Bexel Takes ‘One Shining Moment’ Fully Non-Linear

After the trophy has been presented and the nets have been cut down, CBS Sports ends each NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game broadcast with a treasured sports tradition: the “One Shining Moment” montage.

This year, CBS took its editing workflow for the piece into the next generation. For the first time, the building of “One Shining Moment” was fully non-linear, removing the need for tape delivery and linking the editors into the overall production network.

Bexel’s BBS1, a 53-ft. mobile-production truck, was on-site in the truck compound outside the Superdome and served as the editing hub for CBS, handling “One Shining Moment” as well as all other teases and specialty shoots used during the weekend’s broadcasts.


Last year, F&F Productions, which supplied the mobile units for CBS during Final Four weekend, upgraded all its EVS servers to Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) networking capabilities and added EVS XFile software.

Bexel’s BBS1 truck, the editing hub for CBS Sports during Final Four weekend, was connected to the rest of the compound via GigE-driven EVS network.

That set the stage for Bexel to lay down 18 runs of Cat 6 cable — more than 4,000 ft. in total — to connect all of the GigE between BBS1 and the game truck, F&F’s GTX-16, to set up the network.

“Through the IPDirector network, we were able to find the clips from all different angles,” says Bexel engineer Lane Robbins. “If the producer liked the high shot but thought the low would be better, he could just punch in the timecode, get the low angles, and slap it in there.”

Says Ken Aagaard, EVP of operations and production services for CBS Sports, “We’re finally climbing into the 21st century. It makes things a lot quicker and easier. It’s a little bit different way of thinking,” he adds. “Our editors have to think a little bit differently, but they are all very comfortable with what we’re doing.”

That sort of connectivity among all the trucks had a tremendous impact on the efficiency in which “One Shining Moment” and other preproduced pieces were assembled.

“The speed at which [we are] able to cut that final piece of ‘One Shining Moment’ is critical because we don’t have a lot of time to turn it around,” says John McCrae, director of field operations for CBS Sports. “Doing it on EVS, we can actually begin airing it before the end of it is finished.”

After the game, Robbins said that wasn’t required because the final cut was aired in its entirety off an Avid Media Composer via F&F’s GTX-16. A total of three Media Composers were on board BBS1 and were provided by Creative Mobile Solutions, whose owner Noah Gusdorff was on-site to assist.