Real-Time, Real Big: Inside ASL’s Content Machine at Fanatics Fest 2025

Fanatics Fest 2025 was a celebration of sports, culture, and the power of fandom at full throttle. Held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City (Just blocks from our state of the art flagship podcast studio in NYC), the large scale event brought together tens of thousands of fans, brands, athletes, and media over one unforgettable weekend. For us at ASL, it was a event coverage content juggxrnaught, which also happened to be happening the same week we were at Sport Beach in Cannes Lions.

Alongside our partners at OBB and Fanatics, our team was embedded across every square foot of the show floor, covering everything from brand activations to athlete interviews, unscripted moments, and the high-stakes Fanatics Fest Games. In just three days, we shot and delivered over 60 pieces of content for some of the biggest brands on-site—many of them going live the same day they were filmed.

THE MISSION

Our role: capture and deliver high-quality, on-brand content in real time.That meant short-form, social-optimized video for brands like:

• Starbucks

• Raising Cane’s

• Dick’s Sporting Goods

• Fanatics Fest & the Fanatics Fest Games

• And behind-the-scenes content for ESPN’s Fanatics Fest: All Access – Inside the Ultimate Sports Fan Experience

Our clients needed everything: Reels. TikToks. YouTube Shorts. Broadcast assets. And they needed them now.

THE TALENT

Fanatics Fest wasn’t just packed with fans—it was stacked with stars. We captured moments with top-tier athletes, celebrities, and creators including:

• Tom Brady

• Derek Jeter

• David Beckham

• Kevin Durant

• Jayson Tatum

• Sabrina Ionescu

• Travis Scott

• And more surprise appearances throughout the weekend

Whether it was panel appearances, exclusive interviews, or spontaneous floor interactions, our team had to be ready to roll at any moment—and we were.

THE WORKFLOW

Delivering at this speed and scale required a bulletproof system and an elite crew. On-site, we deployed:

• 12 camera operators, many using gimbals for smooth movement through packed crowds

• 4 production assistants to help wrangle talent, manage gear, and support crew

• Audio engineers to capture clean sound in chaotic environments

• 3 DITs/media managers to offload, tag, and distribute footage in real time

• 6 editors, split across on-site and overnight shifts

• Field producers coordinating the flow between stages, brand teams, and editorial

We shot in both vertical and widescreen formats, capturing each moment with the end-platform in mind. Our nimble operators worked gimbals through dense fan crowds to ensure buttery-smooth motion, while producers tracked the location of key athletes to make sure nothing was missed.

Once footage was ingested, our editorial team used parallel cutting workflows—cross-cutting scenes from different cameras, different brands, and different deliverable specs simultaneously. Starbucks might need a 9:16 vertical piece with a lighthearted tone while ESPN required a cinematic 16:9 doc-style interview. We handled both without missing a beat.