
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
01/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies has delivered its second Bombardier Global 6500 missionize...
01/07/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., July 1, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its second quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, Ju...
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations, renewing the licenses for Chesapeake...
01/07/2025
Dalet has released a new update to its Dalet Flex media workflow platform, introducing powerful new capabilities to its flagship platform....
01/07/2025
NEWARK, N.J. With the FIFA Club World Cup final rapidly approaching and the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup now less than a year away, interest in soccer in th...
01/07/2025
COW Job Listing: Laser Engraved Logo
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Laser engraved logo
July 1, 2025Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Cr...
01/07/2025
LeGrow.Studio Builds Broadcast Hub for ePro League
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
TEM Constellation HD and BlackmagicURSA Broadcast G2 drive liv...
01/07/2025
Beeble launches SwitchLight 2.0, bringing AI-powered relighting to any footage
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
New AI model delivers full-scene p...
01/07/2025
Steffie Beltt's Mi Amor Music Video Created with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K digital film camera...
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a consent decree with Sinclair to resolve a variety of in...
01/07/2025
DENVER Low-power television (LPTV) station owners looking to navigate the complexities of selling their assets in todays dynamic media environment are invited t...
01/07/2025
NASA announced today that live programming from its NASA+ channel will be available on Netflix starting sometime this summer....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has appointed Katie McAuliffe to serve as policy advisor in his office....
01/07/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Alphabet's GFiber, the broadband provider formerly known as Google Fiber, has announced that it recently worked with Nokia to demonstr...
01/07/2025
NEW YORK, N.Y. DoubleVerify (DV) has announced the launch of DV Authentic Attention for Social. The product will first launch with Snap, the owner of Snapchat....
01/07/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations and agreed to renew the license for C...
01/07/2025
Compact new converter lets users capture live NDI and streaming sources into software over a USB interface
Video interface and IP workflow innovator Magewell ...
01/07/2025
Disguise, the award-winning tech company driving visuals for Broadway and West End hits including Redwood, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Disney's Fr...
01/07/2025
Historic appointment ushers in unified leadership for WRAL-TV, New Media, and Digital Solutions
RALEIGH, N.C. - 6-27-25 - Capitol Broadcasting Company is prou...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
01/07/2025
Back to All News
Watch: A Line Crossed: Netflix Drops Explosive Trailer for New...
01/07/2025
Tyngsboro, Mass. - June 30, 2025 - The 2025 ACM Annual Conference at Boston University was an energizing and inspiring gathering of community media professional...
01/07/2025
In many parts of the world, including major technology hubs in the U.S., there's a yearslong wait for AI factories to come online, pending the buildout of n...
30/06/2025
The Artemis II Space Launch System core stage is integrated with the solid rocket boosters inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy S...
30/06/2025
RALEIGH, N.C. Capitol Broadcasting Co. has named Heather Gray vice president and general manager of WRAL-TV and WRAZ-TV here....
30/06/2025
The Virginia Association of Broadcasters has recognized Bill Sewell, Director of Engineering at WTKR & WGNT in Norfolk, Va. as the recipient of the 2025 J.J. Fr...
30/06/2025
The Society of Broadcast Engineers said its annual member drive resulted in the recruitment of 49 individual members....
30/06/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid today released its fully integrated news platform, uniting MediaCentral and Wolftech News in a single newsroom solution, and will demonst...
30/06/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communication's Enforcement and Media Bureaus have entered into a Consent Decree with Sinclair Broadcast Group to resolve a variety o...
30/06/2025
Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics to Host 40th Anniversary Concert The celebration will be held on July 10 in Perugia, Italy.
By
Colette Greenstein
June 30, 202...
30/06/2025
PremiumBeat Tips and Tricks
Brie Clayton June 30, 2025
0 Comments
When editing to impress, you'll need quality music, and if your studio happens t...
30/06/2025
Back to All News
Bel n Cuesta and Karra Elejalde Star in El ni o, the New Film ...
30/06/2025
Back to All News
A New Dangerous Troll Awakens: Netflix Unleashes Teaser for Troll 2Play Video
Play Video
Entertainment
30 June 2025
GlobalNorwayDenmarkSwe...
29/06/2025
Back to All News
A Secret Society, Ritualistic Killings, and a Century-Old Curs...
28/06/2025
WASHINGTON In a press conference following the Federal Communications Commission's May Open Meeting, Chair Brendan Carr promised the agency would move rapid...
28/06/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. Charter Communications has awarded $1.1 million in Spectrum Digital Education grants to 55 nonprofit organizations that work to expand access to...
28/06/2025
LAKE FOREST, Calif. June 19, 2025
What's New:
Sonnet Technologies today announced the certification of its Echo 20 Thunderbolt 4 SuperDock as an Engin...
28/06/2025
MASV (massive.io), the fastest and most reliable large file transfer platform for media professionals, has been named an IDC Innovator in the IDC Innovators: Me...
28/06/2025
Grass Valley today announced that TV SKYLINE GmbH, one of Europe's top mobile production providers, has expanded its camera inventory with 30 LDX 135 UHD/HD...
28/06/2025
AgileTV, a European leader in TV and video technology solutions, signed an agreement with Austrian telco LIWEST to develop and implement its TV service in Austr...
28/06/2025
The 48th Annual Indian National Finals Rodeo Shot with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton June 27, 2025
0 Comments
Filmmaker Cameron Mackey relied on Bl...
28/06/2025
Social, Streaming Don't Compete, They Compliment
Andy Marken June 27, 2025
0 Comments
I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spir...
28/06/2025
Blackmagic Design Captures Filipino Rock Band Drama Singtala
Brie Clayton June 27, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K and DaVinci Resolve St...
28/06/2025
Enhance Videos Faster with Aiarty Video Enhancer - Offline, Sharp, and Natural
Brie Clayton July 1, 2025
0 Comments
If you've used AI video tools ...
27/06/2025
By Jessica Herndon
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...
27/06/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has set deadlines for comments to a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to codify certain foreign ownership re...