NHL Puck Drop 2021: NBC Sports Will Be Onsite for Exclusive Games But Will Lean Heavily on RSNs, Stamford Broadcast Center Flexibility, COVID-free operations are important considerations in quick-turnaround prep By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 3:50 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Tonight, NBC Sports Group embarks on what is expected to be one of the most challenging NHL campaigns in history, with a Wednesday Night Hockey triple-header. To safely produce roughly 100 regular-season games over the next four months, NBC will use a mix of full onsite productions and REMI operations that leverage RSN-produced clean feeds and are centralized at its Stamford, CT, broadcast center.
To make this season work, we're going to use multiple systems on how we produce games, says NBC Sports Executive Producer Sam Flood. In some cases, the entire group will be onsite, traditional broadcast. Other games we will call from back here in the building [in Stamford]. Other games we will have a truck onsite, the talent here [in Stamford]. We're going to be moving things around, a lot of different structures and systems. We learned during the football season that things change at a moment's notice, and we have to be ready and we've got to adjust. We've tested out the systems and are ready to go.
01.13.21
Hockey
is
back. pic.twitter.com/lwHsAcCJOf
-
NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) December
28, 2020
Production Ops: Onsite for Exclusive Games, REMI for Others To minimize travel and limit the number of people onsite, the league is limiting each game to one mobile unit and one production crew for regular-season games. That means that home-team RSNs will be the lone broadcaster onsite for most regular-season games and NBC's production and operations crew will be the only onsite staff for exclusive national broadcasts.
Travel is troubling now, says Flood. You have to be really careful about how many people you send on the road. The non-exclusive games, a lot of them, will be the regionals across all networks that will be supplying host feed. We'll supplement that with a camera and some other elements. There will be a lot of games that way simply because we can't get the folks out on the road to all these games. We have to be really smart about how we deploy our assets.
NBC plans to have its own truck and crew onsite for all exclusive national broadcasts but will be positioned to adapt if circumstances call for it. This onsite model will resemble previous seasons but with enhanced safety protocols, reduced staff that is socially distanced, and a handful of operators in Stamford. Depending on the game, NBC could have up to three EVS operators plus graphics and scorebug ops in Stamford.
The majority of NBC's non-exclusive games will leverage a clean feed provided by the home team's RSN. NBC will take this host feed and have all production staff and operations located in Stamford. The NBC Sports production team will also have one unilateral camera at its disposal and take in five selected camera feeds from the RSN to help augment its telecast. Home RSNs will be responsible for providing this clean feed to away-team RSNs for use in their markets.
According to James Stuart, senior director, operations, NBC Sports Group, taking world feeds from the bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton last year gave his team the framework to be confident in taking host feeds from RSN and producing games from Stamford. However, NBC's busy winter season of events and short lead-time prior to the season (the league announced the schedule on Dec. 20) made cementing operations plans for the NHL that much tougher.
Getting our productions up and running has been an immense undertaking, says Stuart. Launching NHL while we are nearing the end of Sunday Night Football and in the midst of Premier League's busiest part of the season is a testament to the engineering, operations, and production teams that are working pretty much around the clock to ensure success on all fronts.
Commentator Setups: A Mix of Onsite, in Stamford, and Even At-Home For the majority of games, home-team announcers will be in the arena, away-team RSN commenters will call the game off-tube (either in the home arena or in the RSN's broadcast facility). When possible, NBC will travel announcers onsite for exclusive national broadcasts but will have announcers call games from Stamford (or, in some cases, from their respective homes) for the remaining games.
Says Stuart, We learned during the playoffs last year, the two bubbles, how we could call off-tube, how we could do things differently. The lessons learned there were the reasons we were willing to have Mike Tirico call an important [NFL Wild Card] game on Saturday night from his home. We did the same thing with Doc Emrick calling a Stanley Cup game from his home.
All season long, he continues, we've been looking at ways to keep our team out of harm's way, keep them safe, keep them COVID-free. Until the vaccine is fully rolled out, we have to constantly be ready to adapt and adjust.
Inside the Arenas: Exploring New Camera Positions, Embracing Artificial Crowd Noise With camera complements varying from arena to arena, NBC will move some cameras lower to provide better angles for the broadcast. The average camera complement this year will be the same as in years past: five hard cameras, two handhelds, and two robos. But, with no fans in the stands, NBC hopes to establish new robo locations as the season progresses. It will also deploy more POV cameras due to restrictions on close contact with players and NHL staff. When announcers are onsite, lower commentary positions are now available, given the absence of fans.
On the audio side, NBC's complement of on-ice microphone remains th
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
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...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
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...
28/01/2026
Top L-R: The Liars, Jazz Infernal, Living with a Visionary
Second Row L-R: Paper Trail, The Baddest Speechwriter of All, Crisis Actor
Third Row: The Boys and ...
28/01/2026
Music discovery should feel intuitive and personal. That's why we're continuing to give you more control, so you can ask for what you want, shape what y...
28/01/2026
Today, Charlie Hellman, Spotify's Head of Music, shared the following note on the Spotify for Artists blog that the company paid out more than $11 billion t...
28/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in partnership with the Oudtshoorn Municipality, invites aspiring and emerging filmmakers to apply for the Sediba...
28/01/2026
As demand for more complex live sports coverage grows, Balkan broadcast specialist MVP has upgraded its flagship HD1 progressive OB truck with the installation ...
28/01/2026
Airlines, cruise and tour operators double down on ad spend as Australians' prioritise travel
Sydney January 28, 2026 - New Nielsen Ad Intel data shows a...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Marshall Electronics launches the CV420-27X, its next-generation ultra-high-definition (UHD) IP camera, at ISE 2026 (Stand 4N900). Engineered for modern IP-base...
28/01/2026
Grass Valley has announced that Television Mobiles Ltd. (TVM), one of Europe's leading independent outside broadcast providers, has carried out a major refu...
28/01/2026
AI, graphics and virtual software power new production capabilities
FOR-A is bringing remarkable new technologies to FOMEX, the Future of Media Exhibition (ex...
28/01/2026
Continuing a longstanding collaboration, Riedel Communications and Nordic media technology company Media Tailor have once again joined forces to deliver a state...
28/01/2026
Pebble has appointed Paul Nagle-Smith as vice president for customer fulfilment, strengthening its senior leadership focus on customer delivery and operational ...
28/01/2026
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset has announced that leading Mexican broadcaster, TV Azteca is using Veset Nimbus on AWS as a disaster recovery (DR) playo...
28/01/2026
Ensuring it can keep pace with a rapidly evolving live sports market, Balkan broadcast facility provider MVP Most Valuable Production has upgraded its flags...
28/01/2026
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud solutions provider that powers and protects life online, and Yospace, the leader in dynamic ad insertion tec...
28/01/2026
The renowned Reykjavik City Theatre (RCT) recently underwent a major intercom system upgrade using Clear-Com solutions. This milestone project utilizes Clear-C...
28/01/2026
Luxembourg, January 26, 2026 - SES S.A. ( SES or the Company ), a leading space solutions company, acknowledges the credit rating action announced by Fitch to...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
28/01/2026
28 01 2026 - Media release Screen Australia refreshes Market & Audience approach...
28/01/2026
Boston Conservatory Orchestra Premieres a New Piano Concerto by Peter and Leonar...
28/01/2026
28 Jan 2026
VEON Notes Kyivstar Group Publication of Selected Full Year 2025 Fi...
28/01/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to host 2026 edition of its online event Demystifying EMC Rohde & Schwarz invites the global EMC community to join a crucial discussion on pre...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
The Wait Is Over: Teaser Trailer Drops for Jo Nesbo's Dete...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Fictional Miniseries Inspired by the Marta del Castillo Case
Entertainment
28 January 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to ...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Santiago Mitres New Film Starring Ver nica L...
28/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Teaser Trailer for Berlin and the Lady wit...
28/01/2026
Stadtwerke Wolfhagen Modernize Customer Management with AEP.energysuite from Arv...
27/01/2026
Click for Japanese version
Tokyo, Japan - January 27, 2026 - Akamai Technolo...
27/01/2026
L-R: Jonathan Cuchacovich, Sonia Kennebeck, Alan Fischer, Daeil Kim, Andrew Sta...
27/01/2026
Today, Spotify is proud to support our partner Backline, an industry-leading men...
27/01/2026
With nearly 29 million monthly listeners and clear momentum on Spotify, Net n Ve...
27/01/2026
January 14, 2026
We are proud to share that 25 Ontario, First Gulf's commercial project located just two minutes from our head office, has been recognized ...
27/01/2026
January 22, 2026
First Gulf is excited to share that a full-building lease has been secured at 625 Bronte Rd in Oakville, part of Bronte Station Business Park,...
27/01/2026
January 23, 2026
First Gulf continues to demonstrate its commitment to high-performance, sustainable real estate with 351 King Street East achieving BOMA BEST ...
27/01/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
27/01/2026
Nielsen will continue to drive growth and provide local audience measurement
in...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Pinterest
Bluesky
Email...
27/01/2026
Amagi Media Labs Limited, the only cloud-native SaaS provider offering end-to-end solutions across live production, content preparation, distribution, and monet...
27/01/2026
Miri Technologies Inc. today unveiled its V410 live 4K video encoder/decoder for streaming, IP-based production workflows and AV-over-IP distribution. Designed ...
27/01/2026
The Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell in Massachusetts has chosen Ikegami cameras for incorporation into its broadcast-quality television production facili...
NHL Puck Drop 2021: NBC Sports Will Be Onsite for Exclusive Games But Will Lean Heavily on RSNs, Stamford Broadcast Center Flexibility, COVID-free operations are important considerations in quick-turnaround prep By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
