Freeman, Brady Belavek of SAV and engineer Dave Ragains of Show Machine were hired to handle all production communications between the NFL, the networks and all production staff. Freeman, along with Belavek and Ragains have been providing the communications solution for the NFL Draft for over a decade, but never in a virtualized setting.

Belavek said, “When the decision was made to virtualize the Draft broadcast, we were tasked to come up with a reliable and secure remote communications solution that would enable a large number of production staff to operate from their homes while still being able to communicate on the production intercom freely over many channels. What turned out to be one of the biggest challenges was managing ISP connections in individual’s homes and offices, not to mention the security requirements from the NFL, who were understandably concerned about cyber security threats.”