Last episode, we covered some of the unique challenges facing college football broadcasters amid the global pandemic.
But football is a different animal altogether. There's so many moving parts, so many things to see, and all of a sudden it was, oh, okay, this will be challenging.
This is today we unpack a little more.
You have to almost go and thinking, okay, there's certain things. If I miss it's going to happen, and I can't beat myself up over it.
How did announcers learn from the experience and how will broadcasting change, if at all, in the future from the solid verbal This is a special production, So.
Now what.
Welcome back.
I'm Ty hilden Brandt, joined as always by Dan Rubinstein. In part one, we talked a little bit with a Niche Schrof from ESPN about what it was like to broadcast games remotely in the time of COVID. In Part two, we're going to continue talking about that, including what broadcasters learned not just about the sport, but what they learned about the process and what they learned about themselves. We wanted to talk a little bit more about this remote
studio aspect. What's it like to be in a remote studio. You've got every camera feed on Earth coming to the desk in front of you. But at the same time, you're trying to match the energy of the moment. You're trying to build a rapport with somebody, hopefully who is as your co hosts on the other side of the room. How does that go down?
We were in the same room, socially distant. He was on one end, I was on the other. If somebody else came into the room, we were masked up. We were pretty much masked up at all times except when
we were on the air. But that really helped where you can just kind of sometimes just look at him and okay, you take this one, or Hey, I got something I want to add here, and the nonverbal cues which happens all the time during a broadcast, that allowed us to kind of create some synergy and rhythm and chemistry.
You had the best question though, how do you keep it serious?
Yeah?
How do you keep it serious knowing that you're calling a game that you are not physically at the only reason that you've got any connection to it is because of sophisticated means. So we asked him, like, was it hard to keep serious?
You almost had to guard against it being too loose. Hey, you're still doing this on ESPN. Let's remember that in the beginning they didn't have the capacity to do on cameras.
So we would sometimes tape.
Our on camera in the studio before the game, thirty minutes before, and then you'd change, and you know, I'm dressed in a and a hat and a hoodie and jeans, and you know, Logan Bill's in there with his PBR shirt and shorts, you know, with his feet up on the table sipping his like, you know, gas station thirty two ounce soft drink before the game.
And what he said is that towards the end, or at least on some other occasions, he would just opt not to change into the hat in the hoodie.
There were times where I would not change and just keep, you know, my shirt and tie on, just because it gives you, at least mentally, this false sense of formality.
What do you think you would do in that sitting, Dan, I would probably split the difference. I would love to sell the fact that I'm not at the game, but I understand what he's saying in terms of like feel the part, act the part, and so that involves you know, a shirt and tie and everything like that. Maybe I'd wear a button down shirt a collared ship, but I'd wear it open with a T shirt under it or something like that, so I'd have both elements to the
fact that I'm not at the stadium. But at the same time, i did iron a shirt and try to look somewhat presentable. But this is true of a lot of people who worked from who work from offices usually, I mean, why would you wear pants if you're just on a zoom call that sees like your ribs up right?
Why would you make that extra effort? And I know a lot of people who generally are used to working from home tell you get up, take a shower, work out, put on like non sweatpant clothes, because there is that element to taking your day and taking your job seriously, even if you are sitting in a room in your house or a room in a studio where there's nobody else, that there is that like look the part, dress the part,
feel the part. So I think I would wear I would I would look like I was going to somebody I was trying to impress their house. I wouldn't dress like a corporate style look but I would a carefully selected wardrobe of Dan's not a total slob. That'd be what I'd go for. What about you, I've worn a collared shirt fewer than ten times in the last year.
I may wear one later today because there are people coming over, like it's the first time I've had a group of friends over that are at least going to partially spend some time indoors in a long time, So I might wear some sort of festive collared shirt.
I have not worn a collared shirt in forever, and I have tried that tactic of getting a little bit more dressed up if it's a more serious occasion.
Like a niche, though you let your hair go I did let my hair go do people and a niche was on air? And I'm sure this came up with producers and stuff like what exactly are you doing a niche with that hair? As he was letting his hair go out? Did your co workers say anything to you about the ever expanding koif a top quoth atop your hair.
Only when it got two out of control, but generally no. Generally, I think a lot of folks were in a similar position.
What did people on the other end of your zoom calls look like well, I mean.
We're not talking four K cameras here, We're talking to understand whatever the onboards are.
Were there like meatball palm stains or were people presenting themselves you know these generals and CIA directors. Yeah, everybody is keeping it very professional. Okay, that has never changed, but definitely the attire has gone in a different direction than.
Like business casual. Let's say, it's just very casual now in a way that it never was before.
I think the broadcasters will be excited to once again that weren't able to to get back to a stadium and to wear suits or to wear whatever they normally wear in that business setting. I kind of miss it, and I haven't worked from an office in quite some time, but there is that element I liked of dressing up for whatever you're actually supposed.
To be doing.
I think it's a good thing.
So we asked a niche, based on his experiences in twenty twenty, are we going to carry some stuff with us through to twenty twenty one? Did we learn from what that broadcasting process was like? Where are things headed here?
What the new normal looks like?
I think it will have some of the elements of what we saw last year, because the reality is some of that stuff did work, some of.
It worked right, some of it worked, some of it worked. They're going to get better at doing remote broadcasts. I think we know that for sure. They're probably also going to get better at that information relay process. Right, You've got so many different people who are working on a broadcast at any one time. Getting information to the broadcasters in a timely fashion. I have to believe has always been a challenge just to make sure that the most
up to date information is at their fingertips asap. I gotta belie through the process here, they've gotten much much better at doing that.
And I mean, think about it. What streamers are able to do a huge emerging content force.
Right.
They're able to broadcast playing video games or doing whatever via Twitch, via YouTube, discord, whatever. They're able to figure out lighting and camera angles and getting information on the screen in live time. And now with the weight and the resources of major broadcast networks, I think we're going to find ways again. I don't think big games are going to be called by like Joe Buck and Chris Fowler from their closets or from their basements or whatever.
But in terms of smaller matchups, in terms of conference networks that are tasked with broadcasting Olympic sports or every basketball game or every baseball game, I think we're going to see and it's not good for the broadcaster, the broadcaster him or herself, but it is good for the ability to to get a high quality broadcast up quickly
for fans. Maybe if you're watching a cross country meet, a big twelve cross country meat that you normally wouldn't be able to watch normally, it was just like, well, here are a couple of cameras at different parts of the course. All of a sudden, we're coming up with new and interesting ways to broadcast something that wouldn't necessarily have that high quality element. Suddenly we're able to do
something that feels super professional for pretty cheap. That's that's where I think maybe the big winners are going to be maybe that lower end broadcast.
We asked a niche what would he do personally to try and learn from the experience to get better In the heat of the moment moving forward down to twenty twenty.
One, pretty much every week Sunday I would just spend watching probably not the whole game, but bits and pieces of it. Okay, was that something I could have done better? Or was that something where I was constrained because of the format. And you kind of make notes and you sort of take that back to your boss, is hey, this is what I found. And again they were so good in working with us and taking that feedback and saying, Okay, we'll try to make this a better system.
This is not really something you and I have to do much of in the podcast setting. No, we certainly do not go back and listen to that extent trying to constantly get better at.
Wrong adjective, tie, damn it.
At do an hour show. But you can imagine what that pressure must feel like to know that you're on ESPN, you're calling a big game, the setting is not what it's usually going to be, and here you are kind of on an island trying to figure this thing out on the fly.
It's wild that they, I mean, they have to. They have to know that it's going to sound different and it's going to sound weird as it relates to what they normally sound like. I agree, I do think.
I got better. I do think I acquired new skills. You're learning how to adapt in this environment. And one of the biggest things is we can complain all we want.
Hey, we're not there. We're not there. We're not there.
At some point you just have to accept, Okay, this is the new normal, or at least the normal for now. Let's make the best of it. What can we do. And we had a really good producer and Paul Irvin who was big on not letting us not being there.
Let's not use that as an excuse.
We're still going to try to put the best quality of football on TV and put the best production on TV. And yet not having four am wake up calls. That makes your life easier. You get done with the game at three point thirty and you're home for dinner and you know you can watch the primetime game from the comfort of your couch.
Yeah, that's that's great.
It wasn't all bad. It wasn't all bad. I think a Niche's takeaway was that it was challenging. I don't sense much eagerness to go out there and do more of this unless it's required. But at the same time, definitely got better at working within the constraints of the twenty twenty season. In the COVID protocols, and in the end was happy, happy with the job that he did, happy with jobs certainly that the production crews did, came away feeling okay about it all.
I'm sure happy that he has a job. At the same time too, that there was a season, because who knows what could have happened in terms of the networks, which we were already having to cut back. Who knows what happened if there's no season, if there's a severely limited season. We saw what happened with the PAC twelve and how the PAC twelve network was just completely gutted knowing that they weren't going to be broadcasting games, knowing that the type of revenue was not going to be
coming in. So yeah, you know, outside of like the biggest of the big names, and anishe is a big name, he's been there for a while, but like, what does it look like if you have a bunch of broadcasters and no games.
Week to week?
They came back to us and said, how can we make this better? What can we do? And by the end of the year, I'm not going to say it felt seamless, but you felt comfortable.
Felt comfortable by the end of the year. They continually improved on the process, and like I said at the top, I kind of feel like by the end the product was almost indistinguishable. Yeah, almost indistinguishable. They got really really good at doing these remote broadcasts.
Yeah. Absolutely.
So as we move forward into twenty twenty one, we asked them, is it gonna be back to normal?
I'm in wait and see mode. I really don't know.
Nobody knows. The hope is that we can get back to some sense of normalcy in time for the fall. That the product we see this coming fall is going to be a lot closer to what we've seen in every other college football season on record. You got fans in the stands, maybe something of a reduced crowd, but
definitely better than what we had last year. Announcers hopefully back in the booths commentating on these games, real crowd noise, cheering on home teams, and an experience at least for the home viewer as well as those fans who are in the stands. I know a niche hopes for this as well, because the one experience he had last year where he went to a football game.
Once we went to Clemson for a game, and man, when I tell you that was I think October. That was mana for the soul, just to be out and about at a stadium. They had people there socially distanced. It was different. We're six feet apart, we had masks on. You can really interact with people like you normally do. But I got to tell you, it was like the oasis in a desert. Oh my god, we're back at a stadium and it felt good. But then we were back in the studio after that.
In the end, I come back to what I said at the very beginning. I am amazed at the job that these guys did. I am amazed at the job that they did. I am surprised there weren't more grew ups. Surely there were technical hiccups here and there. Pretty sure we all saw a couple of them. But the fact that they were able to pull this thing off without any camera catastrophes or broadcasting mishaps bloopers that we've talked
about for six straight months. I think this was a really great accomplishment for a lot of the networks involved with broadcasting college football, just that they were able to get this thing off the ground.
Oh yeah, Oh absolutely, it is. Yeah, one hundred percent that yes, we I mean they had some lead up time with a couple of other different sports. We had early golf, we had Korean baseball, you know, with it was a bog shambi doing remote Korean baseball. So there were those elements of getting reps, getting practiced before the football season about how it's all going to go. But yeah, that everything happened with minimal broadcast snaffos was a big win. Thanks again for listening. Don't forget.
You can catch our full interview with a niche out on our Patreon at verballers dot Stop back next week for our final installment, where we ask the same basic question, so
Now what