The baseball operations manual for the 2020 season is very specific on how games can be broadcast. For each game, up to 40 broadcast people can work inside the stadium and another 15 can work in a nearby transmission truck.
The YES Network, which televises the Yankees games, typically has about 25 people working in their broadcast truck during home games. Its less employees within the stadium will also have to be further from the field. Yankees clubhouse reporter Meredith Marakovits will be on the second deck of the stadium, and some of the cameras on the lower deck will be robotic.
John Filippelli, head of production and programming for the YES Network, said that in many ways broadcasts would be more difficult. “The idea is to depopulate the lower level of the stadium,” he said.
The biggest challenge could be making a full road transmission. While regional sports networks don’t have nearly as many workers on-site for road games, they take a series of broadcasts from the home stream, typically hiring local freelancers, like Sweeney, just for a series to customize a stream .
When Aaron Judge hits a home run on the road in, say, Washington, the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is likely to show Nationals fans the dejected pitcher who left him, or a dismayed teammate. But the YES network would show the judge celebrating. Some camera feeds would be shared, such as those found behind the starter board or in center field, but each network would have multiple cameras of their own for their respective game directors to draw on.
“Each director wants to have the ability to cut his own show with as many sources as he is used to,” said Francis O’Hern, co-director of broadcasting at the International Alliance of Theater Employees, the union that represents many productions. staff members. According to the MLB Operations Manual, the remote network will only be able to control two cameras.
“When you are the local team, you control 10 cameras,” said Filippelli. “That’s why those two cameras are so critical, so you’re not just reflecting” what the house information shows.
