2022 Winter Classic: In Record-Breaking Cold, Turner Sports Rises to the Occasion of Its First Marquee NHL Event Crews withstood sub-zero temperatures to deliver unique regular-season event By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Tuesday, January 4, 2022 - 12:54 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
With an official temperature of minus 6 F at puck drop, the 2022 Winter Classic, at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday evening, established a new record for the coldest outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League.
For Turner Sports, taking on live production of the unique and prestigious annual event for the first time, it was a baptism by fire?
We've had our bit of cold nights on baseball, and it can get chilly, but by no stretch have we ever experienced that type of cold for an outdoor production, says Chris Brown, VP, operations and technology, Turner Sports. It was definitely very different, but it was a good different. It lends a lot of perspective. I think It took a lot of the older Turner folks back to the days of doing the NFL.
The 2022 NHL Winter Classic took place at Target Field in Minneapolis. Temperature at puck drop was minus 6 F. (Photo: Paul Hemming, Turner Sports)
Over the first 12 Winter Classics, dating to New Year's Day 2008, previous rightsholder NBC Sports had its fair share of cold, but the temperature never dipped below zero. The coldest Winter Classic game prior to Saturday was the 2014 edition at Michigan Stadium, when the temperature hit 13 F (with snow). Of the 33 total outdoor games the league has hosted, only one was played in zero degree temperature: the Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, AB, in November 2003.
So, though thrilled to be covering its first Winter Classic, the Turner Sports crew was sure going to earn it in their rookie season.
According to Brown, necessary protocols were put into place to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment throughout the game. Crew members weren't afraid to speak up, and, when someone needed a break to warm up, one was granted without question.
The crew was made up largely of Turner's standard traveling regular-season crew, with locals filling in where needed. For many, the thrill of working the event was only amplified by the extreme temps.
The cool thing, says Brown, is that people really wanted to be a part of it. I think there was a willingness to endure the cold - up to a certain point.
Handheld-camera operator Matt Gould (left) and game director Paul Hemming braved the cold during a walkthrough prior to the event on Saturday. (Photo: Paul Hemming, Turner Sports)
As for the gear, the operations team deployed everything from space heaters to heated blankets to keep equipment operational. The cold did present some challenges, including with the on-ice shallow-depth-of-field rig, on which both the gimbal and camera battery struggled to perform in the cold. The camera was still used throughout the broadcast, just not for stretches as lengthy as the production team would have liked.
You worry about lenses sticking and servos slowing down, says Brown. Where applicable, you try to apply heat to help some of that out. But, by far and large, everything performed pretty well.
Skycam provided one of 36 camera angles that made to air during the 2022 Winter Classic in Minneapolis. (Photo: Paul Hemming, Turner Sports)
Cold aside, Turner Sports rolled in with a production complement befitting one of the most eye-catching events in sports television today. More than 30 cameras were deployed; according to game director Paul Hemming, 36 camera angles made it to air. The complement included 12 manned-robotics cameras (provided by Fletcher), five unmanned robos, four hard cameras, three handhelds (RF was supplied by CP Communications), POVs mounted on each bench and penalty box, a Skycam (which has not been deployed many times - if ever - at Target Field), and a fixed-wing plane from Winged Vision (piloted by Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Bob Mikkelson).
Since this was Turner's first foray into the event, the production and operations teams relied heavily on NHL guidance in drawing up the production plan. The league picked a number of potential camera positions and presented them to the production team for review. The crew - including Turner Director, Technical Operations, Lee Estroff - also visited Minneapolis for two site surveys in the last few months of the year. Turner Tech Manager Eric Grossman is a veteran of the NHL and brought a lot of experience with outdoor events of this nature.
It's a balance, Brown says. We want to be able to push the boundaries on a game like this but with the reminder that this is still a regular-season game. We can't break a number of rules as if this is an exhibition game. So there's a healthy mix of respecting the game, and, while it's supposed to be fun for the players and the fans, there's a boundary of respect that needs to remain.
In the truck compound outside Target Field, the game was run out of NEP Supershooter 8. The IP-based, 4K- and HDR-capable truck typically works the NBA circuit for Turner Sports, but a bit of a break in the schedule made it available for this event. Also onsite was NEP ND6, which is slated to take over as the primary truck for the second half of the NHL season through the Conference Final.
All in all, the event certainly presented a substantial challenge, but the Turner production team met it impressively, even with some last-minute adjustments due to rising COVID numbers across the country. The future remains bright for one of sports TV's most mesmerizing spectacles, which appears to be in good hands for at least the next six years.
Two of NEP's newer trucks, Sharpshooter 8 and ND6, held down the production compound outside Targe
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
14/11/2026
Longtime MLB Network employee David Maybrown passed away Thursday at the age of 57. David joined MLB Network in 2009 shortly after its launch, beginning as an i...
14/11/2026
Modular innovators introduce two guitar-based products
ADDAC System's recently introduced Four String Series makes it possible to integrate physical str...
14/11/2026
Marcelo Dai's Live Session Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
Artist takes viewers on an immersive journe...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Newest Lenses, Horizon Anamorphic Seminar & Guided Lens Character Experience Highlight Creative Possibilities
At the 2026 Toru CAMERIMAGE Film Festival, ZEISS...
14/11/2026
Sonnet Announces Black Friday Sale on Select Products
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
WHAT: Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a select...
14/11/2026
Berklee Alumni Shine at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards This year's winners included songwriters, engineers, and performers who contributed to acclaimed reco...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
2022 Winter Classic: In Record-Breaking Cold, Turner Sports Rises to the Occasion of Its First Marquee NHL Event Crews withstood sub-zero temperatures to deliver unique regular-season event By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
