MLB Opening Day: ESPN Gets REMI, REMCO Models in a Groove for ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Schedule

ESPN is offering its Major League Baseball audience a special Opening Day doubleheader: 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers vs.

Detroit Tigers and American League Champion New York Yankees vs.

Milwaukee Brewers.

The two games represent the broadcasters approach to its Sunday Night Baseball schedule in 2025: a REMI production at Dodgers Stadium and a hybrid REMCO production at Yankee Stadium.Everyone has gotten comfortable with our traditional REMI and REMCO models, says Paul Horrell, remote production operations manager, ESPN.

As technology gets better and connectivity gets more robust, weve begun to branch out.Bicoastal Doubleheader: Day 1 Games Put Tech to the Test in Los Angeles, New YorkPrior to Sunday Night Baseballs official start on Sunday, March 30, both coasts of the U.S.

will be involved in the first pair of games of the broadcasters 36th MLB season.

In Los Angeles, a 42-path REMI (remote production) and NEP NCP11 mobile unit both part of the standard SNB package will drive the show.

The production will be augmented by a REMCO (remote-controlled) element: EVS replay in Bristol, CT will control three super-slow-motion cameras.

In the sky, ESPNs drone team will provide scenics of the Opening Day atmosphere and the vistas of Chavez Ravine.Inside the venue, The Famous Group will present a mixed-reality activation with the Dodger Stadium crowd as the canvas.

A Corona-sponsored spot during the broadcast will be similar to the creative-tech companys recent project with the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum and its long history of work with professional teams and venues.

The TFG team will be housed in NEP NCP11 B unit in the compound.In the Bronx, NY, given the broadcasters close proximity to the venue, the show will be a hybrid onsite/remote production.

The onsite crew will be housed in NEP EN2, and a REMCO component similar to that used in Los Angeles will be deployed for the YankeesBrewers game.Both games, as well as others under the SNB umbrella, will feature technologies and workflows that enhance productions.

Operated positions will comprise 10 total hard cameras, including six super-slo-mos and an RF shallowdepth-of-field camera with a Sony 100 on a DJI Ronin stabilizer.

Commentary teams in the booth and reporters at field level will be captured via robotic cameras in the booth and mid-home robos.On the POV front, UmpCam will be a regular in the rotation, based on wearers approval, as will be three DreamChip AtomOne cameras with Cyanview control.

Audio will be captured by the broadcasters customary field microphones buried in the dirt and by player mics with IFB communication and RF connectivity by CP Communications.

When possible, the DEFY WireCam will be deployed at ballparks that have installed the two-point camera system.REMI/REMCO Evolution: Onsite Staff, Bristol-Based Control Rooms Work TogetherDeployed on Opening Day and throughout the SNB slate, ESPNs system of REMI and REMCO workflows has significantly improved since its accelerated inception during the pandemic era.

The REMI aspect has been a straightforward practice around the industry, but confidence in the REMCO model has taken some time as services and solutions develop.At first, the REMCO wrinkle was commonly known as GREMI (graphics and EVS remote integration), with a broadcast deploying Bristol-based Vizrt graphics machines and EVS replay servers for its standard cameras.

The team found a rhythm on baseball games produced on Wednesdays, which influenced the current iteration of REMI and REMCO initiatives on other live sports productions at ESPN.

Looking to push these production methods even further, Horrell and the operations crew began asking questions about how they could add super-slow-motion replays into the mix.In the beginning, he says, we didnt want to put the super-slow-motion cameras up into the cloud, and we didnt want to put operators in the truck.

We introduced the REMCO model, where you have operators in Bristol, machines in the truck, and these replay feeds sent to these remote operators by fiber.Aiming for an enhanced replay workflow replicating the onsite experience in Bristol, the crew began experimenting.

With 10 JPEG 2000 fiber paths and 24 paths of IP multicast routing, the conventional approach is to send primary camera feeds to the facility via the fastest route possible.

Instead of placing these cameras on the JPEG 2000 paths, they put the REMCO multiviewers and replays on this line.We flipped the script on the transmission side, Horrell explains.

Everything lines up to create a nice working environment in Bristol.Making the entire operation run smoothly requires coordination and communication between the onsite team at the stadium and the staffers at headquarters.

This will be on display today with the team of Senior Producer, Operations and Technical Management, Chip Sego; Remote Operations Specialist Kevin Cleary; and Operations Coordinator Stephanie Santora in Los Angeles and the team of Senior Operations Producer Mike Miner; Operations Producer Ryan Dobesh; and Senior Operations Coordinator Samantha Majewski in New York.Joe Bucks One-Off Return: Broadcast Veteran Leads Opening Day Roster of TalentThe matinee portion of todays doubleheader will be called by a familiar face in baseball circles.

Joe Buck, longtime announcer of MLB on FOX and current lead play-by-play announcer of ESPNs Monday Night Football, will return to the MLB broadcast booth for the first time since his last game with FOX Sports: the Atlanta Braves victory over the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the 2021 World Series.

He will be joined by two analysts representing the Yankees and Brewers respectively: YES Networks Joe Girardi and FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsins Bill Schroeder.For the evenings TigersDodgers portion of the doubleheader, the affair will see the usual SNB broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech, analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez, and reporter Buster Olney.

After the final out, the trio will travel to sunny Petco Park for Atlanta Braves vs.

San Diego Padres at 7 p.m.

ET on March 30.

Both games will also be available on ESPN Radio with play-by-play announcer Mike Couzens and analyst Doug Glanville in Los Angeles and play-by-play announcer Anish Shroff and Glanville in San Diego.In addition to various on-air talent on the linear broadcast, ESPN will bring back Sunday Night Baseball: Statcast Edition on ESPN2 and the ESPN App after a successful debut in 2024.

Six of these eight alternative broadcasts the network will also present a Statcast-focused presentation of 2025 T-Mobile Home Run Derby in Atlantas Truist Park on Monday, July 14 and a KidsCast presentation of the 2025 MLB Little League Classic between the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets on Sunday, Aug.

17 will be headlined by play-by-play announcer Kevin Brown, analyst Trevor May, and MLB Statcast Insider Mike Petriello.

The first broadcast will break down the MetsPhiladelphia Phillies matchup on Sunday, June 22 with multiple data implementations, such as pitch predictor, Statcast metrics of the pitch, and avatar-based Statcast replays.Studio show Baseball Tonight will be onsite in the City of Angels today at 6 p.m.

ET, with host Kevin Connors and analysts Tim Kurkjian and Xavier Scruggs.

Prior to primetime baseball on Sunday, Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown will feature Connors, Kurkjian, and Senior MLB Insider Jeff Passan.Past Powers Present: High-Quality Productions To Honor Storied LegacyESPN has an illustrious history with Major League Baseball.

The broadcaster has been present for many milestones and historic moments and has shaped many current fans love of the game.

This season will be another opportunity to bring its best production to the forefront, and Horrell and his operations team plan to deploy top-tier technologies on a weekly basis.I wanted to create a high-water line for every game by coming up with a higher weekly standard of coverage, he says.

We want to bring a bigger feel to all our productions.In addition to the dedicated teams in Los Angeles and New York, he is joined by Director, REMI Operations, Dan Lannon; Supervisors, REMI Operations, Deanna Benjamin and Erick Valdes; Technical Operations Manager Marissa Bonertz; Crewing Coordinators Molly Williams and Ronnoch Mensah; Remote Traffic Operations Coordinator Stadar Heng; Remote Traffic Operations Manager Daryl Timothy; and Remote Production Operations Managers Liza Cole and Vicki DiTolla.ESPNs Sunday Night Baseball will broadcast four games in April: St.

Louis Cardinals vs.

Boston Red Sox on April 6, Chicago Cubs vs.

Dodgers on April 13, Padres vs.

Astros on April 20, and Phillies vs.

Cubs on April 27..

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