Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

WNBA Finals 2024: ESPN Wraps Exhilarating Regular Season, Playoffs With Two Best Records in Championship Series

11/10/2024

WNBA Finals 2024: ESPN Wraps Exhilarating Regular Season, Playoffs With Two Best Records in Championship Series Network rolls with onsite productions in New York and Minnesota By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Friday, October 11, 2024 - 3:22 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The Minnesota Lynx played spoiler and defeated the New York Liberty in overtime to tie the largest comeback win in WNBA Finals history at 18 points - and that was Game 1. ESPN is ready for much more of the same in this best-of-five series that features teams with the best two records in the regular season. Fans watching from home get to enjoy enhanced coverage of this championship because of the special bond between the network's production and operations teams.

I've been at ESPN for 20 years and have never been more impressed with the team covering the WNBA, says Kate Leonard, coordinating producer, ESPN. Everyone has been focused on this historic season, so I can't say enough about their hard work and commitment.

Heightened Production Quality: Cinematic Angles, Onsite Editions of WNBA Countdown The production level is always kicked up a notch for the WNBA Playoffs and is ratcheted up even further for the Finals. This 1080p production, which debuted last year, deploys the broadcaster's best technological workflows and resources.

Barclays Center hosted Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on Thursday, Oct. 10.

For the WNBA Finals, says Adam Bryant, lead game director, ESPN, we have several production highlights to enhance the viewing experience. Our extensive camera setup allows multiple angles, replays, and unique shots, while virtual graphics will provide dynamic stats, player highlights, and immersive storytelling elements.

In the lower bowl, live game action is covered by more than 20 cameras. The total comprises a handful of specialty cameras: four high-speed cameras for slow-motion replay, customary above-the-rim robotics, and a shallow-depth-of-field camera provided by Faction Media roaming the court during game stoppages. The high-speed cameras, including the Sony HDC-4800, were critical in reviewing a last-second foul by Minnesota's Napheesa Collier that allowed New York's Breanna Stewart to make one of two free throws and force an extra period of play.

Four high-speed cameras, including a Sony HDC-4800, provide stunning images and slow-motion replay during the WNBA postseason.

Along with a shallow-depth-of-field camera, fans will be brought into the huddle and listen to each team's strategy via mics on players and coaches. In Game 1, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello and guard Sabrina Ionescu and Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and guard Courtney Williams were miked.

Fans receive expert analysis from ESPN's marquee studio show, WNBA Countdown. Its star-studded team - host LaChina Robinson and analysts Carolyn Peck, Chiney Ogwumike, and Andraya Carter - will be onsite at either Barclays Center or Target Center for the length of the series. Elle Duncan will have hosting duties for Sunday's Game 2 in Brooklyn. Host Sam Ravech will split his time between two digital-centric programs: WNBA Hoop Stream with analyst Ari Chambers on YouTube and WNBA the Wrap-Up with appearances by analysts Maria Marino, Monica McNutt, and Chambers on the ESPN App, YouTube, and Facebook. The trio of play-by-play announcer Ryan Ruocco, analyst Rebecca Lobo, and reporter Holly Rowe will call each game.

A shallow-depth-of-field camera captures cinematic shots near the court.

As for storylines, the key to a compelling broadcast during the playoffs is understanding what information fans are interested in. The most complex part is not being entirely sure who the two teams will be in the finals with little time to rehearse the talking points. One team, the New York Liberty, made quick work of the back-to-back champions Las Vegas Aces in four semifinal games. The Minnesota Lynx, on the other hand, had to win Game 4 over the Connecticut Sun on the East Coast to force a Game 5 at home on Oct. 8. With not much turnaround time, ESPN followed the Lynx from Minneapolis to Brooklyn, NY, on Oct. 9 for the first game of the championship series on Oct. 10. Lead Game Producer Ian Gruca had to keep his eyes on the already clinched Liberty and the two teams battling it out on the other side of the bracket.

We spent a lot of time discussing and preparing storylines for all potential scenarios, he says. When you're a sports fan, you always hope it goes to all five games and comes down to the buzzer to determine a champion, but we strive to be prepared for the storylines that we know and react in real time to the developing storylines on the court.

Atlantic Avenue Return: Ops Crew Benefits From Two Straight Years in Brooklyn ESPN will have a slight case of d j vu during the WNBA Finals: Barclays Center hosted Games 3 and 4 of last year's title bout. If the Sun defeated the Lynx in one of the two remaining games in this year's semifinals, there was the potential for producing Games 3 and 4 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT - which is 63 miles southwest of ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT. This would have permitted a greater number of staffers to work the games and be able to easily drive back to the Bristol facility, but the Lynx won two straight and made that a moot point. Besides, Barclays Center is within driving distance of Bristol and is a familiar environment for this slate of games.

Returning to Brooklyn for a second straight season has certainly provided advantages, says Catherine Chalfant, manager, remote production operations, ESPN. We have the added benefit of having many team members who were part of ESPN's Women's Final Four coverage in Minnesota in 2022. Familiarity with producing championships in both venues helps streamline logistics an
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/10/11/wnba-finals-2024-espn-wraps-exh...
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 ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

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

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

13/03/2026

GFiber and Stonepeak's Astound Broadband to Merge

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/03/2026

Harmonic Redefines the Economics of Video Playout with Ne...

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced Spectrum X Plus, the newest generation of its Spectrum X media server, offering double the channel density of previous ...

13/03/2026

Historic Ewing Covenant Church Revitalizes Worship Experi...

When Ewing Covenant Church made the decision to return to its original, historic building, affectionately called 1867 Sanctuary for weekly worship, the congre...

13/03/2026

Marshall Electronics Launches CV574 WP its First 4K All I...

Marshall Electronics introduces its first all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). The CV574-WP supports NDI |HX, providing ultra-efficien...

13/03/2026

Net Insight launches Nimbra 520 - Predictable Live Media...

At NAB Show 2026, Net Insight introduces Nimbra 520, a high-density media processing node designed to simplify live contribution and distribution across both ma...

13/03/2026

Abandon Editorial Signs With Michal Dimitri for West Coast Representation

Abandon Editorial Signs With Micha l Dimitri for West Coast Representation Brie Clayton March 12, 2026 0 Comments Abandon Editorial is excited to part...

13/03/2026

Documentary The Bulldogs Shot and Edited with Blackmagic Design

Documentary The Bulldogs Shot and Edited with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton March 12, 2026 0 Comments Editorial tools helped shape film in real time,...

13/03/2026

AE Captions as Fast as CapCut - No Plugins

AE Captions as Fast as CapCut - No Plugins Graham Quince March 12, 2026 0 Comments Stop wasting hours clicking through nested compositions and manuall...

13/03/2026

New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Announce 2026 Next Jazz Legacy Cohort

New Music USA and Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Announce 2026 Nex...

13/03/2026

RT announces Rick O'Shea as new presenter on RT Radio 1's Arena

RT has announced today that Rick O'Shea is the new presenter of Arena RT Radio 1's flagship weeknight arts and culture programme. Rick has been pres...

13/03/2026

Lights! Camera! Action! The 98th Oscars set to air live as RT backs the Irish nominees

Lights! Camera! Action! The 98th Oscars set to air live as RT backs the Irish n...

12/03/2026

Milano Cortina 2026: Yospace helps ad-funded rights-holders claim advertising gold

Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...

12/03/2026

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj

Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audina...

12/03/2026

Techex Hires Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas

Techex, a global expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, announces the appointment of Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas, further strength...

12/03/2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America Welcomes Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manager, Northeast

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manag...

12/03/2026

Interra Systems Focuses on Streaming-First QC, Monitoring, and Responsible AI Workflows at 2026 NAB Show

At the 2026 NAB Show, Interra Systems will showcase its latest advancements in a...

12/03/2026

15th National Games of China Features Expansive Unified Broadcast Network

The 15th National Games of China concluded after a two-week celebration of athletic excellence and regional collaboration. Held from Nov. 9-21 across Guangdong,...

12/03/2026

SVG in Indy: Butler University Students Get Live-Sports Experience via On-Campus Studio, Production Truck

Live-production academic program Butler Sports Live produced a total of 40 fall-...

12/03/2026

Lawo Delivers Fully IPBased Video Infrastructure for University of Nebraska's HuskerVision

The University of Nebraska's HuskerVision has completed the second phase of ...

12/03/2026

University of Illinois Upgrades Game-Day Production with New Hybrid IP Control Room

Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a...

12/03/2026

CBS Sports Turns to University of Cincinnati's Control Room and Staff for Two Big 12 Men's Basketball Broadcasts

The broadcaster expands its campus-production model as the university handles tw...

12/03/2026

Disney+ to Stream Men's and Women's NCAA March Madness Across Europe, South Africa

Disney has announced the addition of March Madness - the NCAA Division I Men...

12/03/2026

Apple TV Further Integrating iPhones into Friday Night Baseball' Camera Lineup This Season

Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball MLB doubleheader series returns for its f...

12/03/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Jack Rinaldi, University of Notre Dame

The senior from New Jersey is making his mark in South Bend, both on the mic and behind it...

12/03/2026

Ross Video's Kevin Dresser on Powering Graphics for Major Sporting Events Throughout a Busy February

After a relatively quiet January, the month of February was jammed packed with l...

12/03/2026

X Games Launches New Era With First League Draft at Cosm L.A.

Long-time production partner Echo Entertainment is producing the broadcast, while Cosm played a vital role in the collaboration...

12/03/2026

Film Festival Watch: 24 Sundance Institute-Supported Films to Catch at the SXSW Film Festival

By Jessica Herndon We love kicking off each year by introducing the world to po...

12/03/2026

Didn't Die Brings Improv to the Zombie Apocalypse

Samrat Chakrabarti, George Basil, Kiran Deol, Katie McCuen and Vishal Vijayakumar attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Didn't Die at the Lib...

12/03/2026

Mon Laferte Leads All-Women Spotify Session as EQUAL Celebrations Kick Off in Latin America

In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...

12/03/2026

Mon Laferte lidera la edicin EQUAL de Spotify Sessions, mientras comienzan las celebraciones de EQUAL en Latinoamrica

En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....

12/03/2026

As Spotify Turns 20, the Most Global and Diverse Music Industry in History Has Taken Shape

Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...

12/03/2026

Bad Bunny Brings the Sounds of Puerto Rico to Tokyo for Spotify's Billions Club Live

Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...

12/03/2026

At the London Book Fair, Spotify Shares Our Vision for the Future of Reading

Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....

12/03/2026

Ohlhorst Digital & Tokyo Dawn Labs launch Ancora

Mastering tool improves mono compatibility Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...

12/03/2026

Lewitt partner with Elgato

Wave FX processor integrated into four products Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...

12/03/2026

Mix Notes iOS App by David Thomas

Free tool for annotating audio files Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...

12/03/2026

Duck 2 from Devious Machines

Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...

12/03/2026

MPG Awards 2026: Shortlist announced

Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026 The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...

12/03/2026

Overloud introduce Gem Comp160

Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...

12/03/2026

Grainferno from Baby Audio

New granular soft synth announced Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...

12/03/2026

Bitwig Studio 6 launches

Latest version now live! Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download! The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...

12/03/2026

Stereo Miking: The Sound On Sound Guide

Latest free eBook now available! Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...

12/03/2026

AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle'

AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle&...

12/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more bandwidth, higher port density, future-proof architecture

Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...

12/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026

Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...