Tom Archer and Doug Holmes making magic in the Sunday Night Baseball production truck at Wrigley. #OpeningNight pic.twitter.com/73Tv0DLIxW
— Ben Cafardo (@Ben_ESPN) April 6, 2015
• Each truck is 53-feet long
• The A-Unit is 16-feet wide
• The B-Unit is 13-feet wide
• Total weight of both units is 155,760 lbs
• Up to 180 video sources supported in the production monitor wall
• Almost 135 miles of cable inside the two units
• 48 individual workstations
• Truck carries/supports 20 cameras
• 8 x 8 channel XT3 EVS machines
• 10 Gig infrastruture
• 2 state-of-the-art Grass Valley production switchers
• 2 Calrec Audio Consoles
• 4000 feet of SMPTE Fiber
• 8000 feet of Triax video cable
• 1 pirate flag
ESPN’s 26th season of Sunday Night Baseball began April 5 as the St. Louis Cardinals shut out the host Chicago Cubs, 3-0. What ESPN viewers didn’t see was the new mobile unit – EN2 – at Wrigley Field that allowed the operations and production teams to work more efficiently and with the latest in technology at their fingertips.
“The previous SNB mobile unit was 10 years old, so this is a massive leap forward in terms of technology and work space for one of our most important productions,” said Vice President, ESPN and ABC Sports Remote Production Operations, Chris Calcinari. “The environment is completely 1080p ready, just as our Monday Night Football mobile unit is, which provides us with an opportunity to go in that direction in the future should we choose to do so.”
The new mobile unit is fiber-based and has much more flexibility than the previous truck.
“We wanted to make it as functional and as comfortable as possible,” said Terry Brady, director, remote production operations. “The EN2 A-unit is a ‘double expando’ with the production and audio areas expanded. This allows us to maximize space and movement within the unit. In addition, we designed the truck with flexible work areas that could accommodate any function, such as graphics or specialty enhancements.
“It is almost a three-unit set up in a two-unit package with a tremendous amount of technical firepower. The B-unit has a large bullpen area, enclosed Edit and Submix, engineering and additional production space. This includes a production area to support our ESPN Deportes team. We married the latest technology with an upscale fit and finish. I could live in there as I am sure our Production colleagues sometimes feel they do.”
The mobile unit will be used for SNB, Wednesday Night Baseball and other productions as schedules allow.
