Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NBC Sports NASCAR Production To Call Charlotte Motor Speedway Home for Season

03/07/2020

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;
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/07/02/nbc-sports-nascar-production-to...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

07/08/2026

Lawo To Highlights Dynamic Media Facility Support At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

Kevin Trueblood to Return as SBE President

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

Riedel To Demo 'Live Production Experience At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

LTN Enhances Live Event Master Control Capabilities

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

AI-Native Film Studio Launches in Toronto

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

Judge Orders Removal of Nexstar Employees from Tegna Board

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/08/2026

Riedel Communications at IBC2026 Live Production Experien...

Riedel Communications at IBC2026: Live Production Experience Showcasing Integrated IP Production Workflows At IBC2026, Riedel Communications will bring modern ...

07/08/2026

Shotoku Showcases Expanding Aura PTZ Ecosystem and Award-...

Shotoku Showcases Expanding Aura PTZ Ecosystem and Award-Winning Swoop Robotic Crane at IBC2026 Shotoku Broadcast Systems will officially introduce its Aura fa...

07/08/2026

Cobalt Digital to Bring New and Enhanced Practical Soluti...

Highlights will include new Dante fiber connectivity, expanded IPMX capabilities and award-winning signal processing solutions Cobalt Digital, the leading des...

07/08/2026

Bob Moses Concert at Red Rocks Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF

Bob Moses Concert at Red Rocks Captured with URSA Cine 12K LF Brie Clayton August 6, 2026 0 Comments PYXIS 12K and URSA Cine 12K LF enable cinematic c...

07/08/2026

Use It or Else Is Not an AI Implementation Strategy

Use It or Else Is Not an AI Implementation Strategy Andy Marken August 6, 2026 0 Comments Source - Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe, Touchstone Pi...

06/08/2026

USA Sports Rolls Into 2026 NASCAR Season With First Pace-Car Analyst on Selected Races

The broadcaster's 14-race schedule begins in Iowa and ends in November with ...

06/08/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 25: Chicago Bears Katlin Strange - Serving the Masses in the Windy City

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

06/08/2026

Warner Bros Discovery's Anne Graham Details the Organization's Media-Ops and Metadata Consolidation Across Sports and Entertainment

As media organizations consolidate teams, technology platforms, and content libr...

06/08/2026

Dolby Vision 2 Begins Rollout on Selected 2026 Hisense TVs

Firmware updates introduce Dolby's next-generation picture engine, content-aware optimization, and new motion and ambient-light tools...

06/08/2026

TNT Sports Preps Wall-to-Wall Coverage of FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 from Sept. 4-13

TNT Sports will have wall-to-wall coverage of the upcoming FIBA Women's Bask...

06/08/2026

IBC 2026: swXtch.io Introduces groundSwXtch Software-Defined Multicast Overlay

swXtch.io (Stand 5.MR13) has unveiled groundSwXtch for Audio over IP (AoIP), a software application that lets broadcasters and media organizations move audio in...

06/08/2026

IBC 2026: Riedel Communications Showcases Integrated IP Production Workflows

At IBC2026, Riedel Communications (Stands: 10.A24, 10.A31, 10.A38) will bring modern media production to life with the Live Production Experience - a connected ...

06/08/2026

Sandy Grossman's Legacy as a Pioneering Director Earns Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Award

The first live-sports director to receive the prestigious honor, eight-time Emmy...

06/08/2026

NBC Sports, Maryland Jockey Club Continue Partnership To Present Preakness Stakes Through 2032

NBC Sports will continue to present the Preakness Stakes on NBC and Peacock thro...

06/08/2026

IBC 2026: Cobalt Digital Brings New Practical Solutions to Evolving Broadcast Workflows

Cobalt Digital (Stand 8.F90) continues to reinforce its commitment to delivering...

06/08/2026

Wave Central Elevates Jeff Daubert to Director of Sales, Americas

Wave Central has promoted promotion Jeff Daubert to Director of Sales, Americas. In his expanded role, Daubert will lead Wave Central's sales strategy and ...

06/08/2026

KMH Integration Adds Architect Keith Hanadel to Expanding Full-Services Team

KMH Integration is expanding its ability to serve media, broadcast, and IT organizations by adding Keith Hanadel, an accomplished architect with decades of indu...

06/08/2026

Advanced Systems Group Promotes Michele Ferreira to Chief Business Officer

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has promoted Michele Ferreira from Vice President of its Systems Integration team to the newly created position of Chief Business O...

06/08/2026

IBC2026: Appear Expands X, VX Platforms for Hybrid Live-Production Workflows

Demonstrations will include new JPEG XS, Dolby audio, cloud-gateway, stream-processing, and distribution capabilities...

06/08/2026

Live Media Group Acquires Gravity Media's U.S. Mobile-Production Assets, Adds Eight Units to Fleet

The deal includes three premium mobile units, engineering personnel, existing br...

06/08/2026

Broadcast Management Group, LiveU Power Vertical REMI Production for Amazon Prime's Obsessed Fest on TikTok

Broadcast Management Group produced Amazon Prime's inaugural Obsessed Fest a...

06/08/2026

IBC2026: Ikegami to Showcase Expanded UNICAM Camera and Monitoring Lineup

Exhibit will feature new variable-ND functionality, OLED viewfinders, remote-camera tools, and UHD production monitors...

06/08/2026

Sony Introduces FE 100-400mm Super-Telephoto Zoom Lens

Compact full-frame E-mount lens targets sports, wildlife, and other long-range shooting applications...

06/08/2026

Tennis Channel Lands Exclusive U.S. Coverage of 2026 International Tennis Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Live broadcast will honor Roger Federer and Mary Carillo on Aug. 29, with onsite...

06/08/2026

UTEP Upgrades Sun Bowl Stadium Video Display With Daktronics

End-zone board receives higher-resolution LED technology and an updated Show Control system ahead of the 2026 football season...

06/08/2026

Fender launch Fender Motion controllers

New 16- and 32-pad MIDI controllers now available Fender have just announced that the two new performance-focused controllers that were unveiled at NAMM 202...

06/08/2026

Lewitt update Space Replicator plug-in

Standalone version, performance improvements & more Lewitt have just released a significant update for their speaker and room virtualisation software, intro...

06/08/2026

Hallowed Bells from ebbandflow

Combines celeste samples with synth engine After launching earlier in 2026 with deFORM, ebbandflow have returned with their first sampled acoustic instrumen...

06/08/2026

SGL Carbon: Still on track to meet its 2026 annual targets

SGL Carbon's consolidated sales in the first half of 2026 totaled 394.2 million, down 13.0% from the prior year (H1 2025: 453.2 million). On the one hand,...

06/08/2026

BritBox & BBC's Poirot Origin Series Hercule' Reveals Cast

The BBC has announced casting for the forthcoming six-part series Hercule from Mammoth Screen and Agatha Christie Limited. Joining Bluemel are Henry Ashton (A ...

06/08/2026

FCC Votes to Modify TV Station Ownership Caps

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

LTN Showcases Live Event Master Control Capabilities for...

Proven offering builds on more than 20,000 live sporting events with greater automation, flexibility, and operational control LTN , the industry leader in tran...

06/08/2026

Hornets Tech brings new encoder and decoder range to IBC2...

Hornets Tech, a specialist in broadcast connectivity and IP video, is bringing a new range of encoders, decoders and an IPTV platform to IBC2026. Broadcast in...

06/08/2026

Introducing Adobe for ChatGPT: Create, edit and get work done - all in ChatGPT

Introducing Adobe for ChatGPT: Create, edit and get work done - all in ChatGPT Deepti Pradeep August 6, 2026 0 Comments The Adobe plugin in ChatGPT br...

06/08/2026

Hisense Adds Dolby Vision 2 to Select Models

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

MediaKind to showcase one unified portfolio at IBC2026

At IBC2026, MediaKind will make its first major appearance as a unified global powerhouse in video, showcasing one of the world's most comprehensive video i...

06/08/2026

Big Blue Marble to unveil AI-assisted piracy detection an...

Big Blue Marble (#5.A63) will demonstrate how its integrated technology and operational expertise help media companies scale premium services with less complexi...

06/08/2026

NIH expected to award Scripps Research nearly $4.2 million over 5 years to advance tools for vaccine design

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has received more than $500,000 in first-year fund...

06/08/2026

Improving vaccine design for Ebola, HIV and more

LA JOLLA, CA-Viruses are masters at invading our cells thanks to specialized proteins that coat their surfaces. When scientists design vaccines, they often crea...

06/08/2026

How a chemical reaction triggers brain inflammation in Alzheimer's disease

LA JOLLA, CA-The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer's disea...

06/08/2026

Jin-Quan Yu elected to the National Academy of Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve....