P-X-P Is Striving Toward Play-by-Play in American Sign Language The interpretation company will provide ASL signing during NHL Stanley Cup Finals By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 11:34 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Audio is defined not only by sound but by its absence. In fact, a hallmark of digital audio is its ability to convey absolute silence, uncluttered by the inherent noise created by tape, vinyl, and other contact recording and reproduction formats.
But absolute silence is a fact of life for approximately 1 million Americans, who have what the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) describes as disabling hearing loss. That number balloons to 30 million, according to the National Institutes of Health, when the hard-of-hearing category is included. And they're big fans of sports on television.
P-X-P's Brice Christianson (left) and Jason Altmann founded the ASL interpretation company in 2020.
The passion [the] Deaf community has for sports is very real, says P-X-P COO Jason Altmann, who describes himself as third-generation deaf. He founded the Milwaukee-based company in August 2020 with partner CEO Brice Christianson to develop and provide American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services for broadcast sports and live events. The company started out providing the service for NHL Milwaukee Bucks media events, such as press conferences, in 2021. Unfortunately, Altmann adds, the majority of professional sports leagues and teams do not offer a [completely] accessible and inclusive experience.
P-X-P's mission is to change that, according to Christianson, who is CODA (child of deaf parents) and hearing himself. He notes that the closed captioning used on television isn't an alternative to ASL.
ASL is an actual, bona fide language, he explains, whereas captioning is simply the [transcription] of whatever language the speaker is speaking, delineating the difference between interpretation - P-X-P's intent - and simple dictation. Deaf persons would rather see the signing than read captioning, because ASL is their language. Captions, especially when done using AI, don't achieve that goal because they are often filled with grammatical errors and misspellings.
The NHL Hears the Message P-X-P's biggest success thus far has been with the Bucks, and the company has been performing similar services for Seattle's Kraken of the NHL and OL Reign of the NWSL. A breakthrough came last year when it interpreted for NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's state-of-the-league address prior to the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals. It will reprise that role this year, when Bettman speaks before the Finals commence in Las Vegas on June 3, broadcast by TNT/WDC Sports.
P-X-P's Brice Christianson (right) signed NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's address prior to the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals.
Our relationship with the NHL began a few years ago when [Bucks VP, Arena Experience,] Kieran Nulty, who was our first connection to the NHL, introduced us to [NHL VP, Growth Strategies and Innovation,] Paul LaCaruba, Christianson recalls, noting that a formal partnership was announced on Dec. 3, 2022, UNESCO's International Day of Persons With Disabilities (IDPD). From there, I developed a relationship with Paul and several others within the NHL. We unveiled our vision last year, [interpreting] the commissioner's address at Ball Arena ahead of the first game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning. And it blew up it and went international.
Since then, P-X-P also done ASL interpretation for the league's Winter Classic, its Stadium Series games, and the All-Star Game, in the process doing some training in ASL applications for the league as well. A P-X-P interpreter will sign the commissioner's pre-Stanley Cup Finals speech again this year, as well as the national anthem and other pre-match events.
P-X-P interpreters appear on-screen either on stage with speakers or in picture-in-picture inserts. That accomplishes two things, says Christianson: it gets the ASL translation across in real time (the American Sign Language University stipulates an ASL signing rate of 110-130 words per minute) while also putting the interpreter onscreen as the face of the Deaf community at large.
I think a lot of times we focus solely on accessibility that we forget to include the Deaf community and make them a part and recognize that they're a vital part of the fanbase of sports, he says.
The ultimate goal, says Christianson, is to sign a game in progress, including color and play-by-play commentary, something he says P-X-P and the NHL have been building toward.
What we have with the NHL is unique on so many levels, he explains, but what I really appreciate is that they listen rather than our being told, Hey, this is what we're going to do.' We've been building this and going to NHL headquarters, meeting the staff, having Jason present in American Sign Language. For a lot of [the staff], that was the first time that they'd ever met a deaf person. You could feel it - it was palpable, their realizing, here's a brilliant deaf individual who just unveiled how inaccessible sports is.
It would be a huge moment for the Deaf community, Christianson continues, as well as for me professionally and personally to do play-by-play and interpret color commentary. That has never been done before, and we're working toward that. There'll be bumps and hiccups, but it's definitely doable.
Signing Sports Jargon Most languages are dynamic; they have to be to accommodate the evolution of the world they seek to describe. That's true of ASL as it moves deeper into broadcast sports and especially as more athletes are wired for sound, vastly increasing
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...
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...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
P-X-P Is Striving Toward Play-by-Play in American Sign Language The interpretation company will provide ASL signing during NHL Stanley Cup Finals By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
