As NBA 2K League's First Season Closes Out, Studio and Production Workflows Continue To Evolve

As NBA 2K League's First Season Closes Out, Studio and Production Workflows Continue To Evolve Fan feedback spurs production changes broadcast to broadcast' By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Thursday, August 23, 2018 - 1:07 pm

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The inaugural season of the NBA 2K League comes to a close this weekend, with Heat Check Gaming and Knicks Gaming meeting in the Finals. The best-of-three series will close out the first chapter in what has been the most ambitious esports effort by a major U.S. sports league. To stream the entire 15-week regular season plus Playoffs and Finals on Twitch, the league launched its NBA 2K League Studio in Long Island City, NY, in May and has continued to evolve its production style and workflows on a week-to-week basis.

The NBA 2K League Studio is built around a circular main gameplay area. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Michelle Farsi/NBAE via Getty Images)

If you watch our first broadcast and you watch now, they don't even resemble each other, says NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donahue. We've added more camera angles and microphones during the season, and we're going to continue to evolve with a few different things next season. Whenever we talk to people who come to the studio to watch, it's electric, and there's so much passion and energy from the players. We're trying to figure out how can we get closer to reenacting that through the broadcast. And so, every single week, we're making adjustments trying to make it better.

Why Long Island City? Proximity to the Mothership

Prior to the season launch, the NBA 2K League transformed an unassuming warehouse in Long Island City (just across the East River from Manhattan) into a 7,433 sq.-ft. live-production facility featuring a stylish studio/arena area for gameplay.

Inside the NBA 2K League Studio in Long Island City just two subway stops from the League office.

The league evaluated a multitude of locations and design options for what became the NBA 2K League Studio, and Donahue identifies his visit to a fellow esports venue - Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA - as a turning point.

When we first were looking for a studio, we looked all over the country, says Donahue. But, when Overwatch League kicked off their season and we saw the production and the number of employees that were involved, we realized the benefit and resources they had in being so close to the Blizzard campus [in Irvine, CA]. Making sure we could tap into [the NBA's] resources was a big driver of why we ended up here. We are only two subway stops away from NBA's New York office, and we also have 2K Interactive here helping us as well.

The Long Island City facility features a full studio/arena for the NBA 2K League competitions, as well as workspace for the broadcast-production and highlights/postproduction teams, interview and media rooms, four team training rooms, a green room for players, and a dressing room for talent.

Inside the Studio: Creating a New Kind of Game-Day Experience

The main studio/arena is built around a circular main gameplay area, with the five-player teams facing each other. The PC gaming systems use Dell Alienware hardware and monitors and Intel's gaming processors.

Since multiple games take place each night, the NBA 2K League Studio crew must quickly turnover all 10 gameplay stations in a matter of minutes. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Michelle Farsi/NBAE via Getty Images)

Several games are played each night of competition, forcing the NBA 2K League Studio crew to take on the mentality of a NASCAR pit crew, switching over all 10 systems in a matter of minutes between games (the average turnover time has been cut from 15 minutes to seven this season, according to Donahue).

We are uniquely positioned as an esport in that our players can face each other during competition, he says. So we were able to create this very engaging circle that allows players to engage, talk a little trash, and really mix it up. That's created a level of energy that was actually big surprise for us.

The commentator table inside the NBA 2K League Studio. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Michelle Farsi/NBAE via Getty Images)

Also inside the studio are a commentator set for the play-by-play announcer and analyst, an elevated set for the pre/postgame and halftime host, a large stairway and stage that function as the walkout tunnel for player intros prior to each game, and seating for fans on both the north and south sides of the arena.

A 28- x 13-ft. LED display is located on the player-walkout stage, two 16- x 9-ft. projection screens on the north and south walls for spectators to watch in-game action, and center-hung player portrait LED boards are suspended over the gameplay area, displaying all five members of both teams.

The studio is equipped with five Sony HDC-2500 broadcast cameras, a roving Steadicam, a jib, a roving handheld to cover the action inside the arena, and a single camera for the host set and commentator set. In addition, all 10 players are covered by AJA RovoCam POVs.

Inside the Control Room: Production Style, Mentality Evolve Week to Week

The NBA 2K League partnered with Defacto Entertainment and Media XP to produce the live in-venue and streaming experiences.

Each NBA 2K League broadcast is produced out of control room area on-site.

Each broadcast is produced out of an area similar to a control room. Located behind the main studio, it features a front bench for the director/producer; workstations for the TD and the graphics and EVS operators; and a monitor wall featuring six 55-in. displays. The production room is built around a Ross Carbonite Black switcher (with a 2M/E panel) and houses an EVS XT3 replay system, a Calrec Brio audio console, Ross Xpression graphics, and four AJA KiPro Ultra Plus recorders.

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