Live From Nashville Superspeedway: NBC Sports Drops the Green Flag on Its Half Of the NASCAR Season

Live From Nashville Superspeedway: NBC Sports Drops the Green Flag on Its Half Of the NASCAR Season A smooth changeover characterizes the technical refinements NBC brings to the races By Dan Daley, Audio Editor

Friday, June 23, 2023 - 10:26 pm

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NBC Sports kicks off its half of the 2023 NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series with the Cup Series Ally 400 race Sunday June 25 in primetime at Nashville Superspeedway, while NBC's Peacock streamer will exclusively stream a 30-minute post-race program immediately following the checkered flag at 11 p.m. ET. But getting the second half of the season underway did have one slight navigational hiccup.

We actually had a couple of our guys accidentally go over to the fairground, laughs NBC Sports Tech Manager Matt Hogencamp, referring to the vintage (and lately controversial) Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway that's sometimes confused with the Superspeedway track about 30 miles east of the city in the suburb of Lebanon, TN.

At the Nashville Superspeedway, NBC Sports set up its compound around Game Creek Video's Peacock, comprising Peacock A (also home to the show's broadcast-audio mix) and B, and the Edit 1 truck (also used for the audio submix), as well as a truck for SMT's graphics operations.

Hogencamp says much of the race's video infrastructure and workflow is similar to last year's, which was the first NBC NASCAR race with a full complement on site after two years of hybrid operations. This includes 10 dual-paths and 20 sources of in-car cameras, all utilizing BSI's recently developed in-car system: a new RF transmitter hub that, among other things, this year lets NBC add up to four audio channels per car, doubling previous years' audio capacity - a surfeit that Hogencamp says they're still figuring out how to best leverage. Fox Sports also had a crack at the new technology in the first half of the season.

It gives us some options to grow and hopefully a new look at the sound for coverage of NASCAR, he says. There's some stuff we're testing that I can't talk about yet because I don't want to give too much away. But we're still running down that path to see what we can do to add new sound to the coverage.

In addition, two SimplyLive ViBox replay systems for recording and playback are in place as an alternate replay system, primarily for in-car cameras to accommodate all that additional video capacity.

Graphics will also look familiar this season. Hogencamp says NBC was able to integrate Chyron Prime for main graphics this year with new hardware that he says is cooking those machines along wicked fast.

Peacock Pit Box Returns Fans will see and hear the Peacock Pit Box again this year, expected to be part of 14 of NBC's 20 races during the season.

The Peacock Pit Box is out in force this year, with the same setup that we've had in the past, with the Sony Robotics as well as a little mini jib on it, he says. That's our home base for our pre-race and post-race coverage - our signature that we love to have because it stands out - literally one of the biggest things on Pit Road. You can't miss it.

NASCAR Audio Ahead Of The Pack While the last year or two has seen a burst of activity around seeding athlete and player audio into the broadcast mix, Sam Flood, NBC Sports Executive Producer & President, Production, points out that NASCAR has been well ahead of the pack in that regard.

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Different than the stick and ball sports, we've always had [that kind of] audio in NASCAR, says. We've always had access to the drivers, to the crew chiefs. And we continue to lead into and take advantage of that access. When everyone is on a microphone, from the spotters to the crew chiefs, to each guy that goes over the wall so they can communicate because it's so loud at the racetrack, we engage with all that audio.

Flood says one of his favorite things to do on the telecast is listen to the spotters as they take drivers around the track and viewer. He says fans can expect a couple laps of that type of coverage.

It's been a great element that is a really unique way to listen to a race, as the spotter talks it through, and then to have [announcers] Dale Junior and Jeff Burton translate that [jargon], he says. We feel that NASCAR is one of those great sports that audio's always available and we're always leaning into it.

Hogencamp will be working with an extensive staff onsite this year. They include Bryan Korot and Pete Girgenti as A1 and submixer of the event's audio; Mike Duke will be managing the RTS comms; Jeff Benhke, VP NASCAR Production and Motorsports, NBC Sports Group; senior producer Renee Hatlelid; and director Sean Owens, who Hogencamp describes as Rain Man - He just knows when stuff is going to happen. Rick Allen will handle play by play, backed by analysts Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte. Pit Reporters are Marty Snider, Dave Burns, Kim Coon, Kevin Lee, Parker Kligerman, and Dillon Welch. The studio coverage team includes host Marty Snider and analysts Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, and Brad Daugherty.

Handing the Baton Some might wonder if picking up a major sports series mid-season from another television network might be as competitive as it is collegial, but Hogencamp says in the end every network is there to convey the sport's narrative and build on the momentum they pick it up with, more like teammates on a relay race than sprinters on their own.

We at NBC are committed to a level of production that no matter what sport it is, we're going to step up and do that, he says. We value NASCAR as a sport and want to showcase it for the amazing, almost gladiator-type event that it is, of the man in the machine trying to battle it out.

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LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/06/23/live-from-nashville-superspeedw...
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