
NBA Tipoff 2021: ESPN To Deploy Onsite Talent, REMI Integration for Coverage of League's 75th Season The broadcaster will also field an all-female production team By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - 10:38 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
After the NBA season's official start tonight on TNT, ESPN begins its coverage tomorrow with a double dip featuring the Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks in the Big Apple at 7:30 p.m. ET and the Denver Nuggets vs. Phoenix Suns in Arizona at 10 p.m. For the league's 75th year, the broadcaster is mixing onsite talent with a handful of REMI and REMCO (remote-controlled) resources offsite.
For the first time in two years, says Mike Foss, senior director, remote production operations, ESPN, we will be entering the NBA regular season in October in arenas operating at full capacity. What could be more exciting than partnering with the NBA and its tremendous fan base to honor its 75th anniversary?
Remote Technologies: REMI, REMCO Power Productions ESPN's NBA team is making significant strides toward a return to onsite productions, but, throughout the 2021-22 calendar, remote workflows will still handle the bulk of each broadcast's on-air elements. Regular REMI-powered workflows, like EVS replay and Clock and Score, and REMCO workflows, like Vizrt graphics, will be housed at production facilities in Bristol, CT, and Charlotte, NC. REMCO is the broadcaster's remote-graphics solution formerly branded as GREMI.
Our REMI-based executions will feature producer and director teams to integrate production assets, says Foss. REMI executions will allow us to produce our NBA content with fewer production personnel and fewer technical assets located onsite.
Along with offsite resources, ESPN plans to use its normal camera complement and extend use of the shallow-depth-of-field camera.
For the onsite team, including main production crew and on-air commentators, the broadcaster is still proceeding with an abundance of COVID-19 caution. In the pandemic's 19th month, health and safety are still high priorities.
What we've witnessed over the past 19 months has been an ever-evolving environment complicated by multiple variants, Foss explains. The availability of vaccines to the general public earlier this year, along with Disney's and ESPN's requirement for all personnel to be vaccinated, has placed our teams in the safest position possible. We're continuing to implement a disciplined approach to masking and social-distancing protocols, and our ongoing partnership with the NBA and its teams remains focused on creating a safe working environment for all personnel.
Pre/Postgame Coverage: NBA Today Highlights 2021-22 Storylines One of the additions happening away from the court is ESPN's new flagship NBA show, NBA Today. The show will have a similar structure to that of the discontinued The Jump, reflecting on recent activity in the league and interviewing special guests. Host Malika Andrews will be joined by analysts Kendrick Perkins, Chiney Ogwumike, Vince Carter, and ESPN Senior Writer Zach Lowe. ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski and ESPN NBA Insider/Senior Writer Ramona Shelburne will be familiar faces.
Deriving from the Los Angeles Production facility, the show will air Monday-Friday at 3-4 p.m. As the season progresses, it will travel to high-profile NBA events, including the NBA Finals.
NBA Today will provide in-depth, comprehensive daily coverage of all aspects of the NBA, said David Roberts, SVP, NBA and studio production, ESPN, in late September. Malika, who is a phenomenally talented commentator, will run point on a show that will feature a vibrant cast of expert analysts who all offer distinct perspectives on the game. Through the contributions of our wide array of NBA reporters, the show will be both newsy and timely with an eye towards the biggest games around the league that day.
Special Features: All-Female Team, Alternative Broadcasts Are Planned Aside from onsite and offsite technologies, NBA games on ESPN's networks will include numerous production highlights. With history being made in Major League Baseball (at both ESPN and AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain), motorsports, golf, and other sports, professional men's basketball on ESPN will be covered by an all-female on-air and production team at a to-be-determined date this season.
In addition, the broadcaster will once again dive into alternative broadcasts after the success of its Daily Wager Special between the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets on April 14 and Marvel's Arena of Heroes between Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans on May 3. All these new initiatives are testament to the hardworking staffers who work not only on these NBA games every night but on all basketball productions at ESPN.
We're incredibly lucky to work with so many talented, committed, and accommodating professionals, says Tim Corrigan, senior coordinating producer, ESPN. Everyone has been willing to make personal and professional sacrifices, and our team understands the responsibility that comes with covering the NBA, Summer League, G League, FIBA, and the WNBA.
Diamond Anniversary: ESPN Takes Lessons From the Past A 75th anniversary is an occasion worth celebrating, and ESPN's NBA schedule is filled with marquee matchups, including five games on ABC and ESPN on Christmas Day. There's a lot to be excited about, but, before the network gets going on this schedule, production and operations teams are relying on experiences from the year since the Lebron James-led Los Angeles Lakers lifted the Larry O'Brien trophy in the Orlando bubble in October 2020.
We've been reminded that an innovative, collaborative, and energized team is capable of accomplishing
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
28/05/2026
Thomsons Climate Crisis Toolkit is already being put to work, helping journalist...
28/05/2026
FOX Sports' MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy ...
28/05/2026
One of the most memorable postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...
28/05/2026
NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most-decorated and most-watched pro...
28/05/2026
The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...