THE FRONT LINE: DECEMBER 23, 2005
Behind The Scenes At Monday Night Football
Early in December, I was invited to tour the high-definition production trucks that broadcast ABC’s Monday Night Football in the 720p/60 high-definition format with surround sound. If you think keeping up with all that goes on in a football game is difficult, you should try sitting in the director’s chair!
On December 4th, the Seattle Seahawks were in town to play the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. I made my way down to the stadium about 2 1⁄2 hours before kickoff and hooked up with ABC Technical Supervisor Stuart Strelzer, who guided me to a nearby parking lot and provided a media pass for access to the trucks and stadium.
Figure 1 – An outside view of the NEP SuperShooter 26 truck
On this particular evening, there were five semi-trailers plus a satellite uplink truck and the pair of “Horse Trailers” that feature the top players in each game. Those trailers also house the crew that provides the electronically generated first down markers. The main trailer, NEP’s SuperShooter 26, contains master control, camera control units, and the sound mixing area. It’s 53 feet in length and expands like an accordion to accommodate the crew and all equipment.
One look into master control should convince you that it takes a lot of experience to “call” a football game and direct all of the cameras and instant replays. Master control is where veteran MNF director Drew Esocoff, producer Fred Gaudelli, and technical director Joe Abbenda hold court, constantly scanning and selecting video from over 100 different monitors. (Oddly enough, only one of them is a 16x9 HD monitor!)
Figure 2 – A panoramic view of the monitor wall inside master control
Figure 3 – Master control for the EVS hard drive video replay units
Some of the monitors show individual cameras on the field and airborne, while others are connected to EVS digital video recorders for instant compilation of slow-motion replays. Yet others are connected to another trailer where graphics, stats, scores, and promotional packages are composed, edited, and served up during the game and leading and out of station breaks.
It takes quite a crew to set up and produce each game. Over 200 people are involved, arriving as early as Friday and spending all day Saturday and Sunday running cables, intercoms, spotting fixed camera positions, installing the SkyCam flying overhead camera, and wiring up several dozen microphones.
Figure 4 – Audio engineer Wendel Stevens at work mixing and cueing audio
Figure 5 – This is one way to know for sure whose microphone you’ve opened!
Speaking of audio, engineer Wendel Stevens has quite a job selecting and mixing together all of these audio feeds, not to mention cueing up and running the “whoosh” and other audio effects that occur during video transitions to and from graphics. Some of his microphone inputs are simply tagged with photos of Al Michaels and John Madden instead of names, while others use shorthand tags (like PARABS for parabolic microphones).
Outside on the field, veteran camera operators Dave Bushner and Deena Sheldon were buttoned up tight in their winter parkas (it was about 28 degrees and snowing at game time), checking out the lenses on their Thomson HD cameras and rehearsing quick camera moves to find specific players, team officials, and celebrities on and off the field. Dave’s camera featured a large “cheat sheet” with photos of key players and officials, along with references to specific seat assignments.
Deena was perched a bit higher than Dave, sitting atop a Chapman motorized camera crane that actually drives back and forth on the sidelines to keep up with the action in the field. Frank Melchiorre manned a similar camera on the opposite side of the field. Both carts can move pretty darn quickly at times, and their spotters must be quick to reel in and playing out camera control cables.
Figure 6 – Dave Bushner’s camera “cheat sheet”
Figure 7 – Deena Sheldon spent the game high atop this mobile camera perch
Additional coverage of the game is provided by three handheld cameras, as well as one Steadicam rig that is operated by Jeff Zachary. His job is to provide the “in your face” viewpoint, racing along with the action and almost getting flattened by players! Mark Lynch, Tim Tew, and Dan Marinelli operate the three handheld cameras.
In addition to the field cameras, there are two remotely-operated cameras mounted on each goal post, high level cameras at either end of the field, and cameras inside the announce booth. While the game is underway, a plane circles overhead providing high-definition aerial views (no more Goodyear blimp), and there’s even a mobile truck with a camera crew, setting up and recording various beauty shots of downtown Philadelphia.
Those shots, the aerial views, and other footage are expertly mixed together with graphics, logos, and titles in SharpShooter 26e, the editing truck. In the midst of all this sits chief engineer Keith Kice, who designed and built the SharpShooter trucks and knows every square inch of them by heart should there be a mechanical or electrical breakdown.
Figure 8 – The promotional packages control room
Figure 9 – Here is a close-up look at the effects sub-mix audio console,
located in the graphics truck.
During the game, Keith was the model of calm as chatter flew back and forth over the Telex intercom system that has well over a hundred ports. At one point, there was a problem with one of the cameras, quickly and easily resolved like all of the other inevitable “Murphy’s Law” glitches that accompany such an ambitious production. But this is a seasoned crew; they’ve seen it all before, even to the SkyCam crashing to the ground earlier this season. Fortunately, it was off the field, hanging in a corner of the stadium, so no one was injured.
To watch a game from master control is to watch a seasoned conductor take a symphony orchestra through its paces. Esocoff and Gaudelli bark out clip line-ups and sequences for live action and replays, assembling the order literally split seconds before you see them on-screen. A large plasma monitor, mounted vertically, shows the available clips as they are cued up and Gaudelli shouts out sequences of clips by number, which are then switched by Abbenda on cue.
Behind these three, additional assistant directors and producers monitor phone lines for breaking information about players, coaches, anyone. While I watch, the phone rings, bringing news that one Seattle player is hurt and will be off to the locker room shortly. This news is quickly communicated to Al Michaels, while several camera operators set up shots of the bench to find the injured player. In the edit truck, graphics are assembled in no time with the player’s name and any applicable stats and information on the injury.
Within moments, you’re watching that player being led off the field from several camera angles with the appropriate title graphic in the lower 1/3 of the frame and Michaels providing the voice-over. It happens just that quickly, and wouldn’t be possible without a seasoned crew.
Figure 10 – RB Brian Westbrook and QB Mike McMahon warm up before the game
Figure 11 – Here’s a view of the MNF “Horse Trailer”
The game that night wasn’t particularly entertaining. Seattle jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, thanks to several miscues on the Eagle’s part and a few interceptions. By halftime, the score had grown to 28-0, leading Madden to comment during a commercial break that fans would be bailing out early, while Michaels simply labeled the game as “painful to watch”.
Once the break ended, however, they were as enthusiastic as ever; calling the plays, pointing out significant stats and continually bringing us news about substitute players, injured players, and the sidelines goings-on with coaches and assistant coaches. Some spectacular shots of downtown Philadelphia were coming back through the microwave link and were combined with clips of falling snow and graphics for some neat station breaks.
I mentioned earlier that only one video monitor in master control is a 16:9 HD display (and an LCD monitor, at that). The production is 100% 720p/60 HD, but the cameras are more concerned with the center 4:3 portion of the 16:9 image and frame their shots accordingly. The rationale is that the majority of MNF viewers are still using 4:3 screens, and director Esocoff and his crews are quite comfortable working with 4:3 displays.
Figure 12 – This LCD display is the only high-definition monitor in master control!
Two program feeds come off the truck. The first is in 720p/60 with a Dolby Digital 5.1 mixdown, and the other is a down-converted 480i/20 feed with Dolby ProLogic 2-channel stereo. Both are fed by satellite to ABC master control in New York City for distribution across the country. The 480i/30 feed serves as a backup in case the HD signal drops out, which is rare but can happen.
Seattle scored twice more in the second half, driving most of the fans from their seats during the third quarter. The game ended after midnight, but amazingly, all equipment was struck and packed and the crew on their way in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to Atlanta for their next game. It took only a few hours to reel in cables and collapse the trucks down to normal trailer width before pulling out onto nearby I-95 and heading south.
This is the last season for Monday Night Football on ABC. Next year, it will move to ESPN for an even more elaborate production, something Strelzer says will be like producing the Super Bowl every weekend. ESPN’s Sunday night football slot will be taken over by NBC, leaving ABC out of the pro football game.
But the crew of MNF will largely be the same — only their bosses will change. There’s simply too much experience and know-how on hand among these six trucks to make major changes to how the games are set up, called, switched, and produced. You really have to be there to appreciate just how smoothly this well-oiled machine operates — it puts into perspective your rather simple, remotely controlled home media system!
