March Madness 2021: CBS Sports, Turner Sports Lean Into Technology' To Meet Challenges in Indiana The joint production will utitlize 10 crews, additional robotics to operate safely in Indiana By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, March 19, 2021 - 12:09 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
When it comes to logistics, it simply doesn't get any harder than NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament. Producing 67 games in three weeks across a multitude of venues is no easy feat under the best of circumstances, let alone amidst a pandemic. Nonetheless, CBS Sports and Turner Sports have worked with the NCAA to create, within the tournament's bubble in Indiana, a production workflow and infrastructure that achieve the level of production quality that viewers have come to expect from CBS/Turner March Madness broadcasts over the past decade.
Over the course of the last year, both CBS and Turner have done various iterations of production, notes Turner Sports EVP/Chief Content Officer Craig Barry. There's no question that building a bubble infrastructure and having everybody in the building - [including] production crews and talent - is the most effective and best execution if we have the resources to do it, which we do for March Madness. We're excited about that. A lot of time and effort has gone into the planning with our partners at the NCAA and CBS, and we feel like we have put ourselves in the best position to pull off a great tournament.
Disruption Breeds Innovation and Creativity' Despite the entire tournament's taking place in a single location this year (in and around Indianapolis), CBS and Turner have deployed 10 discrete production and announce crews onsite for the opening rounds - up from eight in previous years. Games will be played on two courts inside Lucas Oil Stadium, as well as at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indiana Farmers Coliseum, Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
March Madness tipped off last night with the First Four in Indiana
This tournament will be unique, says Harold Bryant, executive producer/EVP, Production, CBS Sports. Being in Indy with all of our crews and all of our production setup is a unique challenge that we are going to take advantage of to make it an even better presentation than we've done in the past for the tournament. We're going to be flexible and ready to go for this year.
He adds that CBS and Turner are definitely leaning into technology this year in an effort to overcome the challenges presented by the pandemic. Most notably, production teams will deploy more robotic cameras than ever, including a pan-bar system as the primary midcourt camera, to limit the number of manned positions. The much touted RailCam and SkyCam systems will also be back for selected games.
Bryant notes that a video editor in Australia and a producer in New York have already begun collaborating on teases, bumpers, and features and it seems like they're in the room together.
Adds Barry, Disruption breeds innovation and creativity, and this is no different. Some of the technology is by design, and some is by necessity. We feel really confident that we have a great mix of technology and innovation. We're trying to create as much access as possible - to the game, to the court - and get the fan as close as possible. With all the social distancing, we wanted to make sure that that priority stayed intact. And that's where the technology comes in.
Crew sizes are similar to those in years past, according to Bryant, but individuals are more spread out in the trucks and the venues, and some people are filling different roles this year.
The placement of cameras is different, he explains, so a cameraperson who might have been a handheld operators is doing a different job this go-around. We've done our best to keep the crew levels about same. I haven't gone side-by-side, but we actually have more coverage this go-around because of all the robotics and the extra positions that we have available to us.
The Bubble Effect CBS and Turner have worked to ensure that camera and production levels are roughly equal at every venue.
As has been the case with sports bubbles thus far, access at each NCAA venue in Indianapolis has been broken down into tiers: Tier 1 is on-court access for players, coaches, team staff, and refs; Tier 2 is for NCAA officials and necessary employees, who are required to be 12 ft. off the court; in Tier 3, broadcast and production teams must be an additional 25 ft. back (roughly 37 ft. from the sideline).
The bubble format is nothing new to Turner Sports, which worked with ESPN and the NBA in their 2020 bubble at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. However, one big difference in Indy will be much more limited on-court access for announcers and production crew.
The differences would come in what the NBA referred to as the RED zone, where the players were and we potentially had some access for sideline reporters and A2s, says Barry. That's not the case for Zone 1 for the NCAA. That's exclusively for the teams and the kids and the players. I would just say that It's similar [to the NBA bubble], but it might be a little bit tighter.
As for fans in the stands, the NCAA currently plans to allow 25% capacity (including team staff, event staff, and TV crews) at each venue, with everyone required to wear masks and socially distance.
Although fans will be present, CBS and Turner will be using enhanced crowd noise to augment the broadcasts. We'll have a virtual audio in every building, says Barry. We've made a significant investment, and our experience with our events in the past have led us to believe that it's just an overall better fan experience with the virtual audio.
Wi
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...
March Madness 2021: CBS Sports, Turner Sports Lean Into Technology' To Meet Challenges in Indiana The joint production will utitlize 10 crews, additional robotics to operate safely in Indiana By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
