Audio Video News

Televised sports are one of the primary drivers of the digital television revolution.

Other than HDNet's Mark Cuban, no one recognizes this more than ESPN. The network is in the midst of a frenzied buildout of a new 120,000-square-foot digital production facility in Bristol, Connecticut. The goal is to have a high-definition version of Sportscenter on the air by the second quarter of 2004, according to a January 27 report from Broadcast and Cable. The entire ESPN complex is projected to be completed a year later.

In late March the network will broadcast the first of 100 events to be aired in HDTV this year, with most of the production handled by ESPN's field operations and one digitally equipped broadcast truck. An HD transponder will go live early in March, with production originating in HD. "We'll produce in HDTV, bring it back in HD and do a downconversion for the normal channel, and then pipe out the rest as HD," said Chuck Pagano, senior vice president of technology, engineering, and operations for ESPN.

Pagano told Broadcasting and Cable that "offering the HD content makes sense today, especially with blossoming TV-set sales and the falling prices of flat-screen televisions. Between now and the time the Bristol facility goes online full time, the sports network will " upconvert a majority of the ESPN signal for viewing in a different aspect ratio and better quality than 4:3 NTSC," Pagano stated.

"The new complex will feature three production-size control rooms, four edit-control rooms, and three studios measuring between 3400 and 9200 square feet. There will also be an ingest theater, where about 50 people will watch and tag with 'metadata' the more than 200 hours of content brought in every day," the report notes. "It's not the technology that is the daunting part," Pagano told reporters. "It's really the cultural, educational, and philosophical paradigm shift that people will have in going to those tools." Workflow simulations will begin this summer, he said.