Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Steve Hellmuth, NBA's Technology Visionary By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Thursday, November 16, 2023 - 9:48 am
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Leading up to the 2023 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame ceremony on Dec. 12 at the New York Hilton, SVG is profiling the nine inductees in this year's class. For more information, CLICK HERE
Firsts are always an important part of a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame resume and Steve Hellmuth, the recently retired NBA EVP of Operations and Technology and former chairman of the SVG Advisory Board, oversaw his share of firsts. Under his guidance, the NBA became the first league to develop an advanced statistical system that drove a wide variety of services including becoming the first league to deliver live scores and statistics to the Web. In addition, the NBA was the first league to develop a centralized instant replay system, the first league to develop a digital archive, and the first league to tackle new technologies like live streaming, 3D, VR, and volumetric capture in a meaningful way.
Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, says Hellmuth seamlessly guided the NBA through countless advancements in technology over the past three decades.
His vision as an experienced and innovative technologist helped transform the broadcast operations of our league and revolutionize the way our content is distributed and consumed around the world, says Silver. Steve has no doubt left an indelible mark on the NBA and the broader sports media industry.
After graduating with a B.A. in Art History from Princeton University, Hellmuth came up a few credits shy of earning a Masters degree in Cinema Studies from New York University's Film School. While a student, he spent his time working on independent, experimental films and helping to run a catering business.
I thought I was going to go into the entertainment side. My girlfriend at the time was babysitting for someone in charge of the NBC Olympic production managers, and he suggested I apply , says Hellmuth. I applied, got the job, and my career trajectory changed and began.
That first job was as an NBC Sports production administrator, working on the Olympic Profiles of athletes competing in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The profiles were to be broadcast in SECAM (Sequential Color with Memory), the broadcasting standard at the time for the Soviet Union, so Hellmuth got a crash course in transferring films and editing in SECAM, as well as a whirlwind tour of the U.S. and Europe.
Hellmuth travelled through Germany several times doing profiles of athletes, through Czechoslovakia and Poland, and back and forth across the U.S. His job duties included handling film magazines, driving the van, arranging flights, and handling catering.
I was required to do double duty as the production manager and a technician on the shoots, and often I was responsible for booking the athletes as well , he says. My main mentor was the late Barry Winik of WW Films, one of the best film sports directors of photography ever.
Hellmuth also worked closely with Peter Diamond. Peter was charge of Olympic research and produced a number of Profiles. Peter remained at NBC and rose to become the NBC Olympics, EVP, Programming.
A Little Bit of Everything
From the Olympic-profile unit, Hellmuth transitioned into a position as unit manager and production manager at NBC Sports, where he worked from 1979 to 1987.
I did tennis, college basketball, baseball, everything that came my way, he says. I really enjoyed it and became very competent in budgeting, operations, and remote management across the board.
Hellmuth's main mentor at NBC Sports was the great Ted Nathanson, a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. The two worked together on NFL games and the NFL studio show for four years, culminating in Super Bowl XX.
Along the way, Hellmuth kept his production credits fresh by producing the opening for the 1986 World Series for Mike Weisman.
In his capacity as lead NFL Production Manager, Hellmuth, also oversaw the production and operations of the NBC NFL Studio show in Studio 6A, shared with The David Letterman Show.
Working with the great NBC scenic designers and lighting directors taught me volumes, he says. The iconic studios at NBC were filled with talented engineers, camera operators and technicians well versed in live.
After marrying his wife, Theresa, Hellmuth accepted an offer to become general manager of Potomac Television, a startup company that produced Washington news for TV stations across the country and provided news releases to Capitol Hill.
I helped build the company, he says. We had the CNN contract for news crews in Washington and created a video news-release channel to local television stations.
First Jump Shots
However, when the NBA called looking for a director of operations for NBA Entertainment, Hellmuth thought that might be more challenging. He joined the basketball league in 1990 and moved up the ladder from running the postproduction outfit to overseeing all broadcast operations and the launch of Inside Stuff.
Hellmuth was also at the NBA when there was a famous lawsuit between the league and Motorola and STATS, Inc. which involved Motorola sending out NBA scores to pagers with around a three-minute delay. Hellmuth had undertook a project to create a near real-time interface for statistics to the NBC Sports Chyrons for graphics and saw an opportunity to combine the issues.
I asked NBA Commissioner David Stern if I could head a development of statistics that would be so fast and accurate that Motorola and STATS, Inc. would no longer have a viable product and we could also interface it to Chyron, says Hellmuth. He gave me firm backing to proceed, and I worked with Rallis Pappas at IDS.
It was an important, and
