{"id":33890,"date":"2011-11-10T14:03:44","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T19:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/main\/?p=33890"},"modified":"2011-11-10T14:03:44","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T19:03:44","slug":"despite-midseason-debut-nfl-networks-thursday-night-football-is-already-in-high-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/2011\/11\/10\/despite-midseason-debut-nfl-networks-thursday-night-football-is-already-in-high-gear\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Midseason Debut, NFL Network\u2019s Thursday Night Football Is Already in High Gear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than a week after celebrating its eighth anniversary, NFL Network will launch its sixth season of Thursday Night Football<\/em> tonight, complete with a new team of announcers and a variety of production enhancements. The network will once again travel a full remote studio show each week along with the actual game production, creating a two-pronged production that is among the most complex in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are unique in that we have two broadcasts going at the same time: one serving the game and the other serving the studio show and NFL.com,\u201d says Director of Technical Operations Dave Shaw. \u201cWe have a total of nine trucks here doing multiple shows, so it is really a massive undertaking every single week.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Booth Gets New Toys<\/strong>
\nThis year, play-by-play man Brad Nessler and color commentator Mike Mayock join Thursday Night Football<\/em>\u2019s 17-person coverage team. In an effort to highlight Mayock\u2019s film-breakdown skills, NFL Network has provided him with a dedicated EVS workstation, dubbed Mayock\u2019s X\u2019s and O\u2019s. Using the workstation, Mayock can control video playback and isolate specific moments during a play for analysis.<\/p>\n

In addition, NFL Network will integrate the LiberoVision 360-degree replay system into the Thursday Night Football<\/em> telecast. The system brings together different camera angles and allows analysts to virtually spin around the replay to see the play from different angles. NFL Network has been using LiberoVision in its studio shows for the past month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will probably use it a handful of times during each live game as well,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cWe are not anticipating extensive use as we\u2019re getting used to it, but we are hoping for a few plays each game.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Mammoth Production<\/strong>
\nFor game coverage, the studio show, and NFL.com, NFL Network deploys a total of 34 cameras for the average Thursday Night Football<\/em> production. This includes a CableCam, two Fletcher Sports’ I-Movix extreme-slow-motion camera systems, and two super-slo-mo cameras. In addition, Shaw and company have a total of 15 EVS production servers at their disposal (12 for game coverage and three for the studio).<\/p>\n

The eight-game, seven-week Thursday Night Football<\/em> slate will use nearly 10 trucks, with Game Creek Video\u2019s Dynasty handling game coverage and the company\u2019s Intrepid on the studio show, which consists of two hours pregame and at least a half hour postgame. In addition, various Alliance Productions trucks are used as C and D units throughout the compound.<\/p>\n

Thursday Night Football<\/em> will have a veteran crew along the front bench, with director Artie Kempner and producers Ed Feibischoff and Mark Teitelman returning.<\/p>\n

Making Week 1 Look Like Week 10<\/strong>
\nIn an effort to hit the ground running, NFL Network conducted two full rehearsals earlier this season, working alongside ESPN at that network\u2019s Monday Night Football<\/em> productions in Tampa Bay, FL, \u00a0in Week 4 and\u00a0 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey in Week 6. In Week 6 for Jets-Dolphins, NFL Network actually used CBS Sports\u2019 facilities and some of its crew since CBS was producing the Giants game the day before.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur new announce team was able to practice together, and we were able to test our graphics in a live atmosphere,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cCBS was very helpful in letting us use their facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5.1 Leap<\/strong>
\nOn the audio side of things, Thursday Night Football<\/em> will be delivered to the home in full Dolby 5.1 surround sound for the first time this year. The NFL Network crew will look to take advantage of the entire 5.1 spectrum by adding several new mics to the production. In addition, outfitting the center with a microphone (as all networks have done this season following the NFLPA\u2019s ok in the new collective-bargaining agreement),\u00a0 the network will deploy a more directional Sennheiser microphone on the CableCam.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new CableCam mic is more directional, so we can get a little closer to the action,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cThe fullness of that surround sound changes the whole game. It\u2019s so much more immersive.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the offseason, NFL Network used its 24-week Arena Football League package as a test bed to perfect its sound mix. As a result, Thursday Night Football<\/em> A1 Joe Carpenter has a good feel for the package\u2019s first season in 5.1 surround.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to make the viewer at home feel like they\u2019re actually sitting in the stands, and we feel like we\u2019ve done that,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cAs a result of our experience with Arena Football, we learned a lot, and we\u2019re very comfortable with [our mix].\u201d<\/p>\n

The Feed for NFL.com<\/strong>
\nIn addition to the game coverage and studio show, NFL Network provides NFL.com with two dedicated camera feeds \u2014 one behind each end zone \u2014 and two routed camera feeds during the entire game. The .com show also has a dedicated producer and tech manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are producing a whole other show from here,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cThey are an integral part of what we do here. They can take clips all game long and can do updates and reports exclusively for NFL.com.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday Night Football debuts on NFL Network Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. ET, with the Oakland Raiders at the San Diego Chargers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less than a week after celebrating its eighth anniversary, NFL Network will launch its sixth season of Thursday Night Football tonight, complete with a new team of announcers and a […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[415,519,507,417,3011,577,663,5720],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}