Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

3 Point Productions Plays Major Role in Popularity of WNBA's Las Vegas Aces

27/10/2021

3 Point Productions Plays Major Role in Popularity of WNBA's Las Vegas Aces The company has been a partner since the franchise's first day By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor

Wednesday, October 27, 2021 - 10:34 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

With a stake in the NFL, WNBA, and NHL, Las Vegas is slowly becoming a professional-sports town. One of the city's original franchises, the Las Vegas Aces, has risen from the ground floor of women's professional basketball to become a formidable force in the league's Western Conference. Now in its fourth season, the organization continues to grow its creative and in-venue strategies with 3 Point Productions, a production company that has been a steadfast partner since 2018.

We've been a part of this club from the get-go, says Matt Heuer, creative director, 3 Point Productions. It's an opportunity that we still look back on, and I'm very proud of the way it all came together.

Humble Beginnings: Aces Rebrand After Six Years in Utah, 15 in San Antonio The Las Vegas Aces have a long history in the WNBA, but playing under different names in different cities. The organization played first in Salt Lake City as the Utah Starzz from 1997 to 2002, then migrated southeast to play as the San Antonio Silver Stars from 2003 to 2013. The club were the San Antonio Stars from 2013 to 2017, then moved to Las Vegas in 2018 to play under their current name. Looking to plant roots in Sin City, the Aces looked outwards to develop a voice and identity in their new home and turned to 3 Point Productions for its expertise.

The Las Vegas Aces play home games in Michelob Ultra Arena, which used to be named Mandalay Bay Events Center.

We jumped [into the project] before the Las Vegas Aces were unveiled, notes Heuer. We knew that [head coach] Bill [Laimbeer] was going to be involved, and we knew they had some exciting aspects about the brand.

The company not only generates a majority of the team's in-venue content but is also responsible for distributing this material on game days at Michelob Ultra Arena (formerly named Mandalay Bay Events Center). Without many local professional teams at the time - the Vegas Golden Knights had been established in 2017 - the pool of production talent was somewhat shallow. This caused a massive learning curve for Heuer and 3 Point Productions President Patrick Walker to flatten.

There was a lot of training on the front end, so it was almost like a second home for quite a while leading up to the inaugural year, Heuer says. We got [the Aces crew] to a place where we were able to execute an amazing first season, and we've set up a solid foundation from Year 1 that we've been able to grow.

Vegas-Based Ops: Video Village, High-Energy Prompts Light Up Michelob Ultra Arena Fans have finally been welcomed back to the building, but, during the early months of the 2021 schedule, internal COVID-19 protocols from the 2020 Wubble in Bradenton, FL, were carried over. As the season progressed, some restrictions were lifted, allowing more interaction with spectators in the stands.

During the Aces' playoff run, which unfortunately ended in Game 5 of the semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury, the energy level was kicked up a notch for the packed crowds at the venue. The change in pace involved flashing a lot more hype videos, fan-driven prompts, and prize giveaways a lot earlier in the contest. The prompts included the A'ja Wilson Dance Cam, Chelsea Gray Dribble Cam, DJ Cam, and the Kelsey Plum Flex Cam.

The Video Village houses in-venue production technology, including a NewTek 3Play production switcher.

Seattle has always been known as a tough place to play, and I think that's [becoming true] here in Las Vegas, says Heuer. Something that we would traditionally save for the third- or fourth-quarter moment would be used a lot earlier, especially in a deciding game like a Game 5.

The tools that Heuer and his team have at their disposal are in Video Village, the name for the area located at court level and adjacent to the player tunnel. Because the team plays in a smaller venue than, say, the Liberty, who play in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the control-room layout is driven by a simplified tech arsenal, including a NewTek 3Play production switcher, Chyron graphics, and Daktronics software to run elements to the LED ribbon boards and main centerhung videoboard.

Star-Studded Production: Heuer, League's Best Drive Elements for 2021 WNBA All-Star During the 2021 regular season and playoffs, Heuer was busy with games for the Aces, but, during the extended Olympic and All-Star break, he put in some extra hours at the center of production plans for the 2021 WNBA All-Star Game. Since it was located in Las Vegas for the second straight season (absent the pandemic-canceled 2020 edition), 3 Point Productions once again participated in the annual showcase as it did in Seattle in 2017.

The Aces hosted the Phoenix Mercury during Game 5 of the 2021 WNBA Semifinals.

To produce a marquee event like the All-Star Game, Heuer assembled an Avengers-style crew for this exhibition in Las Vegas. It included Aces in-game host CJ Simpson, Washington Mystics and U.S. Women's Basketball in-arena host Britt Waters, Washington Mystics' in-arena talent DJ Heat, and first-time in-arena host for the Atlanta Dream Bria Janelle.

It's always such an honor to be a part of those games, Heuer says. It was a little different than what we did in 2019, but, all of that considered, it was magical. We were able to take a page from the NBA playbook and bring in talent from various WNBA markets.

Split Squad: Crew Balances Aces Work With Ops for Seattle Storm, Atlanta Dream Although there are a lot of show elements to control in Las Vegas, 3 Point Productions also has co
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/10/27/3-point-productions-plays-major...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

02/07/2026

Imagine Communications Acquired by Lumine Group

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/07/2026

Rise AV APAC Brings Mentoring Conversation to InfoComm As...

Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...

02/07/2026

Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out

Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out Brie Clayton July 2, 2026 0 Comments Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...

02/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, media and communications infrastructure

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...

02/07/2026

Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversary Celebration of the Declaration of Independence

Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...

02/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE

Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...

02/07/2026

LiveMode builds agile content ingest with Cinegy

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...

02/07/2026

Synamedia Appoints Dr Tzvi Gerstl CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/07/2026

Cobalt Digitals blueCORE Wins Futures Best of Show Award...

Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...

02/07/2026

Synamedia Appoints Dr Tzvi Gerstl as CEO as Company Enter...

Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...

02/07/2026

Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiatives

Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...

02/07/2026

Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Documentary Development

Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...

02/07/2026

Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables

Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026 0 Comments An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...

02/07/2026

Boston Conservatory's Soire Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships

Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...

02/07/2026

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...

02/07/2026

Joyride Through July With 12 Games Coming to GeForce NOW

Summer is heating up - and GeForce NOW is taking players along for the ride. Start the month with Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains, bringing a galaxy fa...

01/07/2026

Broadcast Management Group Appoints Kathy Samuels as Director of Creative Services

Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...

01/07/2026

Shade Launches Custom Objects and Automations

Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...

01/07/2026

FOR-A America Adds Two Regional Sales Leaders

FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...

01/07/2026

NBC Sports To Present All 15 MLB Games Nationally on July 4 Weekend Star-Spangled Sunday'

NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...

01/07/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Wireless Communications for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune

Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...

01/07/2026

England Deploys Sony STATSports Live GPS Tracking at FIFA World Cup 2026

England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...

01/07/2026

Adder Technology Appoints Neil Hillier as CEO

Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...

01/07/2026

Bitcentral Splits Into Two Companies: Bitcentral and ViewNexa

Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...

01/07/2026

DAZN48 Creator Initiative Draws Global Participation for FIFA World Cup 2026

DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...

01/07/2026

IDEA To Induct Daktronics Sarah Rose Into Hall of Fame

Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...

01/07/2026

Gravity Media Delivers Distribution and Streaming Services for World Economic Forum in Dalian

Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...

01/07/2026

Insight Productions Launches Insight Storm, a 53-Foot Esports Broadcast Truck

Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...

01/07/2026

ESPN Announces America 250 Content Initiatives Across Platforms

ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...

01/07/2026

At Cosm, FIFA World Cup 2026 Is a Coming-of-Age Moment as Shared Reality Becomes Bucket-List Entertainment

Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...

01/07/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Draws Industry Leaders to Denver for Deep Dive on Evolving RSN Landscape

The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...

01/07/2026

Mountain West Launches MW+ Streaming Platform Powered by Kiswe

The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...

01/07/2026

Tracktion unleash Waveform 14 DAW

New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...

01/07/2026

The Crow Hill Company release Brackish Pads

Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...

01/07/2026

Sweetwater & Andertons launch Darkglass Anagram Limited Edition Guitar Essentials

Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals Sweetwater and Andertons M...

01/07/2026

Call for NFVF funding applications to attend Film Festivals and Markets taking place from 01 August 2026 - 31 October 2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...

01/07/2026

FCC Plans to Auction 160 MHZ of Midband Spectrum

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

CBS Miami Launches Hope 4 Venezuela' Relief Effort

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Gray Media to Buy American Spirit Media's TV Stations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Cascade PBS Launches App Solution Provider 'Local Public

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camerabag collection for modern hybrid creators

Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...

01/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition

Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition Brie Clayton July 1, 2026 0 Comments Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...

01/07/2026

Riedel, SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration WithSimplyLive Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

01/07/2026

PlayBox Technology Publishes State of Broadcast Infrastru...

PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...