M Doyle Productions

I’m not a multi-million dollar company, but over the past decade of doing video production and sports broadcasting, I have acquired some gear. This season, I have been technical directing a weekly pregame show for Penn State Football. The home games are hosted onsite at Beaver Stadium, but the away games are done remotely, seen here.

This involves the same show elements - hosts, graphics, video highlight reels and press conference sound bites - all while connecting the crew to be able to communicate behind the scenes. Here’s a rundown of my setup and the tools I have implemented to host the show from home:

I use VMix software to bring in all the inputs (3 hosts, graphics, video), plus additional callers such as the producer, production manager, and additional video feeds or guests. I split my screen into three feeds/windows to properly manage at-a-glance, the video inputs, audio levels, run-of-show (the show’s schedule), and music tracks. All switching, music cues, and backstage comms are done with the midi controller in the middle. Each source is assigned a fader and the buttons are programmed to trigger graphics and transitions, as well as to create talkback channels so the producer, hosts, and I can talk behind the scenes. One audio bus is open for the producer and I to constantly communicate and another is toggled on and off during commercial breaks so we have two-way, off-air comms with the hosts. It has been a massive amount of work, but the idea is that when you’re live, the multiple functions you have to execute throughout the show are simple and reliable. There are plenty of pieces of gear I still want or need to make things easier, but this has been a pretty decent start to this remote world. And when the show’s over, I just save everything and go about my day. No packing up and loading trucks. 👍

This week our broadcast (and my camera shot) made it into SportsCenter's Top 10. I was working for Temple's ESPN crew. It had nothing to do with the excellent camera and production work by the crew and I, but we still had to deliver the angles. 🤣 My camera (baseline/under the basket) caught the celebration at the end. After 42 years of watching SportsCenter, I finally made it! 😅