Though it was only a preseason game, the recent Los Angles Dodgers game with the Boston Red Sox from the L.A. Coliseum was a historic event, drawing more than 115,000 fans. It was the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers’ move from New York to the West Coast.
National Mobile Television (NMT) joined KCAL-TV, the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, and the New England Sports Network (NESN) for the historic HD broadcast on March 29.
What made the game unusual was the fact that a baseball game was being played in a football stadium. NMT, working on the project since February, made arrangements for the unusual broadcast.
The diamond was placed in the west end of the football field with some abnormal dimensions that included a left-field line that was barely 200ft from home plate. Because there was no TV camera wall, most of the cameras were located on the field and exposed.
KCAL televised the game in HD, while NESN covered it in SD. NMT’s HD11 truck, with seven Thomson Grass Valley LDK6000 HD cameras, a Kalypso switcher and Calrec audio console, supported KCAL’s broadcast, while NESN used NMT’s DX18 with its Grass Valley 4000 switcher and Yamaha console. NESN also used six Ikegami HK-388 cameras for its broadcast.
