media organizations to cache files on a high-performance platform.

“The four 40 Gigabit ports on each GS7K controller enables faster access to content, while allowing more content to stream more tape drives simultaneously, allowing us to scale to meet our growing needs,” said Tab Butler, senior director of post-production and media management at MLB Network.

REDWOOD SHORES, CALIF.—In a 162 game season, there is a lot of footage that needs to be stored. To do so, MLB Network has turned to Oracle and its DIVArchive and StorageTek SL8500 modular library system to collect and store content from its TV programming, game telecasts and replays.

StorageTek SL8500

The Oracle DIVArchive system is part of the MLB Network’s digital asset management system, dubbed the DIAMOND system, which includes a custom set of metadata tools to search, retrieve and create collections and lists of elements from its video footage. The DIVArchive helps the system select the footage to do a partial file restore from any game. MLB Network can also utilize DIVArchive tools like the DIVAProtect, as well as support the Archive Exchange Format.

MLB Network’s archive resides on Oracle’s StorageTek SL8500, with 3,000 slots that takes in about 50 TB of content and swaps out 400-500 cartridges daily.