
NBC Sports NASCAR Production To Call Charlotte Motor Speedway Home for Season Game Creek Video's Peacock will serve as hub for 15-week series By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, July 2, 2020 - 12:12 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been home to plenty of historic moments, and this week it will add two. For race fans, it will be the first time ever that the same track has hosted both the NASCAR Cup Series and the INDYCAR Series on the same weekend. For fans of technical innovation, it will be the first time a week-to-week show of the size and scale of NBC Sports' NASCAR production will rely so heavily on distributed production, with the main production team located at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The efforts are the result of weeks of planning and coordination by NBC Sports, NASCAR, INDYCAR, Game Creek Video, and IMS Productions, according to Ken Goss, SVP, remote operations and production planning, NBC Sports.
NBC Sports is embracing a new production workflow beginning this weekend for the upcoming NASCAR season, which kicks off at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
I'm very fortunate to manage a truly talented operational and engineering team across NBC motorsports, he says. They've really embraced and have risen to the challenge of navigating these unprecedented times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The team worked really hard to develop efficient workflows between the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and I'm looking forward to getting NASCAR back on the air this weekend.
Charlotte Motor Speedway will be at the center of NBC's NASCAR coverage for the next 15 weeks. Game Creek Video's Peacock A and B units will provide a production hub that will be connected to a Game Creek Video production unit that will be at the particular track each week.
The location checked a lot of boxes for us, explains Craig Bernstein, VP, remote technical operations, NBC Sports. The track has enough compound space and bandwidth capacity to facilitate a remote production of this size. NASCAR Productions is based in Charlotte, and a lot of our production and technical personnel are local, which helps us with possible travel restrictions. It also frees up resources in Stamford needed to accommodate solutions we're planning across our other sports.
Dominic Torchia, manager, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, is at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the production team working out of Peacock A and B.
It will be the production hub for all of our NASCAR races, he says. We'll have a single Game Creek Video production unit travel to each race, which will act as an extension of our main MUs in Charlotte. The three trucks are connected, and all video and audio signals will pass between sites via AT&T circuits. Production will assemble the show just as if they're onsite at the race venue.
The front-bench production team, the A1 mixer, mix-effects mixer, tape release, graphics, and comms team will all be located in Charlotte, and the broadcast talent team will call the race from the broadcast booth there. Only cameras, effects mics, and transmission will be onsite at the track in Indianapolis.
[The talent] will call the races off-monitor, Torchia explains. We will give them some additional feeds so they can feel as at home as possible. There are dual 10-Gbps circuits between the tracks that NASCAR manages for us [and] will get us all the signals we need.
More than 40 video signals will be sent to Charlotte. The mix of wireless, regular, and super-slo-mo camera signals required the engineering team to figure out how to transmit that mix as efficiently as possible.
The wireless signals from BSI are being brought back as data right from the cameras, Torchia notes. They won't be broken down to baseband at the track.
SMT, also in North Carolina, will have connectivity so that telemetry data from the cameras can be read for insertion of on-air graphics.
Torchia credits Game Creek Video SVP, Technology, Jason Taubman and his engineering team with embracing the new workflow and making it possible.
They jumped right into this, Torchia says. We were in constant communication. This wasn't easy to do without sitting in front of each other, but, when I went up to Game Creek last week, they had created exactly what we had talked about. I give them a ton of credit for pulling this off in a short amount of time.
Bernstein says the team would typically have a week to set up operations. That week was reduced to two days.
We arrived at what we feel is an elegant solution, he adds, but it was certainly not trivial getting here as far as the operational and engineering complexity goes - especially when you factor in the ever-changing landscape due to COVID.
That short turnaround is one of the reasons having IMS Productions involved made such a big difference. Based at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS will provide the cameras and mics required to cover both the road course (which on Saturday will host both the INDYCAR race and the NASCAR Xfinity race) and the oval, which will host the NASCAR main event on Sunday.
Eric Thomas, senior technical manager for motorsports, NBC Sports, will be on the road each week, overseeing trackside operations. He says IMS Productions has been a very good partner: They opened their arms and said, Tell us what you need. And they provided everything we needed to be here. I can't say enough about IMS, Game Creek Video, and AT&T, which provides the circuits to Charlotte.
The definition of crew safety has been transformed in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bernstein notes efforts to keep crew members safe: Game Creek Video cleans the trucks daily; NBC has provided crew members personal headsets to use for the season;
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...
02/06/2026
Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...
02/06/2026
Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...
02/06/2026
Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...
02/06/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...
02/06/2026
Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...
02/06/2026
NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...
02/06/2026
Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...
02/06/2026
Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...
02/06/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...
02/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...
02/06/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...
02/06/2026
The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...
02/06/2026
CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...
02/06/2026
The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...
02/06/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...
02/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
02/06/2026
The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend
Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...
02/06/2026
The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...
02/06/2026
Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Pen lope Cruz, and Edward Norton appear in The Invite by Olivia Wilde, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Co...
02/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
02/06/2026
Powerful new vocal-production tool announced
Described as a vocal performance station , Klevgrand's latest plug-in combines pitch-correction with harmo...
02/06/2026
Launched alongside Go Green sale extension
McDSP have just released the latest addition to their APB line-up, DC-2 Dual Compressor, and have also announced ...
02/06/2026
Create custom tools for Ableton Live 12 Suite
Ableton have just introduced a new open JavaScript toolkit that allows anyone to create their own custom tools...
02/06/2026
Now features full H90 algorithm library
Eventide have announced the upcoming launch of the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2, a new and improved version of their hugely p...
02/06/2026
Plus UAD Half Yearly Sale now live
The latest arrival to the Universal Audio range delivers a new native pitch-correction plug-in that's capable of deli...
02/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to present comprehensive performance, conformance and spectrum-m...
02/06/2026
BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification c...
02/06/2026
blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...
02/06/2026
If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...
02/06/2026
With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...
02/06/2026
The TV agency was one of the earliest adopters of Nielsen's local television...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
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 ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
02 Jun 2026
VEON Closes USD 1.4 Billion Bond Offering, Refinancing 2027 Notes A...
02/06/2026
Praise for series three:
The Times - sun-dappled pleasure
The Daily Mail - The Homes Counties' Charlie's Angels
The Sun - 4* this [is an] enjoya...
02/06/2026
Wuppertal June 2, 2026
Gudrun Scharler Appointed CEO of Riedel Networks The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel N...
02/06/2026
Back to All News
Discover Your Next Book-to-Screen Obsession With Our New Dedicated Hub
Product
02 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Dear most vor...
02/06/2026
New LinkedIn Data: 90% of C-Suite Leaders are Continuously Building Skills to Lead in the AI Era Published on Jun 2, 2026 Categories: Data and insights
Lin...