Live from NHL All-Star: NBC Sports Ready for Tonight's Big Game; Player, Puck Tracking Set for Expanded Role

Live from NHL All-Star: NBC Sports Ready for Tonight's Big Game; Player, Puck Tracking Set for Expanded Role By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Saturday, January 25, 2020 - 4:51 pm

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The 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend wraps up tonight with the main event at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis: the 2020 NHL All-Star Game. And this year's event, more than any ever, promises to have a lasting impact on the game due to some of the new technologies that have rolled out.

James Stuart, NBC Sports Group, senior director, operations for NBC Sports Group, says the team is ready for tonight's big game.

The production of tonight's game will fall on the shoulders of the NBC Sports Group. James Stuart, NBC Sports Group, senior director, operations, says the production team of more than 150 has had a chance to try some new things as it gets ready for the second half of the season.

With all the toys we have, the skills competition, and the guys on the ice definitely gives everyone a little pep in their step as we get something new, says Stuart. We get to try new things.

Topping the list of new toys are Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards and player and puck tracking. NBC Sports housed those production teams in NEP's NCP8 A and B units. The two technologies are designed to bring a new level of understanding to viewers at home. A partnership between the NHL and SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT), the system generates up to 200 data points per second for each player and 2,000 data points per second for the puck. Getting a chance to work with those two technologies this weekend is very important given that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that both will be up and running in the arenas of all 16 teams that will make the playoffs this season. He added it will also be in all the arenas for next season.

Everything is so analytical these days so with player tracking we were able to show that Mathew Barzal [who won the fastest skater competition yesterday] was going 24 miles per hour, says Stuart. Viewers know what it is like to drive 24 mph, so it gives them more perspective about how fast he is going.

The production of the Skills competition also saw the use of the JitaCam and Freefly MoVi handheld camera rigs that allowed cameramen to skate around on the ice with the players as they took part in various competitions.

The MoVi camera offers a perspective no one really gets to see otherwise, says Stuart. The best thing about All Star game is the league is very open to ideas as it is an exhibition and showcase. It's a great partnership with the NHL and it's a great two-way street.

The Skills competition also added two new events: the Elite Women's 3-on-3 game between Canada and the U.S. and Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars, an event that had players from both the men's and women's team taking shots at targets from a platform 30 feet above the ice. Think of it as TopGolf for hockey.

From a production standpoint the event added a new wrinkle to hockey: the need to follow a puck that is flying through the air like a golf ball. Helping in those efforts was the color of the pucks: orange.

The main thing was a clean shot from behind the player to show the trajectory, adds Stuart. You can see the people on the platform so there was some stage managing and having everybody off to the sides to get the shot we needed.

NEP's ND6 and ST28 are at the core of the weekend's production efforts. The game production tonight will feature 51 cameras, 31 overseen by NBC and 20 feeds from Rogers and TVA Sports in Canada and the NHL Network. There are eight super slo-mos, a steadicam, robotic cameras and two netcams.

Stuart says a bonus this year is that St. Louis hosted the Stanley Cup finals last year (with the Blues winning the Cup) so the city and those who work at the Enterprise Center were familiar with a TV production rolling in with multiple production teams, rightsholders, and technical facilities.

We lucked out the same way last year in San Jose as they hosted the Stanley Cup Finals in 2016, he says. It makes set up a lot easier as we were able to park the trucks this past Tuesday and then we have Skills rehearsals on Thursday. Being here last year for Stanley Cup probably saved us a day.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/01/25/live-from-nhl-all-star-nbc-spor...
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