ESPN, TNT Sports Tag-Team on Emirates NBA Cup Production in Las Vegas The broadcasters will share resources, compound space at T-Mobile Arena By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Friday, December 13, 2024 - 1:05 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The long and winding trek to the Emirates NBA Cup will conclude over the next few days at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and Saturday's doubleheader will decide which two teams will battle it out for the second-annual trophy. In a March Madness-esque effort, ESPN and TNT Sports will each produce a semifinal matchup from the arena, relying on help from each other and the league's broadcast-operations department.
[These games] feel different because we're in a neutral venue and working much closer with the NBA, says Eddie Okuno, senior remote operations specialist, ESPN. We're able to do things that we wouldn't be able to do in an ordinary NBA arena.
A Different Production Beast: Ops Teams Ramp Up Tech To Match Heightened Intensity After a successful inaugural competition in 2023, the NBA Cup tourney's start a month ago demonstrated the teams' buy-in, with new jerseys, newly designed courts, and an enhanced commitment to play with heart and grit. Fans have turned up to the venues to watch in person, and viewers have tuned in to broadcasts on national and regional networks. As the tournament hits its final stage, the tension on the court will continue to ratchet up. And the championship-level game will be matched by championship-level technologies and workflows.
T-Mobile Arena will host the Emirates NBA Cup Semifinals on Saturday and Championship Game on Tuesday.
It feels like we're in the playoffs despite being in the middle of the season, says Chris Brown, VP, technology and operations, Warner Bros. Discovery. This year, it has been a little bit easier after last year's tournament and with the great working relationship that we have with the league.
TNT Sports, which will broadcast the first semifinal, will deploy an impressive tech arsenal, including 10 hard cameras, six handhelds, four super-slow-motion cameras, its standard above-the-rim robotic camera at each basket, an RF Steadicam, and live coaches mics heard in real time. Another TNT Sports' standard is remote graphics production from its Techwood facility in Atlanta, an effort that began on NBA Opening Night back in October.
A full-length RailCam will run alongside the players on the court.
Airing on ESPN, the second semifinal and Tuesday night's final will be the first NBA on ESPN productions to boast five shallow-depth-of-field cameras: a Sony FR7 PTZ robo on each bench, a new Canon C80 on an RS-4 Pro gimbal, and an RF handheld with capabilities to add virtual graphics. Other tech toys include an ARRI ALEXA35 4K Live Production System camera with a Fujifilm DUVO 25-1000mm box lens, SMT Optics strategy tracker and shot-distance tracker with NBA Hawk-Eye data, and TGI Sport on-court virtual advertising.
Each broadcaster will have a dedicated configuration in the compound. TNT Sports will roll with its West Coast workhorse, NEP Supershooter 8 A and B units, as the main game truck and NEP TS2 for an onsite edition of Inside the NBA emanating from the outdoor plaza of T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will be working from NEP EN3 A and B for game coverage and Live Media Group MU-14 for onsite versions of NBA Countdown and NBA Today. The game truck will share multiple camera feeds for studio coverage, and the studio team's virtual jib camera will be integrated into the live game telecast.
Cross-Network Doubleheader: Networks Tap Shared Resources for Semifinal Round On Saturday, TNT Sports and ESPN will come together to produce two semifinal games in a single night. Although the schedule at T-Mobile Arena is a lot more favorable this year - the tech infrastructure for last year's portion in Las Vegas was constructed later than usual because of a Vegas Golden Knights game - key to the tournament's success is to reflect on last year's effort and adapt strategies for this weekend.
Along with the RailCam, a Skycam will be shared by ESPN and TNT Sports.
We tried sticking to the blueprint and made the necessary adjustments for replicating it, says Brown. The NBA made some tweaks, but we looked to leverage the lessons learned from last year.
A neutral-site production for a trophy game is reminiscent of the NBA Bubble during the COVID-shortened season in 2020. As two of the NBA's domestic rightsholders, TNT Sports and ESPN had long had a strong partnership, but that effort at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando strengthened their relationship. Four years later, that time together is reflected in Las Vegas.
The camaraderie and friendship that we have with TNT Sports is unmatched, says Okuno. When it comes to operations, we're always there to help each other out. When the NBA Cup came into our schedules last year, we took the approach of doing it together.
This willingness to work together in the same venue has translated into sharing selected resources and equipment. TNT Sports' RF Steadicam, for example, will be used on ESPN's nightcap on Saturday. ESPN, for its part, is offering Skycam, court-length RailCam, a Sony HDC-5500 low-slash camera, and robotic PTZ cameras. The ESPN-provided cameras will be operating in 1080p/59.94 fps SDR for both semifinal games. Audio will be shared via MADI and Dante paths, along with comms between the broadcasters' onsite trucks.
Camera positions, including this one near center court, will be shared by the two broadcasters.
To free up space in the shared broadcast compound, the broadcasters will deploy a few remote workflows. Besides TNT Sports' remote graphics from Techwood, ESPN graphics, clock and score, and four EVS replay operators for game
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
01/12/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
01/12/2025
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Vic...
01/12/2025
IRVINE, Calif. Wooden Camera has introduced its new Accessory Collection for the Canon EOS C50. The new lineup includes a low-profile, gimbal-ready cage, expand...
01/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for its Dec. 18 Open Commission Meeting that will include a vote on a report an...
01/12/2025
In most years, a graph of annual local TV ad spending is about as predictable as an electrocardiogram of a reasonably healthy patient in a doctor's office. ...
01/12/2025
Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has ...
01/12/2025
GENEVA Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This...
01/12/2025
NEW YORK Just in time for Giving Tuesday tomorrow (Dec. 2), the Broadcasters Foundation of America is seeking out donations to help television and radio industr...
01/12/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Net Insight CEO Crister Fritzson has informed the company's board that he will retire from the video transport and media cloud technology ...
01/12/2025
01 Dec 2025
Kyivstar and Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation Select Go...
01/12/2025
The prequel to the global hit Sky Original mob crime saga, Gomorrah' is a s...
01/12/2025
Featuring Florence Welch, Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Flea, designer Bella Freud...
01/12/2025
Back to All News
A Down to Earth, All Too Relatable Hero: Cashero' Teaser ...
01/12/2025
In the rush to deliver content to every screen, many broadcasters overlook one of the most crucial steps in the workflow: format and frame rate conversion. Get ...
01/12/2025
Fox Corporation Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic to Participate in Upcoming ...
01/12/2025
Arvato Systems' Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Receives BSI C5 Certification (T...
01/12/2025
Summary This short video gives you an summary of the changes in under two minutes.
--...
01/12/2025
As the festive season approaches, RT Supporting the Arts is proud to showcase a...
01/12/2025
Researchers worldwide rely on open-source technologies as the foundation of their work. To equip the community with the latest advancements in digital and physi...
01/12/2025
Festive specials of Christmas in Kilmainham presented by Marty Whelan, High Road Low Road, Callan Kicks the Year and Keys to My Life
Ring in the New Year with ...
01/12/2025
Architect and television presenter Hugh Wallace, best known to RT audiences as a long-serving judge on Home of the Year, has died at the age of 68.
In a state...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
ESPN, TNT Sports Tag-Team on Emirates NBA Cup Production in Las Vegas The broadcasters will share resources, compound space at T-Mobile Arena By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor 
