NBA Returns: ESPN Brings Plenty of Tech Firepower to Wide World of Sports Productions Highlights include RailCam, new robos, embedded mics, virtual graphics, and more By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, July 31, 2020 - 2:22 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
NBA on ESPN is back in business tonight, with its production team resuming live broadcasts from the NBA bubble inside Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. To pull them off safely, the network's operations team has worked with the NBA and fellow rightsholder Turner Sports to build a massive broadcast compound that echoes an Olympics IBC (international broadcast center) to serve the three arenas hosting the NBA games.
It's a tremendous feeling to know that your sport has come back, says ESPN Senior Operations Manager Patty Mattero. With everything going on in the world right now, we're all very happy to just be able to make TV again. There are certainly monumental technical challenges, but we all know the fundamentals of making TV, and we can't wait.
In the Compound: NEP EN3 and EN2, Game Creek Victory Power the Production The sprawling NBA broadcast compound is roughly the size of three football fields.
ESPN, along with the NBA and Turner Sports, spent the better part of two months creating a 94,920-sq.-ft. broadcast compound (equal to roughly three football fields) to house the 13 production trucks, 31 trailers, six mobile-unit cover tents, two catering tents, two field-shop tents, and several cooling stations onsite.
ESPN has rolled out three dedicated twin mobile units to produce the games out of the three venues at WWoS: NEP's EN3 for The Arena (Court 1, the main national-telecast court and site of Conference Finals and NBA Finals), Game Creek Video's Victory for HP Field House (Court 2 for the regular season to Second Round), and NEP's EN2 for Visa Athletic Center (Court 3, primarily for games broadcast exclusively by regional sports networks).
CAT Entertainment Services has rolled out 20 generators to power the compound: 12 500-kVA units, two 300-kVA units, two 400-kVA tow plants, and four 175-kVA tow plants. With the 90 temperatures in Orlando, the compound is also equipped with 32 20 -ton HVAC units (two of them 60-ton units) with redundancy for mobile-unit support.
Three sides of the court have 17-ft. LED videoboards.
ESPN, Turner, and the league have also built a comprehensive NBA fiber ring at WWoS, laying more than 436 miles of fiber throughout the facility. On the transmission side, the NBA compound is sending out 65 transmission paths with 14 paths returning, plus 92 (and counting) NBA HSAN feeds and an additional 190 Gbps in bandwidth for file-sharing and redundancy needs.
Our operations team has done an unbelievable job, ESPN VP, Production, Michael Shiffman said this week. It really represents ingenuity, innovation, technology, and - above all else - a can-do' mentality, which I believe is one of the hallmarks of our company. This is the latest example and has allowed us to hit the ground running with these scrimmages and get us ready to go for Friday night.
GREMI and REMI: At-Home Model Is Out in Full Force ESPN is deploying its GREMI model for the majority of its games (including nearly all games at The Arena and HP Field House), as it has for its NBA coverage for the past two years. Under the GREMI model, EVS replay and Vizrt graphics systems are located onsite in the trucks, but three or four replay operators and all graphics and scorebug operators are at the ESPN facility in Bristol, CT.
The Arena will serve as Court 1, hosting the Conference Finals and NBA Finals.
ESPN and Turner are also creating a neutral world feed that RSNs around the country will use to produce in-market telecasts from their home facilities. In addition to the world-feed line cut, ESPN is delivering a dedicated iso camera feed to each RSN (which has full comms to the camera operator) and access to several other camera feeds to integrate into its telecast.
Although EN2 is on hand to serve some of the RSN-exclusive games at the Visa Athletic Center, the majority of them will be REMI (remote-integration) productions in which feeds are sent to control rooms in Bristol. According to Mattero, this is the first time ESPN has produced NBA games as full REMI productions from control rooms in Bristol.
Because all of our sports are coming back, our control rooms are insanely busy trying to juggle all the events and all content coming back to Bristol, says Mattero. What Bristol can support determines how we're going to cover the games. The majority are REMI, but there are also quite a few of them that will be more of a GREMI setup out of EN2.
Safety Protocols in the Compound: Keeping the Crew Healthy To ensure social distancing, ESPN has doubled the usual distance between trailers/trucks. To limit the number of people in each truck, the network has also reorganized several crew positions, outboarding multiple replay operators, robotic-camera shaders, and audio personnel to other locations in the compound.
HP Field House will serve as Court 2 from the regular season through Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs.
In this environment, we are putting safety first and taking extra steps to ensure health and safety of everyone, says Mattero. We have only six people in the majority of our A units; that's about half of what we would normally have. There is plexiglass separating people, and we've mapped it out so everyone is spaced far enough apart based on ESPN and Disney protocols. And, of course, everyone is wearing masks. We're all trying to get used to a whole new way of doing business, but we know how important it is to do it the right way.
The crew has been divided into functional groups, with the majority of the production and operations
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking DP for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Director of Photography for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy Feature Film- I...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Location, Sound for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Location/Sound for Low Budget Dramed...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Film - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
Calrec Redefines Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026 with its Most Powerful Hardware...
18/03/2026
Oscar Nominated Two People Exchanging Saliva Posted with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
DaVinci Resolve Studio handle...
18/03/2026
Boston Conservatory Presents Celebrated Musical Satire Urinetown Performances for this Center Stage production will take place at Boston Conservatory Theater ...
18/03/2026
Charlie Puth Joins Switched On Pop at Berklee NYC The Berklee alum spoke with host and Berklee NYC professor Charlie Harding for a live taping, answering audi...
17/03/2026
NASA+'s Rebecca Sirmons and Brittany Brown offer unique look at live streami...
17/03/2026
The transition to IP has fundamentally reshaped professional media infrastructures. Video, audio, and increasingly metadata now circulate as independent, precis...
17/03/2026
Live sports streaming can push every element in your video delivery chain to its limit, exposing every potential weakness in seconds. When the Super Bowl, the O...
17/03/2026
Texas Athletics sought to modernize its media production, enhance fan experience...
17/03/2026
Ikegami USA will demonstrate the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast...
17/03/2026
TNA Wrestling and iHeartMedia announces a new multi-platform collaboration that will integrate iHeartMedia across TNA's premium live events, weekly televisi...
17/03/2026
The goal was to transform Hard Rock Stadium into a global leader in sports and e...
17/03/2026
Spectrum has announced the launch of its new Multiview feature in the Spectrum TV App, giving customers the ability to watch up to four NCAA men's or women&...
17/03/2026
Genius Sports deal also covers data technology, AI, fan engagement, and performance analysis....
17/03/2026
Net Insight is supporting the rollout of a new state-wide centralized operation with Rede Massa, which is an SBT affiliate, the Brazilian regional television ne...
17/03/2026
Featuring audio from practice sessions, qualifying races, and Grand Prix races, the film represents Apple's sports-media ambitions
At Sunday night's Ac...
17/03/2026
Live broadcast has always been one of the most demanding environments in media a...
17/03/2026
DirecTV is introducing several new viewing features, including a multi-screen March Madness Mix channel and an updated Sports Central mobile app hub, ahead of...
17/03/2026
Deltatre has announced a multi-year partnership with ATP Media, the media arm of the ATP Tour, covering broadcast graphics, data, and production across the 2026...
17/03/2026
The Detroit Pistons have announced a third consecutive season partnering with Sc...
17/03/2026
Fresh Finds Africa spotlights emerging artists and movements across the continent and its global diaspora, with listeners tuning in to discover new Afro-forward...
17/03/2026
Last month, more than 60,000 fans piled into Bangkok's Rajamangala National ...
17/03/2026
Vintage-inspired channel strip joins line-up
Black Rooster Audio's latest plug-in provides an all-in-one mixing tool inspired by classic analogue consol...
17/03/2026
Level and EQ voice, reverb and noise independently
The latest plug-in to join Accentize's collection is said to take a new approach to dialogue processi...
17/03/2026
UHF radio mic & IEM bandwidth at risk
Once again, the UHF bandwidth that is currently allocated to RF audio gear is at risk of being reassigned to high-spee...
17/03/2026
Last Friday, the first Plant Fire Department Training Week in Bavaria successf...
17/03/2026
New campaign from NAATI and SBS CulturalConnnect highlights how we all deserve ...
17/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/03/2026
3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced the launch of a public beta for its new 3D asset streaming platform. Miris is building the infrastruc...
17/03/2026
As media organizations face mounting pressure to produce more content, faster, while maximizing value and operational efficiency, Tedial, a leading provider of ...
17/03/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is launching the newest version of its platform, Brainstorm Suite 7,...
17/03/2026
Limecraft today announces the release of Limecraft 2026.2, the second platform update in its 2026 release cycle. Limecraft is an AI-powered production platform ...
17/03/2026
Broadcast Solutions, a leading system integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, showcased its latest broadcast and V...
17/03/2026
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT RELATES TO THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION THAT QUALIFIED OR MAY HAVE QUALIFIED AS INSIDE INFORMATION WITHIN THE MEANING OF ARTICLE 7(1) OF THE ...
17/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/03/2026
QuickLink's Latest StudioEdge Models to Make North American Debut at NAB 202
Brie Clayton March 16, 2026
0 Comments
The Multi-platform Remote Gues...
17/03/2026
Frankenstein Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 16, 2026
0 Comments
Sonnenfeld enhances the controlled interplay between warm and c...
17/03/2026
New Voyavox from Link Electronics with Real-Time Speech-to-Text Captioning to be...
17/03/2026
Berklee City Music Stewards META Fellowship Supporting Massachusetts Music Educa...
NBA Returns: ESPN Brings Plenty of Tech Firepower to Wide World of Sports Productions Highlights include RailCam, new robos, embedded mics, virtual graphics, and more By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
