NATAS

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences contracted BMG’s live production team to provide technical execution and support for two Daytime Emmys programs. The Children’s and Animation and Fiction and Lifestyle programs aired on two consecutive nights, each running approximately 2-hours and streaming live to the web.

The NATAS team wanted to add some variety to their 2021 programming. They enlisted our creative services team to design and integrate a virtual set environment into both programs. BMG captured the Children’s and Animation ceremony entirely in a custom-designed virtual environment. The program host and presenters were all live on a green screen set in Burbank, CA, with all nominees participating remotely. The Fiction and Lifestyle ceremony was captured with a hybrid approach, incorporating a physical set and a virtual set.

Broadcast Management Group was responsible for managing live feeds for all remote nominees and presenters, equating to approximately 100 remotes per show. Two dedicated transmission engineers integrated all live feeds using Skype and Newtek’s Talkshow hardware. Our engineering team maintained three active nominee groups at any given time: the current category plus the upcoming two categories. Each category was assigned two Talkshow devices, giving us eight incoming transmission paths per award category and 24 concurrent live feeds at any given time.

BMG utilized a REMI workflow to support both programs. Our team in Burbank, CA, transmitted camera and audio signals via IP to our REMI hub in Las Vegas, NV. The Las Vegas technical team managed directing, switching, audio mixing, playback, prompting, and live transmissions. Remote BMG personnel in Chicago, IL, handled graphics insertion and virtual set integration.

Given the pacing and technical complexity of the workflow, the 2021 Daytime Emmys proved to be challenging but a rewarding venture for the BMG team.