{"id":22182,"date":"2016-06-08T13:18:28","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T18:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=22182"},"modified":"2016-06-08T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T19:30:17","slug":"key-reason-live-smackdown-shift-major-tv-production-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/06\/08\/key-reason-live-smackdown-shift-major-tv-production-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Key reason for Live Smackdown shift &#8211; major TV production upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1797642395\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>One of the key reasons why WWE is able to go live with Smackdown on Tuesday nights starting in July is a major upgrade to their TV production capabilities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/2016\/06\/07\/wwe-embraces-ip-expands-footprint-with-new-trio-of-nep-trucks\/\" target=\"_blank\">SportsVideo.org published an interesting article<\/a> on WWE upgrading their\u00a0on-site production\u00a0with new &#8220;state-of-the-art NEP production trucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>WWE executive Duncan Leslie said WWE outgrew their previous NEP mobile units due to the growing WWE Network requirements for live satellite feeds and the ever-growing WrestleMania live event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, and it\u2019s very rewarding to have these new platforms. We knew that we had maxed out Red and Black and needed to expand. Now we can give production the professional workspace and technical firepower that they deserve,\u201d says Duncan Leslie. \u201cIt was a very organic build and a real team effort between WWE staff, NEP, freelancers, and vendors from start to finish because of the complexity involved. That allowed a pretty seamless transition and some brand-new systems to be introduced.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new fleet of production trucks were introduced on April 25 for a Raw TV taping. Part of the transition was going to a tape-less recording set-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe move from tape to tapeless was a process,\u201d said Glen Levine of NEP, &#8220;and a joint venture between the guys in the field, our integration department, and their organization in Stamford. But that workflow is totally new to them and somewhat unique to an entertainment-style client.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge was\u00a0transitioning to new the fleet of production trucks with all kinds of new bells &amp; whistles and capabilities was keeping the same process in-place for everyone to work together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWWE does an awful lot of television shows throughout the year.\u00a0They don\u2019t like change because they\u2019re a very well-oiled machine,&#8221; said Levine.\u00a0&#8220;They go into venues in the morning, do massive productions, and then get out in the evening and go to another city. So, from a production standpoint, they were looking for minimal change. There was a lot of focus on keeping things very similar for the producer and the director but still adding to the areas that were in need of expansion, especially graphics and replay, which have become a big part of their show.\u201d<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1666758767\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>The other key was making the trucks suitable for even more Network programming delivery as part of WWE&#8217;s long-term content strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWWE Network had a big impact on [the truck design],\u201d said WWE executive Mike\u00a0Grossman. \u201cThe network requires a pretty significant amount of shoulder programming, and we also had to expand our production capabilities in terms of multi-languaging. We\u2019re even expanding what we do with our core product as well as all these other ancillary shows we\u2019re adding. The new trucks have helped us accommodate a lot of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All of the changes were necessary, especially if WWE was going to add two hours of live programming to the weekly schedule, as opposed to just taping Smackdown on Tuesday nights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe overall WrestleMania scope has grown outside of just one show; it\u2019s now a number of shows across the region where it is held, and they are managing dozens of inbound and outbound [feeds],\u201d said Levine. \u201cSo the trucks started to explode at the seams over the past couple years, and the infrastructure just wasn\u2019t supporting it. After lots of discussion, it became apparent that there were better-streamlined ways to do things for future growth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It helps that WWE has locked in key TV agreements in the U.S. and internationally that will kick in millions of dollars in 2016, 2017, and beyond to pay for the production upgrade.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2205645437\"><div id=\"pwtor-2451061999\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>One of the key reasons why WWE is able to go live with Smackdown on Tuesday nights starting in July is a major upgrade to their TV production capabilities. SportsVideo.org published an interesting article on <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/06\/08\/key-reason-live-smackdown-shift-major-tv-production-upgrade\/\" title=\"Key reason for Live Smackdown shift &#8211; major TV production upgrade\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1394,2872,71],"class_list":["post-22182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-live-smackdown","tag-smackdown-live","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WWELogo_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22183,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions\/22183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}