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
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...
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 
