Live From NBA All-Star Game Weekend: Turner Sports Has New Production Home via NEP EN1; Skycam Set to Transform NBA Coverage

Live From NBA All-Star Game Weekend: Turner Sports Has New Production Home via NEP EN1; Skycam Set to Transform NBA Coverage By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Sunday, February 17, 2019 - 1:27 pm

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If TV coverage of the 2019 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte, NC this weekend goes as planned the game will have a legacy: the acceptance of Skycam as a production tool that can be deployed to cover game action. It was first deployed on Friday for the Rising Stars game at the Spectrum Center, then used during last night's Skills Challenge, and tonight, for the main event, Skycam coverage will not only be integrated into the main broadcast on TNT but available as the main camera in an alternate broadcast available on TBS.

Chris Brown, Turner Sports, director of technical operations (left) with Pete Rintelman, Turner Sports, senior technical manager, in the TV compound for NBA All-Star Weekend.

People are enjoying the unique angles Skycam gives, says Chris Brown, Turner Sports, director of technical operations. It's similar to what it brought to football coverage in that you can have a sense of the space between players.

The deployment of Skycam began with answering a key question: how can it be used but also guarantee that it won't be distracting to players or, more importantly, actual get hit by a basketball that is in play? Helping in answering those concerns was the use of shot data from Second Spectrum which tracks the height of every shot taken during NBA games. As long as the Skycam stays above that height (approximately 28 feet) it should steer clear of any balls in flight. It also will be raised higher during the final minute of each quarter as that is when there are going to be cross court shots or passes that might go above the heights of average shots.

If there's going to be any problems [with the acceptance of Skycam] this group of elite players will be where it will be brought up, says Brown. But for now, it is crawl before you run.

Also new this year is the use of NEP's EN1 as the production unit for tonight's All-Star Game.

It's exciting to have that truck because of the additional resources it brings to the table, says Brown. The audio console is a little bit bigger than the one on SS24 and it also has a larger router, so resource sharing isn't a problem.

NEP also refurbished the EN1 C unit and the layout allows for the Turner production team to consolidate replay and super slo-mo operations compared to previous All-Star events where they needed to be split apart.

We now have all of the EVS operations in one trailer and that has definitely helped to streamline that operation, says Brown.

Game coverage tonight will rely on approximately 40 cameras with the major new additional being a robotic camera on a large crane behind the basket.

Hopefully it will provide some dramatic replays, says Brown.

An important part of the weekend (especially the Skills Challenge on Saturday night is the use of RF cameras and AVS is on hand with two RF steadicams and two RF handheld cameras. With only one vendor there are no frequency issues, and everyone is definitely happy with what they've provided, says Brown.

NEP's SS16 will be used for the halftime show while NCP X truck is once again back for All-Star Saturday and the truck will also be used to produce the live alternate broadcast that will air on TBS (the main broadcast, produced out of EN1, will be seen on TNT).

The team that will produce the alternate broadcast will be in charge of directing the Skycam coverage during the All-Star game, says Brown. This will be first time we will have two independent productions running side by side.

The TBS side-by-side telecast will have six of its own cameras, including one camera for a sideline reporter.

The TNT telecast has 80% of the camera positions so that didn't leave a lot of options for the side-by-side show so, like the Final Four Teamcast they will be using a lot of the TNT resources, says Brown.

The changes in the production truck lineup isn't the only thing offering improvements this year. This year is the NBA has brought in a new LED lighting system that has been installed by Baxter Controls and all of the intercoms systems have made the move to digital-based technology.

With respect to the LED lighting, Brown says the LED systems have been installed in the arena on a temporary basis. Tests were conducted at last year's All-Star Game in Los Angeles last year and everyone was happy with the results. So, this year all of the events in the Spectrum Center will be lit by the LED systems as well as the theatrical lighting systems that will play a big part during the entertainment portions.

It's been fantastic, and the colors look great and it's something we look forward to working with more as more NBA venues come on line. It offers lower power consumption, but you also don't need to wait for the lights to warm up before they hit their peak temperature. You can turn them on, and our video department can instantly adjust the cameras. Plus, there are no harsh shadows.

Turner Sports and the NBA are also once again relying on Firehouse to manage communication systems and the RF environment. Mark Dittmar, VP of Firehouse, says that the All-Star Game is a complicated weekend due to the vast array of external media entities that roll in to cover the festivities. There are approximately 600 intercom users, 260 located inside the Spectrum Center and an additional 300 outside of the arena in the TV compound across the street.

The use of a Riedel Bolero wireless intercom system has made a difference has it operates in the 1.9 GHz spectrum band, allowing for about 80 users and 140 frequencies to be moved out of the UHF band which continues to shrink.

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