Behind The Scenes At Levi's Stadium: Producing From The Field
SANTA CLARA (KPIX 5) -- The 49ers have settled into their new $1.2 billion home in Santa Clara, and KPIX 5 has its first live broadcast from the stadium under its belt.
Producing just the live pregame show from a new facility can be a logistical nightmare for operations managers wading into unknown territory.
"The scariest thing about Levi's is that it's never been used for an NFL production. In theory, it should all work, but we won't know until we fire it all up," Don Sharp, KPIX 5 Operations Manager said.
The experience at Levi's was much different from Candlestick Park, the 49ers former home. Sharp says the field area in Santa Clara is smaller.
"It's very tight on the field. We have three anchors, three cameras, and lights."
Broadcasting a signal from Santa Clara to San Francisco so it can be sent all around the Bay Area required more than 50 people according to Sharp. That also included technical operators at the station in San Francisco, but the crew on the field was much smaller.
KPIX Photographer Brian Yuen said the biggest challenge on the field was setting up all the microphone connections, and staying coordinated with producers back at the station.
There were rumors of air traffic interfering with satellite signals, but despite planes roaring overhead every fifteen minutes, the show went off without any hiccups.
Once the pregame show ended the crew had just minutes to break down their equipment and stash it out of the way for later.
