Mercedes-Benz Stadium Overhauls Production Ecosystem With Upgraded Control Rooms, New Integrated Workflows

Bulk of work was done after Atlanta Falcons’ Week 9 matchup on Nov. 3

Among professional-sports venues, Mercedes-Benz Stadium is one of the busiest in the country. After providing world-class experiences for seven years, its in-house production space needed a refresh to keep up with the year-long schedule. Implemented in three phases during 2024, new SMPTE 2110–powered control rooms have upgraded production quality in Atlanta.

“We executed a major control-room upgrade over the course of six months,” says Julia Chongarlides, senior director/executive producer, game presentation and stadium productions, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “We have a 365-day production calendar at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, so we needed the flexibility to build multiple shows at once.”

A Busy Calendar: Refurb Is Completed in Phases

The preliminary steps of the process began in October 2022 with a control-room audit by WJHW. Chongarlides and Chief Broadcast and Network A/V Engineer Cole Gallagher selected equipment at NAB Shows in 2023 and 2024. After an onsite walkthrough on April 2, 2024, the project was awarded on May 15, 2024.

The crew tears the control room apart to install new cabling.

By July 2024, the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons were in training camp, but the MLS’s Atlanta United season was in the thick of competition. The building had already hosted 11 home games, but, luckily, the club played four consecutive road matches and didn’t host its first home match until July 17 vs. NYCFC. With ES Broadcast as systems integrator and comprehensive system design by WJHW, which included key contributions from WJHW’s Consultant Brandon Martin and Associate Principal Daniel Riess, the crew moved forward with Phase 1 July 1–Aug. 20. This phase covered rack-room organization, prep work, installation of the first Ross Video Tessera stack, and acquisition of 11 Sony hard cameras and two handhelds on a Ronin gimbal, Sony camera shading, and Canon lenses.

“The new Tessera system was feeding into our old router, which was then output to the board,” Gallagher explains. “We had to get that spun up, so, although we were running out of new equipment, we made the decision to keep our creative elements the same to not add more stress to an already stressful time.”

Equipment began arriving during last summer’s Phase 1.

Not only did the videoboard elements stay the same, but the team also had to find a point in the year when a large chunk of the project would be completed. With the venue home to two professional franchises, the site of college football’s SEC Championship since the building’s launch in 2017, and many more performances and sports events, there was never going to be downtime for the full transition. Scheduling around the packed slate of production responsibilities, the crew completed Phase 2, installing the second Tessera stack and Ross Video PIERO software Oct. 14 -25.

“We had to execute the Falcons home opener the best we could with the new workflows that were implemented at the time,” says Chongarlides. “Phase 2 in October was when we received new ASUS SDI workstation monitors, tabletops, and the heart of the new system.”

Solving the Puzzle: Gallagher and His Team Iron Out the Tech Issues

Thanks to a break in the NFL schedule, the final phase started at the beginning of November. The crew was busy with an MLS Cup Playoffs match between Atlanta United and Inter Miami on Nov. 2 and an Atlanta Falcons vs. Dallas Cowboys game on Nov. 3, and then the Falcons were away for two straight weeks and had their bye in Week 12. During the period Nov. 4-23, the third Tessera stack and core pieces of the multiple–control-room setup were put together and tested to their limit: the Ross Video production switcher, Evertz replay system and router, Riedel comms, 17 Panasonic PTZ cameras, and an update to the Daktronics Digital Media Players. From an engineering perspective, Gallagher and his staff put the workflows through their paces to solve any issues that popped up.

Three Ross Video production switchers — two Acuities, one Carbonite — are driving productions at the venue.

“We were trying to iron out bugs on top of bugs while also trying to maintain the productivity of the production crew,” he explains. “We were turning on the new equipment as needed when we were able to, but, luckily, we were able to get our cameras online, our comms working right away, getting our Evertz DreamCatchers and Ross Video production switchers ready to go, and our Evertz router up and running.”

On the production side, Chongarlides and her staff had to formulate a plan for the ALTWOOD-themed game in Week 13 vs. Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 1. Honoring the city’s and the state’s influence on the television and film industry, this game required an extra amount of attention to bring it all together. “We totally blew everything out with new content and graphics,” she says. “We had to make sure that everything was ready technically for this entirely new show.”

Control-Room Tour: Inside the New Tech Powering the Game-Day Experience

Except for the Halo Boards, a large number of the workflows in the control room were overhauled in this project. At its core, the SMPTE 2110 setup is driven by an Evertz Magnum router — the control room at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was one of the last to run on the Evertz ASPEN solution — and a Cisco Switchcore for network connectivity. The videoboard is driven by a fleet of products from Ross Video: four total channels of XPression, three Tesseras with 33 total notes for LED elements, three PIERO systems, and three production switchers (two Acuities in the primary control room, a Carbonite in the secondary control room). Evertz is also driving replay with five DreamCatcher replay machines and two DreamCatcher clips-playback servers.

Monitors and multiviewers were installed during Phase 2 in October 2024.

“The three stacks of Tessera are huge for us,” says Chongarlides. “We’re now able to build an Atlanta Falcons show on one, an Atlanta United show on another, and a college football show on the third. They also give us redundancy, so that, if we’re outputting a show and something goes down, we have the second stack or third stack as backup.”

Outside of the main tech workflows, other critical partners played key roles in making the new setup a reality. The staff also upped the communications count to 35 Riedel Bolero wireless intercoms, installed KVM capabilities from G&D, and bolstered wireless camera connectivity with four Videosys servers. To house the extra tech stacks and create a better balance for the crew to handle the numerous events all year long, a secondary control room has been customized to give certain members of the crew the necessary video feeds and other elements to do their job efficiently. This portion of the facility, which is where Chongarlides sits on game day, was outfitted with the help of Forecast Consoles CEO Ryan Haberman and his team.

“This wasn’t in the original scope of the project,” notes Gallagher, “but I felt it was necessary to attack this room with our operators in mind. We came up with a custom layout with furniture and multiviewers that allow a better view of the field and has everything our crew needs at their fingertips.”

During the 20 days of Phase 3, equipment was turned on, and workflows were tested.

The tertiary control room has been pivotal for handling the onslaught of events as well. Created as a Swiss Army-knife–style space for another layer of flexibility, this control room is designated for part-time staff producing smaller-scale shows, such as high school football, allowing full-time staff to focus on the first two control rooms.

“I’m really proud of that aspect, too,” says Gallagher. “I’m excited to see how we utilize that space moving forward.”

Learning Curve: Crew Gets Comfortable With New Workflows

Once the workflows were ready to roll, the next step was getting the production staff up to speed. Shows were rehearsed, but the biggest effort ensured that each of more than 60 freelancers understood the various technologies. To accomplish this, Ross Video came in for PIERO training during Phase 1 and production switcher training during Phase 3; Sony, for shading training during Phase 1; and Evertz, for replay training during Phase 3.

Inside the new workflows in the rack room

“We needed everybody to know how the new equipment worked,” says Chongarlides. “Once everybody was trained and we had everything built, we went through multiple rehearsals to make sure everything was working properly before we got to game day.”

One staffer, Director, Control Room Production, Ben Gilbert, had a unique start to his time at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: his first official day was the Atlanta Falcons’ season opener vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 8. Previously a member of the Washington Commanders and working his eighth season in the NFL, he has extensive experience with live productions, but starting a new role with a new team on game day is something completely different.

“I was in more of an observer role [in Week 1],” he says. “Seeing all of the workflows that Julia, Cole, and the rest of the crew implemented was a very eye-opening experience; I was very much trying to wrap my brain around everything. but it has been incredible to witness the growth that has happened in my first five months with the organization.”

Right Out of the Gate: Space Houses Van Wagner for 2025 CFP Title Game

With the ALTWOOD game as its debut effort, the staff produced two more Falcons home games in the 2024-25 NFL regular season. The SEC Championship Game between the University of Georgia and the University of Texas was on Dec. 7, sandwiched between those two Falcons games. True to the venue’s legacy, the crew wasn’t done with football productions: the venue was selected to host the College Football National Championship Game between Ohio State University and the University of Notre Dame on Jan. 20. Chongarlides and her production team supplied much-needed support for Van Wagner, the lead production team for this neutral-site contest. Van Wagner had produced a high-profile football game in the building before — Super Bowl LIII was there in 2019 — but this would be the first with the new tech infrastructure.

The control room during the systems-integration process (left) compared with the completed project during the 2025 CFP National Championship in January

“[Van Wagner Senior Producer] Daniel [Zerunyan] visited a couple of times,” notes Gallagher, “and we had pretty good communication with their engineers about these updates. We also called in a lot of resources to make sure that event went well, and I think it was the smoothest event we’ve had with the new system.”

With the 2025 MLS season approaching, the crew is getting the show ready for Atlanta United’s home opener vs. CF Montréal on Feb. 22. Chongarlides and her crew are inching close to having the script ready to go, and, through the assistance of Ross Video’s Rocket Surgery division, the production will rely on new elements on the Halo Board.

“We’re reimagining the Halo Board by turning it into a 3D environment where our elements can move and fly around,” she adds. “Everyone has been super-impressed with the progress we’ve made, so we’re excited for the fans to see that on Saturday.”

For the Future: Internal, External Collaboration Brings Project Over the Line

The work that went into this project will make the future a lot easier to handle. And that future includes a handful of matches during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup this summer, another Atlanta Falcons campaign in the fall, the highly anticipated 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup next summer, and Super Bowl LXII in 2028. The countdown for those events is on, but the control rooms wouldn’t be ready without key members of the production team: Manager, Xpression Programming and Design, Ian Manglaviti; Xpression Programmers and Designers Bailey Cross, Jackson Roush, and Jordan Davis; Manager, Stadium Productions, Steve Smith; Control Room Producers Amanda Rutledge and Jake Burnham; and Coordinating Producer Patrick Shanley. Also contributing were Gallagher’s engineering colleagues Broadcast and Network A/V Engineer Dwight Spencer and Audio Engineer Ryan Collins.

A view of the field from the control room during construction (left) and after

Internal teamwork pushed this project over the goal line. “Accomplishing something like this requires bringing together the right people with a solution mindset,” says Chongarlides. “It’s about stepping outside of comfort zones, collaborating, and prioritizing what’s best for the project. Now we’re in a position with the resources needed to execute both global and national events, ensuring Mercedes-Benz Stadium remains a world-class venue for sports and entertainment.”

Gallagher also credits some crucial people at the vendors involved: Ross Video Solutions Specialist Aungelina Taglia; Evertz Live Media Program Manager, Venue Production, Brandon Law; ES Broadcast Managing Director, Sales and Systems Integration, U.S., Josh Shibler; and others.

“They basically lived here for six months,” says Gallagher. “We’ve been super-happy to have all of these people and partners involved in the project.”

Besides the home schedules of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, the new production-control rooms at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be busy with many sports events this year. Among them will be three Group Stage matches, two Round of 16 matches, and one Quarterfinal match in the FIFA Club World Cup in June and July and an intrastate college-football matchup between Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia on Nov. 29.