
On the Hardwood: After Assisting Fox Sports Sun, Miami Heat Retrofit Control Room for Games in AmericanAirlines Arena Instead of a production truck, the RSN worked from the control room during the NBA bubble By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - 10:47 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The doldrums of 2020 may be in the past, but 2021 is still presenting challenges to in-venue production teams. Now out of the Orlando bubble, NBA organizations are hosting games in their home arenas and navigating the continuing difficulties of the pandemic. Like SVG's At the Ballpark and On the Gridiron series, On the Hardwood will take a look the hardships, creative ideas, and teamwork of NBA franchises.
The Miami Heat traveled the 245 miles north to the NBA bubble in Orlando and made a surprise run to the NBA Finals as the No. 5 seed. During the bubble, HEATv, the organization's broadcast- and in-venue-production department, allowed Fox Sports Sun to use the control room in AmericanAirlines Arena as its broadcast hub for the playoff games and subsequently revamped the space to accommodate social distancing and safety protocols during the current regular season.
Miami Heat's Josh Goshin in the NBA bubble last year
While [Miami Heat Director, Game Presentation,] Josh Goshin was in the bubble and helping our players there, we converted our control room for our RSN at the arena, says Kurt Doster, director, arena video production, Miami Heat. Instead of bringing in a live truck, we integrated a lot of their equipment into our room.
MORE ON THE HARDWOOD INTERVIEWS:
Denver Nuggets Repurpose RSN Broadcast With Some In-Venue Flavor
Atlanta Hawks Honor Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in First of Season-Long Unity Nights'
Bubble Operations: Fox Sports Sun Takes Over Control Room The players might have been away from the AmericanAirlines Arena, but the building was buzzing with activity down on the floor and up in the control room. When Fox Sports Sun wanted to cover the Heat's play in the bubble, including broadcasts of the non-national games, HEATv adapted the RSN's workflows and hardware to the space.
Down on the floor, the network's broadcast team called the game courtside through TV screens and produced pre/postgame and halftime shows from the arena. Part of the crew at the forefront of this endeavor, Doster served as technical director for the practice games, eight restart games, and the first round of the playoffs.
The Fox Sports Sun broadcast team sat courtside for games played in the Orlando bubble.
It was a weird time because, up in the control room, we're expecting to play off the sound of the fans since we're in the playoffs but it's a silent bowl, he says. It definitely took some adjusting to because, in every other run we've ever had [to the finals], the building's packed and people are going crazy.
In Orlando, the Miami Heat crew had its fair share of responsibilities. Goshin was at the helm of productions in the Wide World of Sports complex. In Miami, production and creative-services crews worked overtime to develop a hefty amount of content to play on the LED videoboards installed behind the team benches at Wide World of Sports.
We tried to provide as much content as we could to make the players feel like they were at home, says Doster. We sent 200 files [to Orlando] using our pool of assets between our media-production and motion-graphics crews. We wanted that content to give the players a little extra push that we hope to give during a normal home game.
Back in Miami: Team Rebuilds Control Room, Commits to In-Venue Energy After the NBA season, instead of returning the control room to its previous layout, HEATv used the two-month offseason to forge ahead in the face of the pandemic. Besides removing a lot of the infrastructure installed for Fox Sports Sun, the effort rearranged other equipment to optimize productions and enforce safety for the onsite crew.
We're doing everything we possibly can to ensure the safety of our workers, says Doster. We've reduced the crew a little bit, but I also have to request permission for anybody who's going to enter the arena. When we arrive, we fill out a form with standard health questions, get our temperature checked, and get a color code that determines the spaces in the arena that we have access to.
After Fox Sports Sun's departure, HEATv rearranged its control room, including installation of additional equipment racks.
Following those guidelines, the control room has plexiglass dividers between workstations, and employees don protective face coverings. From a production perspective, the franchise is diving deep on some of the game-day staples that AmericanAirlines Arena has become known for, including PA announcer Michael Baiamonte's 2 Minutes call and player introductions. In addition, the crew is deploying crowd prompts despite the empty seats.
As we discussed [the plan] more, did a couple of games, and started to get the feel of it, Doster adds, we realized that we could play with the fake crowd noise to match some things that we were doing on the videoboard. If the other team is shooting free throws, we'll pull up a scream graphic or if there's a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter, there will be a huge eruption.
Content Gathering: New-Look Media Day Gives Access to Players Direct access to players is hard to obtain during the pandemic, but, in an effort to create content for the videoboard and, for example, graphics for social media, HEATv worked alongside Fox Sports Sun to host Media Day at the beginning of the season. The three-day shoot was facilitated by a 14-member team representing HEATv, which determined what rooms could be used; the RSN, which handled the interviews; and
North America Stories
14/04/2026
Haivision has announced the Falkon X4, a 5G mobile video transmitter for live broadcast and remote production. The device will be showcased at NAB Show 2026.
...
14/04/2026
Founded by veterans of the production-truck world, Stripe TV was born out of a d...
14/04/2026
Grass Valley has expanded its partnership with Studio Berlin, supplying 12 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 12 LDX 180 Super 35mm cinematic cameras, including...
14/04/2026
LTN has announced two senior appointments ahead of NAB Show 2026: Mark Romano as Vice President, Multichannel Platforms, and Edward Cox as Vice President, Sales...
14/04/2026
Sennheiser and Italian rental company Agor have begun preparations for their Eu...
14/04/2026
DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced a partnership to integrate ADI Predict...
14/04/2026
Deltatre has announced the completion of a direct-to-fan website and app for Leg...
14/04/2026
Daktronics, will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 in partnership with Grass Valley at Booth C2408, Las Vegas Convention Center, April 19-22.
Daktronics will showcase a...
14/04/2026
Backblaze will host a series of partner presentations at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N1259, North Hall), open to all exhibition hall badge holders. Showcase partners i...
14/04/2026
BRAHMA AI will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2415, West Hall), demonstrating its Enterprise AI Content Platform for media, entertainment, sports, and technol...
14/04/2026
Bridge Technologies has announced that its VB440 production probe has been integrated into NEP Platform, NEP Group's software orchestration system. The inte...
14/04/2026
Clear-Com will introduce new products and demonstrate its communications ecosystem for broadcast and live production at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5807, April 19-22)...
14/04/2026
EZDRM will use NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2260) to introduce the Revenue Security Prism, a framework for combining multiple security technologies to protect streamin...
14/04/2026
Telos Alliance will introduce the following products at NAB Show 2026:
TV and Media
Telos Infinity MK2 Panels: A new generation of hardware control panels for...
14/04/2026
Panasonic Video and Audio Systems North America will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C3509), demonstrating IP- and IT-based production solutions for sports, bro...
14/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
14/04/2026
Blackmagic Design will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2502). CEO Grant Petty s product announcement livestream is available at youtube.com. The company announ...
14/04/2026
The deal establishes a close strategic alignment' between the iconic cinema...
14/04/2026
BIGSHOT Media, with support from Teradek, produced untamed African mountain-bike race' with daily coverage and highlights show
The 2026 Absa Cape EPIC, an...
14/04/2026
The Sports Video Group (SVG) today announced the launch of the SVG AI Innovation...
14/04/2026
WESCAM MX -Series EO/IR Systems Provide Critical Visibility During NASA Re-Entry Operations....
14/04/2026
DiSCO reduces uncertainty during the fog of war in modern threat environments an...
14/04/2026
GOES-19 imagery captured by L3Harris-built Advanced Baseline Imager technology helps forecasters issue life-saving weather warnings. Credit: NOAA/NASA...
14/04/2026
For decades, understanding the physical world from space has required a trade-of...
14/04/2026
Ruiz has helped fuel growth for both client-side and media companies, including, most recently, TelevisaUnivision.
He will spearhead transformation, innovatio...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB 2026
New system removes PTZ pan restrictions for teleprompter-based productions
Shotoku US...
14/04/2026
Integration of Vantage, Pulse, and Telestream UP with Grass Valley AMPP Ecosystem enables scalable, interoperable workflows spanning live production and file-ba...
14/04/2026
Enterprise growth leader to scale Dalet's next phase of innovation and global expansion
New York, NY April 14, 2026 Dalet, a leading technology and ser...
14/04/2026
Berklee Celebrates Prince's Legacy in Two-Night Signature Series Event Directed by Tia Fuller, the Prince Project (April 16-17) brings together more than ...
14/04/2026
Arooj Aftab Is Anything but Predictable The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound.
April 14, ...
14/04/2026
Appear launches include XM estate management and new X Platform processing enhancements to add density for next-generation hybrid & IP workflows, X5 is also now...
14/04/2026
Addressing the needs of a new generation's viewing habits, Synamedia launches GO Shorts. The AI-powered module turns existing catalogues into TikTok-style ...
14/04/2026
Vubiquity, an Amdocs company and global leader in technology-led media services, will be showcasing a new end-to-end streaming solution in collaboration with El...
14/04/2026
LiveU today announced a significant expansion of its collaboration with Sony Corporation, introducing integrated support for Sony's file-based workflow solu...
14/04/2026
Open Broadcast Systems (https://www.obe.tv/) has announced that BBC World Service has selected its decoders for IP Television distribution. The high-quality, lo...
14/04/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 21
Brie Clayton April 14, 2026
0 Comments
Major update adds new Photo page bringing Hollywood's most a...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Wowza will return to NAB Show 2026 with a set of live demonstrations focused on how video infrastructure is evolving for a new generation of AI-powered and oper...
14/04/2026
Stegawave Debuts Real-Time Forensic Watermarking to Tackle Piracy in Live Sports...
14/04/2026
Living in Boston: A Guide for Incoming Boston Conservatory Students From navigating the T to balancing school with professional gigs, a current student shar...
14/04/2026
Just What Is Genre These Days, Anyway? Understanding the business and art of genre-bending in 2026.
April 13, 2026
By
Bryan Parys
Illustration by Jack Fla...
14/04/2026
Lenora Helm Hammonds Is Turning Passion Into Plan A The dean of the Professional Education Division has seen the industry from all sides. Now shes bringing it...