The virtual NFL draft will use more than 100 live feeds from remote broadcasting equipment and smartphones to broadcast the event on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network with support from Amazon Web Services.
The league distributed more than 150 smartphones to prospects, coaches and other executives; some players received two, so one could capture a wide view of their draft reaction while the other could be used for interviews. More than 250 ESPN employees will work behind the scenes to produce the event. AWS is providing the back-end network support and security to replicate the emotion and analysis of the night.
“As the pandemic unfolded and we heard about all the changes to this year's NFL draft, our first thought was, How can we help?” David Brown, AWS vice president, said in a statement. “We immediately began working with them on the challenge of pulling off a remote event of this magnitude, and through our size and scale, and the compute power AWS possesses, we think we’re able to offer them solutions that many others cannot. We've put together a strong team across functions to support this—from walk-throughs, to rehearsals, to the live draft—to ensure we are ready for anything.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will announce each pick in the first three rounds from his home in Bronxville, N.Y., while deputies Dave Gardi and Dawn Aponte will handle the last four rounds—and also step in if Goodell does have any technical difficulties.
“To pull off an event of this magnitude—even in person—is difficult, but to try and do it remotely presents a whole other set of challenges. Fortunately, we have great partners like AWS to help us bring this draft to life," NFL CIO Michelle McKenna said in a statement. “Our hope is to provide everyone with a unique and fun experience while still making sure the draft runs as normally as it can—and also giving people a diversion from everything happening during this unprecedented time."
AWS has supported Next Gen Stats, the NFL’s advanced player tracking data, for a few years and last fall, became the league’s partner to analyze injuries. AWS will apply its AI and machine learning to identify new risk factors and based on player injury history, position, field surface, equipment and game environment.
