By: Carolyne Harris and Bryce Gaubert
For the 2024-25 season at Kennesaw State University, the Department of Athletics successfully implemented new technology into their broadcasts, making history by documenting the baseball season remotely from three separate locations.
In the second half of 2024, Kennesaw State broke ground on Mickey Dunn Stadium. Due to the long duration of this project, the Owls played their 2025 baseball season on the Marietta campus at S. Walter Kelly Sr. Memorial Field. This season also marked the program's first season in Conference USA (CUSA), and the increased exposure from the new league was an important part of the season's plans.
The KSU Owl Network is the home for KSU sports broadcasting and digital media. This group within the KSU Owl Network, led by Nolan Alexander, Sanders Sullivan, and Brandon Bedford, is responsible for the live ESPN+ broadcast coverage.
The KSU Owl Network broadcasting hub resides on the main campus of Kennesaw State University; however, there was no way to connect the cameras from Marietta to the fiber network and send feeds back to the control room to document the season for fans. This moment marked the entry of LiveU technology into every conversation moving forward.
KSU produced the majority of the baseball season from three different locations. The main control room location was split between the Convocation Center and Fifth Third Stadium, where the behind-the-scenes work took place. The production of the first series took place in the Convocation Center because renovations and equipment upgrades were underway inside the control room at Fifth Third Stadium. The announcers were set up in the press box of Fifth Third Stadium, calling the game from three monitors, and the cameras and operators were located on-site at the field in Marietta.
LiveU is a technology software designed to help broadcasters add efficiency, shorten their workflow, and reduce complexity. All of Kennesaw State's baseball broadcasts were REMI (Remote Integration Model) productions, which is becoming more common in broadcasts. REMI production, also referred to as a Remote Integration Model, is a method for covering events from a distance by capturing everything on-site while handling the technical aspects from a main control center.
KSU Athletics worked alongside the university's Department of Event and Venue Management (EVM) to route the technology to the control room and all the locations needed to broadcast the 2025 baseball season. EVM and the KSU Owl Network collaborated closely for many hours and days in January and February, ahead of the season, to ensure the technology was ready for use.
"We knew broadcasting from a remote location was going to look and feel different this past spring," said Brandon Bedford, KSU's Video Coordinator, "but we learned a lot about the new technologies that we would be integrating and getting our hands on for the first time.
"The amount of time I spent in the preseason learning how to use this new technology and the multiple aspects that go into putting on a successful broadcast made the KSU Owl Network team better as a whole. Personally, this experience helped my professional development as a Video Coordinator."
While the LiveU units helped provide the mobility and signal strength needed to capture feeds, it was EVM that made sure those feeds had a clear and reliable path into the control room at Fifth Third Stadium. Their coordination with Athletics ensured that every camera was accounted for, every signal was clean, and every broadcast team member, including students—regardless of their station—felt like part of one cohesive operation.
The arrangement also changed the game not only for the control room but also for the talent behind the mic. This new technology was a first in Kennesaw State's history, enabling broadcasters to call the games from 10 miles away while still delivering commentary in real-time. The broadcast team was still able to share the stories of the athletes on the field while maintaining the high-quality storytelling that the KSU Owl Network has prided itself on.
While it was a challenge not to be able to see everything that was happening physically on the field, the setup ensured that broadcasters and fans saw the same moments in real time, allowing the commentary to align perfectly with the action on screen and creating a more immersive viewing experience. The camera operators are the eyes of the broadcasters, or in many cases this season, Jordan Griffitt, meaning he could only see what fans at home were seeing.
Jordan Griffitt, a play-by-play announcer on the broadcast crew, reflected on his experience calling the action.
"Not much changed from how I called games because the production team made you feel like you were there," Griffitt added. "If anything, I was able to connect with the audience more because you were calling the game from their standpoint.
Griffitt, who doubles as the Sports Information Director (SID) for the Owls baseball team, also spoke on what it meant to have games broadcast on ESPN+.
"I don't think people understand how big it is to put the games on air." Griffitt noted, "From an SID perspective, it gave us the opportunity to showcase our guys on ESPN+, which is not a given and not many places would have been able to do what we did."
Kennesaw State garnered significant attention and recognition with the effort KSU and the KSU Owl Network put into their broadcasts to get the job done.
Sanders Sullivan, the Director of Video Services, was the administrator holding down the control room on game days. In his role as producer, he coordinated the behind-the-scenes operations that kept the broadcast running smoothly, even with the control room experiencing delays in their broadcast due to the cameras being at an off-site location.
"Each of those camera feeds operated on a 1-second delay to get the best picture quality, which took a couple games for our director and talent to get used to. It made our directors think more critically when cutting shots before a pitch," Sullivan said. "Patience was key, too, when communicating with our off-site camera operators."
"This experience made us realize how long one second truly is. Every second counts, especially for baseball coverage."
Sullivan says that his team thrived on adapting and was resilient and creative in telling the story of Kennesaw State baseball's first season in CUSA.
Throughout the baseball season, Bedford served as boots on the ground at S. Walter Kelly Sr. Memorial Field, overseeing broadcasts, running the Ronin camera, and resolving any on-site challenges.
"Being on site was beneficial for me to troubleshoot the small number of issues we had over the course of the season," Bedford remarked. "Once I began to understand how the new facility was going to operate for the season, I was able to find a groove for myself and my staff to work effectively and efficiently in a completely new space."
Finding that groove was key for Bedford. Previously, his game day routine was a quick walk from the Convocation Center, where the Owl Network offices are located, through the East Parking Deck to Stillwell Stadium, Kennesaw State's former baseball home. This season, however, required him to drive nearly 10 miles down Interstate 75, often battling Atlanta traffic to reach the new facility in Marietta.
"To start the season, setup was a little taxing on everyone while we tried to figure out a new rhythm in a new facility, but once we got past that, setup became a breeze for us," Bedford said. "I am usually a creature of habit, so moving into a new facility this past season took me out of my comfort zone in a positive way."
While this new environment was not only a success for Bedford, it also changed his perspective on the way he now views a broadcast.
"Using the LiveU equipment paired with being on site did change the way I look at a broadcast partially because of the one-second delay we were working under," Bedford revealed. "This presented us with a unique opportunity for the first time, and it was cool to see everyone be uncomfortable at the start of the season as we learned together and, by the end of the season, operate with almost zero hesitation."
This new element elevated the production quality while also providing fans at home with a unique perspective that is not commonly found in college sports games broadcast on ESPN+.
"As the Ronin Camera Operator, I was able to help provide the broadcasts with some unique shots that we have not used in the past," Bedford described. "I was able to provide shots such as pre-game beauty shots of guys warming up or hitting in the batting cages as well as pitching changes, home run celebrations, and up-close player ID shots."
"In the moment, it's just another show - with a team full of students and staffers who care," Sullivan said. "On the drive home after a long home series is when it hits me: we are accomplishing our goals of getting on the air, trying something totally new, and entertaining our viewers. That's a pretty cool feeling."
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