ESPN to Open Digital Center June 7th

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I suppose all their in house programming, from Sportscenter to PTI,
will be in HD then...Over 3,500 hours a year...

http://www.tvtechnology.com/dailynews/one.php?id=1917


ESPN's Digital Center To Open June 7
ESPN's Digital Center, touted as the largest HD facility in North
America, will open June 7, the network announced this week.


The 6:00 p.m. edition of SportsCenter will officially kick off the
launch of one of the industry's most eagerly awaited HD initiatives.
Although the ESPN HD channel has been on the air since 2003, most HD
programming has been limited to Sunday night football and one time
sporting events. ESPN HD has carriage agreements with most major cable
and satellite providers.


Occupying more than 120,000 square feet, the Bristol-Conn. based
facility will feature state of the art HD equipment and
infrastructure. The building will contain more than seven million feet
of cable and three HDTV studios totaling 17,000 square feet. ESPN HD
plans to deliver 185 locally produced events in HD in 2004, and when
the building is expected to be totally completed in 2005, viewers can
expect to see up to 3,500 hours of originally produced hi-def studio
programming annually. HD telecasts will include games from Major
League Baseball, the NBA, NHL, NFL college football and basketball
games as well as movies from ESPN's Original Entertainment (EOE)
division.


"ESPN's conversion from analog to high-definition digital will be a
significant milestone for the entire company," said Chuck Pagano, ESPN
Sr. VP of Technology, Engineering and Operations. "To become entirely
digital, we must have the technical capability to ingest an enormous
amount of content from a wide variety of sources and digitally prepare
it for 720 line progressive HDTV, and with this new facility, we will
now be able to do so."