NBA Returns: MLSE Calls Dome Productions' Parking Lot, Echo Unit Home for Raptors Coverage With busy Toronto venues, finding a home for the remote production was a challenge By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, July 31, 2020 - 1:21 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The NBA Champion Toronto Raptors return to the hardwood and their 2020 NBA season on Saturday night. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) in Toronto will be at the center of the TV-production efforts that will deliver the games to viewers via Sportsnet and The Sports Network (TSN) across Canada. And to say it has been a unique experience to even find a home for those productions is an understatement.
MLSE not is only the parent company of the Raptors, the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, Major League Soccer's Toronto FC, and the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, but also owns or operates Scotiabank Arena, BMO Field, Coca-Cola Coliseum, Ford Performance Centre, BMO Training Ground, and the OVO Athletic Centre. Simply put, it has a massive presence in Toronto, so, when it came time to find a home for the Raptors TV production, it would seem that finding space for facilities would not be difficult.
David August of MLSE says the team is ready to go for tomorrow's resumption of the Raptors' season.
But, according to MLSE Director of Technology David August, that was not to be the case. Scotiabank Arena is home to one of the NHL's Hub Cities. The Coca-Cola Coliseum and BMO Field is being used as an NHL fitness facility and relaxation area. And the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, was expected to be in use for MLB games when Raptors production planning began.
At the end of the day, we had to figure out what we could do, says August. We looked at our partners TSN and Sportsnet and other broadcast facilities. But everyone was at max capacity.
The challenge led to talks with Dome Productions to find a solution.
We asked about taking a portion of their parking lot at the Dome Productions field service shop, says August. They said yes and built us a broadcast compound in the parking lot. It has shore power, transmission services as this is where they build and service their trucks, and they had space to add facilities. It's a bit like Lego blocks in that we could add things as we needed.
The Dome truck at the core of the compound is Echo, a 53-ft. unit with a Grass Valley Kayenne switcher, a Calrec Sigma audio console, and RTS Adam intercom system (and EVS positions).
Dome Productions SVP/GM Mary Ellen Carlyle says the Dome engineering and distribution teams quickly developed and tested workflows that could get the job done. The task became even more complicated when we found out that we could not increase our bandwidth between our warehouse and our NOC from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps. The team came up with a solid solution and managed to make it work and within today's COVID constraints.
Echo is joined by Showcase, Dome's 40-ft. unit that houses a 162-sq.-ft. studio with PTZ robotic cameras, a Riedel Bolero wireless intercom system, a Ross Carbonite or NewTek TriCaster switcher, and a small Mackie audio mixer.
Showcase is where we do our play-by-play and color commentary as well as any on-camera appearances by talent, says August. Dome B400 PT is home to the sideline reporter and radio.
The MLSE will call the Dome Production field shop home for the rest of the NBA season.
The team in Toronto will receive the feed from eight cameras in Orlando, routed through the NBA facility in Secaucus and then to the Scotiabank Are
The ample space in the Dome Productions parking lot enables easy social distancing.
na before being routed to the parking lot at Dome Productions' staging area about 40 minutes from Toronto.
Typically, we have just one signal leaving the arena, which is pretty simple and straightforward, August explains. But now we have eight video signals and multiple returns, so we're trying to get everything in time and frame-accurate with required additional equipment on our end to bring it all together.
The production team also has a dedicated iso camera, giving the team the flexibility to provide more-personalized coverage for the stories the talent are trying to tell.
Our graphics designers are all working from home, but our CG operator is in the truck, as is EVS replay, says August. And there are no executive producers onsite as we want to minimize the number of people.
Orlando Presence As for a presence in Orlando, where the games are being played, MLSE has a camera operator who is following the Raptors for their documentary series.
He can provide us with B-roll and behind-the-scenes footage for some of the segments we run during the broadcasts, says August. We ran a segment on life inside the bubble.
One of the challenges in getting into the Orlando bubble is that it required 28 days of quarantine: 14 days in Fort Lauderdale after the flight from Canada and another 14 days once the team drove from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando.
The team in Orlando plays a big part in providing information for the sideline reporter, who will be in Canada. The unique relationship MLSE has with the Raptors means that it is tightly aligned with the team's personnel.
Our reporter is in direct contact with the public-relations teams as well as some of our trainers, says August. The NBA is also providing us with access to only one interview camera, and we are allowed to use it only if the Raptors win.
That's one of the reasons MLSE has set up four separate laptops for Zoom calls. NBA press conferences with coaches and players are done via Zoom, and four laptops enable MLSE to Zoom in with multiple interview subjects at the same time. A large-screen monitor in Showcase allows the talent to see the Zoom call
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
NBA Returns: MLSE Calls Dome Productions' Parking Lot, Echo Unit Home for Raptors Coverage With busy Toronto venues, finding a home for the remote production was a challenge By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
