ESPN covers record number of Little League games with Gearhouse Broadcast USA

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With ESPN taking its efforts at the Little League World Series to a new level this summer by showing more games than ever before, SVG has gone behind the scenes to learn more about the automated-production realm that was deployed to make such an ambitious undertaking possible.

The “efficient model” that ESPN describes in the article enables them to cover games that would not have been covered before. It includes the deployment of six Gearhouse Broadcast production trucks, each outfitted with a SimplyLive ViBox semi-automated-production system in a two-person, two-screen operator configuration. This meant that two operators could cover the combined positions of Director/TD, and Producer/Replay Op, working side-by-side to carry out multiple functions concurrently.

Gearhouse Broadcast’s 40 ft trucks Prodigy and Maestro, “O”-class REMI units Opus and Ovation as well as two Sprinter-class units have been used at 10 different competition sites to cover the Little League Baseball and Softball Regionals, as well as the championship events from all divisions for the first time. This has totalled about 180 games (primarily streamed on ESPN+) in less than a month.

Speaking to SVG’s Jason Dachman, Tim Lewis, Gearhouse Broadcast USA’s VP of technology and design said: “It has been a very successful project from our end and a really good learning opportunity to take a platform like this and work with the client to do an extensive proof of concept.”

This story further strengthens Gearhouse Broadcast’s position as a leader in delivering alternative ultra-efficient production workflows. Gearhouse was a major part of the REMI revolution all the way back to undertaking the first ESPN REMI in 2014. It recently successfully completed its 1850th multi-camera, remote integration (REMI) production at the close of the 2019 US collegiate sports season.

Gearhouse Broadcast is in the process of designing and building a new breed of Mobile Production Truck capable of multiple workflows including traditional field produced switching, REMI, and the ultra-efficient workflow we deployed for ESPN this summer. We call it Project Vi/Va, and it will be offered in a range of vehicle sizes and configurations to match a client’s needs and budget. While Vi/Va can be deployed in a variety of vehicles or flypacks, the first use will be in our “Paradigm” series trucks launching later this year.

To learn more about this unique project including details on the new trucks, (and what Vi/Va actually stands for), follow Gearhouse Broadcast on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. We will be making some major announcements very soon!

You can read the full article ESPN Deploys Ultra-Efficient ViBox Workflow for Record Slate of Little League Baseball, Softball Games in full on the SVG website here.