SVG Year in Review: January

It was a banner year for SVG and the sports production community, as the NFL and NBA both nearly averted losing seasons to labor strife, ratings continued to soar almost across the board, and “the second screen” replaced “3D” as the dominant buzz word around the sports production water cooler. In addition, a battalion of new trucks hit the road and technology vendors continued to push the gear inside those trucks into the next echelon of quality and efficiency. This special edition of the SVG Insider provides a quick guide to the top events on a month-by-month basis and links to some of the top stories of the year. Click on each month’s headline to access links to the full stories.

The year began with the annual trek to Las Vegas for CES, which was dominated by a range of connected TVs, mobile devices and tables that boasted a new level of complexity and control, but also presented challenging rights issues for broadcasters and leagues.

Consumer electronics manufacturers also continued to push 3D TV sets, despite a growing number of skeptics. In addition, a full year after its original announcement at CES 2010, ESPN 3D illustrated just how far it had come by producing a stunning 3D telecast of the BCS Championship in Glendale, AZ. Just a few weeks later, ESPN 3D raised the ante once again at the Winter X Games, making its first major foray into the 5D production model that essentially combines the 3D and 2D shows into a single entity. Meanwhile Sony set out to prove its own 3D workflows with a production of the Sony Open in Hawaii in conjuction with Golf Channel and several 3D vendors.

SVG hosted its first event of the year with the inaugural Sports Entertainment Summit at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The event kicked off with a stirring keynote speech from broadcasting legend Don Ohlmeyer. The packed program also included discussions concerning entertainment elements’ role in sporting events, remote-based studio shows, 3D production, sports reality programming, primetime sports entertainment, as well as keynote speeches from Fox Sports Greenberg, and AEG Digital’s Michael Goldfine. CLICK HERE for SVG’s full coverage of the event.

The college sector was headlined by the announcement ESPN and the University of Texas’ landmark Longhorn Network.