At the Rink: Vegas Golden Knights Offer Fortress at Home, Debut Studio for 2020-21 NHL Season New studio handles away broadcasts for AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, March 17, 2021 - 10:14 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The National Hockey League was the last of the four major U.S. sports leagues to host a non-bubble regular season. As fans gradually make their return to the seats, how is that affecting in-venue productions and digital content? Similar to At the Ballpark, On the Gridiron, and On the Hardwood, At the Rink looks at the operations of NHL organizations to see how they are coping with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and adapting to a sense of normalcy.
Home to one of the best pregame routines in the NHL, T-Mobile Arena welcomed fans of the Vegas Golden Knights back to The Fortress on Monday, March 1. For fans unable to grab tickets, there's a second-screen experience and digital content produced from a brand-new studio at the team's practice facility.
Our digital team has continued to produce great content to keep our fans engaged, says Andrew Abrams, executive producer, production, Vegas Golden Knights. It has been really cool to see how our show has grown and expanded.
MORE AT THE RINK INTERVIEWS:
Detroit Red Wings Cover Motor City Storylines With Three Digital Shows, Hockeytown Home Ice
Nashville Predators Harness the Passion of Smashville' at Bridgestone Arena
Second-Screen Entertainment: Fortress at Home for Home Games, Fan Interaction During last summer's NHL bubble in Edmonton, AB, the franchise was tasked with developing a production that would allow fans to interact with each other. Prior to the team's run to the 2020 Conference Finals, the production team debuted Fortress at Home, a second-screen experience taking place on its social-media platforms, during an exhibition matchup against the Arizona Coyotes on July 30. At the beginning of this season, with fans not permitted inside T-Mobile Arena, the organization decided to continue the initiative with the home opener against the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 14.
The Golden Knights debuted Fortress at Home during last summer's NHL bubble.
We have a host that interacts with fans, and we basically present every part of the show except the linear broadcast, says Abrams. It's meant to be a companion to the live game, so we have our intro video and starting lineups, and, during TV timeouts and intermissions, we activate our other set of content.
Without fans in the stands, fulfilling sponsorship obligations is a tough task. Now with 15% capacity, the Golden Knights are still producing this second-screen show to get maximum exposure for their partners and for fans that want extra flair while at home.
[The live stream] has all of our in-game inventory that is shown on our ribbon boards, Abrams adds. We've been continuing Fortress at Home even with fans in the building.
A Place of Their Own: New Studio Handles Digital Content, Away Broadcasts for RSN In their fourth season, the Vegas Golden Knights have opened the doors for a brand-new hub for content, where, in conjunction with AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, linear coverage of games and digital shows is produced. On the digital front, the studio has been deployed for a handful of live streams during the bubble and this regular season, including coverage of summer Training Camp and a preview of the 2020-21 campaign on The Cool Down presented by NV Energy.
In-venue elements were continued without fans in the stands, including the lowering of the large Golden Knights helmet.
Prior to its construction and even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Golden Knights were in a peculiar situation for away broadcasts. Both home and away games are presented on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, but, for away games, on-air talent were flown to Colorado to appear live on the team's pre/postgame and intermission shows. With the inability to travel and extra space in City National Arena, the organization's practice facility and headquarters, the production team moved forward with construction of a brand-new studio, opening it in February 2020.
During home games, [our broadcasters] are in T-Mobile Arena, but, because they can't travel, they're now calling away games from City National Arena, says Abrams. It has been super fun and exciting that our fans have been able to see it.
Back in The Fortress: Organization Moves Forward With Customary In-Venue Show T-Mobile Arena welcomed back fans on March 1 vs. the Minnesota Wild.
Similar to the elements being shown on Fortress at Home, fans in the venue are treated to the theatrics that come with a professional hockey game in Las Vegas. Before the return of fans, Abrams and company were encouraged by President, Hockey Operations, George McPhee to implement a full show. The plan included customary gestures like the lowering of the large helmet that the players skate through, performances by the Drumbots, and more.
We worked with the league on synthetic crowd noise because we wanted the players to feel like it was a home game, no matter what, says Abrams. We have all of our cast of characters; we're playing music during timeouts. Prior to the fans' coming back to T-Mobile Arena, it felt like you wouldn't have known that there weren't any fans here.
The Ones Who Get It Done: Notable Names of Golden Knights' Production Team The Drumbots and Golden Knight continue to pump up the crowd this season.
Playing games right off the Las Vegas Strip calls for pageantry and enthusiasm. Since the Golden Knights' founding in 2017, the team has lived up to expectations for playing puck in the Entertainment Capital of the World. A stellar crew - including Coordinator, Entertainment Produ
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
At the Rink: Vegas Golden Knights Offer Fortress at Home, Debut Studio for 2020-21 NHL Season New studio handles away broadcasts for AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
