It has been only three years since New Orleans hosted the NBA All-Star Game Weekend, and, typically, when a sports event returns to the same city that quickly, the production philosophy remains the same. That is not the case for Turner Sports this weekend.
This is a very different show than it was three years ago, says Chris Brown, senior director, technical operations, Turner Sports. The big difference is the deliverables and a compelling basketball game that uses as much technology as we can cram.
Chris Brown says Turner's NBA All-Star game presence has changed a great deal since the game was last held in New Orleans, three years ago.
Among the biggest changes? Turner's NBA on TNT road show, a 70,000-sq.-ft. fan-activation effort that includes a set for the Inside the NBA studio show, concerts, the final of the Dew NBA 3X three-on-three tournament, interactive fan experiences, basketball clinics, pop-up stores, and more. It will be located at Champions Square, about 1,500 ft. from the Smoothie King Center, which will host the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday, All-Star Saturday Night on Saturday, and the All-Star Game on Sunday.
This allows us to have a big-event feeling without having to go through all the steps of creating an entirely separate production, says Brown. Everybody is happy and excited about the fact that it's here.
The Champions Square activities tip off tonight with a concert and the first Inside the NBA broadcast. Even though All-Star weekend begins tomorrow, there are still games tonight to give the Inside the NBA team plenty of action to discuss. Aerial shots from the Square will be available, thanks to a point-to-point Spidercam system.
By the time coverage winds down on Sunday night, the production team will have delivered more than 24 hours of content to viewers on TNT and NBA TV. Events like the media availability on Friday afternoon, All-Star practices on Saturday afternoon, and the G-League All-Star Game provide additional fodder for coverage. In addition, more than 36 hours of content will be live-streamed across Facebook, Twitter, and NBA.com, proving the growing power of the Internet as a content-delivery platform.
We have Facebook, Twitter, and quick hits for social media, says Brown. And now we have content being created specifically for Facebook and Twitter.
A Facebook Live control room is in one of the NEP production units in the compound, and a LiveU cellular transmission system will send live interviews with players and other guests from around town to that control room. The incoming video will be integrated with graphics before being encoded for distribution via Facebook.
NEP is playing a big role in Turner's production of the weekend's activities with SS24 at the center of the game coverage, NCP10 for All-Star Saturday night, NCP 11 for the studio show, NCP8 for the entertainment and halftime elements, and ND1 for transmission and more. The use of ND1 continues to evolve at the All-Star game.
We've taken the use of ND1 to the next level as we come up with more ways and methods to use the horsepower of this four-truck facility, says Brown. The C unit has been turned into four edit bays with server storage and content managers to manage the files and the EVS network. And the D unit has three edit bays and a 5.1[-surround] audio-sweetening room.
Turner Sports will also use a small flypack inside a suite in the Smoothie King Arena for the Area 21 show. Hosted by former NBA player and All-Star Kevin Garnett, the show will feature Garnett and his guests discussing the ongoing action.
We're using a very small flypack for that production, notes Brown. Signals from that flypack will also pass into the studio truck so that segments can be integrated into the studio show, and it will be made available to the game-production team.
Turner will put 58 cameras to use inside the Smoothie King Center for both the on-the-court and TNT studio coverage (the world-feed production will also have unilateral cameras because the game will be seen in 215 countries and territories and in 49 languages).
One exciting new production tool is the addition of a Spidercam for coverage of the All-Star Saturday Night activities: the slam-dunk contest, three-point shooting contest, and skills challenge. It will be the first time a cabled camera will fly over the court during on-court action.
The philosophy is to always look for new things that will be compelling for viewers and will move the needle on our coverage, Brown explains. The Spidercam gives us a unique perspective that we have never had before, and it took a lot of work and coordination with the NBA as the All-Star Game has a lot of rigged lights and moving stages.
One workflow improvement this year is the onsite presence of 11 editing bays with Adobe Premier (three also have Adobe After Effects). Those editing systems are on the same network sharing 100 TB of storage and are also attached to four EVS IPDirectors to pull clips from 29 EVS servers.
This never feels just like a game, says Brown. The players were chosen by the fans, and this is their dream team.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Telos Alliance and Pluxbox Announce Dynamic Media Facility Integration Partnersh...
08/09/2026
J nger Audio Showcases Industry-First S-ADM Cloud Workflow at IBC 2026
Search
Dolby, MainConcept, Techex and J nger Audio will showcase the industry's ...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
It has been only three years since New Orleans hosted the NBA All-Star Game Weekend, and, typically, when a sports event returns to the same city that quickly, the production philosophy remains the same. That is not the case for Turner Sports this weekend.
