Remote football production in the UK with SimplyLive (Riedel)

IMG deploys Riedel’s SimplyLive production suite to produce and distribute up to 30 matches simultaneously from the Championship, League One and League Two leagues, accounting for 50% of the English Football League’s remotely produced content.

The EFL’s remote production setup includes six camera feeds from Championship stadiums, four from League One and two from League Two, representing an increase of more than 60% in camera inputs compared to previous seasons. All signals are ingested into IMG’s centralised SimplyLive environment, where operators manage live switching, instant replays, post-match highlights, compliance content and social content across multiple platforms.

According to Brian Leonard, Director of Engineering, Production and Workflows at IMG: “Our production teams face a uniquely demanding schedule – there are weekends when 34 EFL games take place at the same time. From our facility, we produce 50 to 60 matches a weekend, and SimplyLive helps us handle that scale with confidence.”

One of the key reasons IMG chose SimplyLive Production Suite was its operational flexibility. Replay operators benefit from intuitive multi-angle review and rapid highlight creation, while directors can create custom workflows using a combination of touchscreen and remote control interfaces. In the words of Sarah Lochmore, IMG’s director of personnel: “Our replay operators enjoy the ability to scroll back through all angles at once, quickly find key moments, and create replays or highlight clips in seconds.”

Beyond live production, IMG deploys Riedel’s SimplyLive production suite to produce up to 30 English Football League matches simultaneously. centralised configuration has unlocked new efficiencies for post-match content delivery. IMG operators can quickly fulfil requests from clubs, referees and rights holders, whether for broadcast distribution or social media interaction. With all camera angles available instantly, response time is dramatically reduced and editorial quality is improved.

The software-based design has also opened the door to faster onboarding of new staff, allowing IMG to expand its operator base with talent from both broadcasting and other non-traditional fields. By removing the complexity of the control surface, the platform allows users to focus on storytelling rather than technology. “The system also supports a hybrid control approach – users can work with touchscreens, remote controllers, or both. There’s no single ‘right’ way to work with SimplyLive. You can build a workflow around the operator, not the other way around,” says Lochmore.

Brett Stoneham, Business Director Live Production at Riedel Communications, highlights the deployment of SimplyLive in the EFL: “IMG’s deployment of the SimplyLive Production Suite is a powerful example of what flexible, software-driven workflows can achieve at scale By centralizing operations and adapting to the needs of every operator, they’re delivering more content, more efficiently – and raising the bar for remote production in football.”