ESPN announced that its new, 120,000-square-foot HD digital-production facility will open in Bristol, Conn., June 7, with the premiere of SportsCenter in HD.
The ESPN Digital Center will house 7 million feet of cable and three HDTV studios totaling 17,000 sq. ft. ESPN said the center's screening room will allow for immediate computer editing of highlights.
Final completion of the project is scheduled for 2005.
ESPN also said it won the "DTV Academy Award of Distinction" for its overall HD efforts this past year. The award was one of one-dozen the Consumer Electronics Association handed out at its HDTV conference in Washington, D.C., Monday.
Comcast Corp. won the award for best DTV cable system, HDNet won for best digital-TV satellite programmer and CBS won for best digital-TV network.
