Orlando Magic Jump Into ST 2110 With New Production-Control Room at Kia Center

Alpha, the project's systems integrator, assisted in the workflow transformation

Tipping off the second half of the 2025-26 home schedule against the Houston Rockets at Kia Center tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Orlando Magic also deployed a renovated control room that was completed in time for the start of this season. The franchise's in-venue production team worked closely with Alpha to transform the 15-year-old, baseband-powered space into a full SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based space with the latest bells and whistles.

When this building opened in 2010, says David Storm, senior director, broadcast technology and services, Orlando Magic, we had one of the most technologically advanced venues in North America, but the age of older technologies caught up to us. We did our best to innovate and perform upgrades where we could, but decisions had to be made, and we decided to rip the Band-Aid off and go all-in to IP.

Necessary Change: Baseband Control Room Maxes Out

During the past offseason, a lot of the workflows essential to producing an in-venue show - the previous router, production switcher, centerhung - were beginning to reach their full capacity. Something needed to be done. Although sticking with baseband or incorporating hybrid solutions was possible, the Magic knew that going fully IP was the only way Kia Center would be ready to handle the quality of productions that they want to give their fans.

In the initial stages, the biggest hurdle was overcoming the fear of diving headfirst into the waters of ST 2110. There was a lot of soul searching and talking to counterparts around the league because, five years ago, SMPTE 2110 was still a pretty scary thing to do, says Storm. Routers weren't ready, and video engineers weren't sure how to manage something like this.

To calm their nerves, the Magic did their due diligence, traveling onsite to see numerous venues in person or setting up calls to discuss workflows. In December 2024, the production team visited the Houston Rockets' Toyota Center, Atlanta Hawks' State Farm Arena, Chicago Bulls' United Center, and the league's newest: the Los Angeles Clippers' Intuit Dome.

Prior to the visits, the NBA club sought approval on public funding from the city of Orlando. During that waiting period, it began preliminary talks with members of the systems-integration community a full year before the official start of the project. The talks included a conversation between Alpha Senior Account Executive, Sports and Live Events, Dustin Culhane - who had a relationship with the franchise during a prior stint at Daktronics - and Storm and his team, including Senior Technical Operations Engineer Daniel Ortiz and Technical Operations Engineer Jesus Escobar, during the NAB Show in April 2024.

By the time November rolled around, says Culhane, they got the green light from the city, so conversations shifted to the need to finish this project by the summer of 2025. We were under contract in May and began work onsite on June 1. We used every bit of that timeframe because, along with the control room, they were also changing their LED displays and audio system.

The new IP-based control room is driving productions for Orlando Magic home games at Kia Center.With Anthony James Partners as a consultant and Unity Systems Integration as another partner on the project, the team tinkered with the control-room design and layout to maximize efficiency and insure completion by the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Florida Panthers NHL preseason game on Sept. 30.

External Obstacles: Shortened Timeline, Tech Challenges

With that exhibition game looming in four months, the Magic got right to work, but, as with any large-scale renovation, unintended challenges popped up. Given the constrained turnaround time, tariffs and shipping delays were accentuated and amplified. From a systems-integration point of view, completion of the control room was affected by other aspects of the renovation, which presented a smaller margin of error.

We share space and rely on elements from the LED and audio side, says Culhane, so we needed to marry all three together and make sure that everybody was working at a similar pace to maintain the completion date. It was a very fast-moving process that, once it got going, no one had an opportunity to take a deep breath.

From the Magic's perspective, a transformation of this size doesn't happen very often. Without many chances for do-overs, the crew were bullish on executing the desired setup while Alpha and other trusted partners were onsite.

We held the vendors, design firm, and integrators to the highest standards and to a no-compromise kind of philosophy, notes Storm. A couple of workflows didn't deliver on time, but we had our core operational infrastructure established to produce the essentials [of our show].

After the Lightning's 3-2 victory over their in-state rivals, the Magic focused on their preseason home game vs. the Miami Heat on Oct. 12, and regular-season home opener against the same team on Oct. 22.

Reimagined Space: Evertz EXE 3.0 Routing Leads IP-Based Control Room

Inside the control room, an Evertz EXE 3.0 router and MAGNUM routing control sit at the heart of the new space. Also at its core, a Ross Video 4M/E Ultrix Acuity production switcher drives each in-venue show. Other gear includes Ross XPression graphics, Evertz DreamCatcher for replay, Riedel SmartPanel for communications, and Telestream for recording and playback.

Outside the control room, the team controls 22 cameras across the venue: eight robos in the centerhung and corner videoboards; six robots in the arena's entrances, player entrance, player hallway, and press room; six Sony HDC-3500's, two of them high-frame-rate versions; and two handheld Sony HDC-3500's with RF connectivity via Wave Centr

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/25/orlando-magic-jump-into-st-2110...
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