Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NBA Playoffs 2025: As Play-In Tourney Continues, TNT Sports Preps Escalated Game-Day Tech for Postseason

17/04/2025

NBA Playoffs 2025: As Play-In Tourney Continues, TNT Sports Preps Escalated Game-Day Tech for Postseason Opening rounds to feature regular-season setup; later rounds to get more gear By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Thursday, April 17, 2025 - 11:52 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

With the 2024-25 NBA season hitting crunch time, TNT Sports is rallying its production and operations teams to deliver another compelling postseason of top-tier professional basketball. Beginning with two games in the 2025 NBA Play-In Tournament on Tuesday night and one more to go on Friday night at State Farm Arena in the broadcaster's hometown, the productions have served as a warmup for the playoffs, with Round 1 games on Sunday, April 20 in Cleveland and Houston and on Monday, April 21 in New York City and Denver.

The first games went extremely well on Tuesday night, says Chris Brown, VP, technology and operations, TNT Sports. [The Play-In Tournament] gives our ops teams a little ramp-up to the start of the playoffs run.

Follow the Narrative: Production Team Can Enhance the Tech To Match Game Intensity The NBA postseason is habitually a long sprint to the finish. Taking place over multiple weeks in numerous cities across the country, the broadcasts ask a lot out of TNT Sports' staffers dedicated to showcasing the league's biggest games of the year. To ease into the playoffs and ensure that each game receives the utmost attention in terms of coverage and quality, the broadcaster is rolling out a technological arsenal deployed during the six-month regular season.

It does follow a certain sort of format that we've managed year over year, Brown explains. The first two rounds will pretty much mimic our regular-season coverage, especially in the first round since those games aren't exclusive and we'll be compressed for space in many of the main camera areas and the loading dock.

During the regular season, the production effort also contributed to the TNT Overtime digital-centric offering, which requires a higher level of tech to cater to that specific audience. The effort, which exceeds the tech that other broadcasters use for the regular season, will continue in the postseason as well.

We do a whole lot more in this very short time during the year, adds Brown. The goal is essentially to maintain that base level of coverage for the national audience.

Riding with a formula that has proved successful in recent seasons, the production team will pay attention to the narrative of each series and follow its progress. In the later stages of a Game 6 or 7 for a particular matchup, for example, the team will decide whether to break out more tech enhancements to capture the high intensity of win-or-go-home contests.

It will be at our production team's discretion to enhance their coverage as they see fit, says Brown.

In the Compound: A Quartet of NEP Mobile Units To Cover Four Arenas With workflows increasing as the bracket unfolds, a large chunk of these productions will rely on TNT Sports' crews working from within the broadcast compound. One of four NEP mobile units - Supershooter 6, 7, 8, and 9 - will be parked outside each arena, and, as each series moves along, the broadcaster will decide which city and venue each unit heads to next. After the Atlanta Hawks' final play-in game on Friday night, the four will be spread across the country: at Cleveland's Rocket Arena, at Houston's Toyota Center, New York's Madison Square Garden, and Denver's Ball Arena.

At TNT Sports' Techwood facility in Atlanta, the crew will deploy the standard remote-graphics production model. Graphics operators will continue to be located in the Remote Operations Center (ROC), where they have worked since the last time they were onsite, at the 2025 NBA All-Star Game at San Francisco's Chase Center in February. To get the feed from multiviewers on the onsite trucks to Atlanta, the crew will rely on the services of Haivision.

We've had a couple occasions, Brown notes, when our regular production trucks couldn't get from city to city in time, so our remote graphics kit wasn't installed in time, and we'd have to send a graphics team out [to the venue]. We plan on continuing our remote-graphics workflow into the playoffs because, no matter where we are or how quick the turnaround is, we always know that our graphics operators are in the same place for every game.

In addition to graphics' being controlled from Atlanta, a handful of EVS operators will be controlling replay from the ROC.

Sports-Filled Spring: TNT Sports Faces Long Stretch of Postseason Play A tradition that continues every year, TNT Sports will be producing a large slate of high-leverage games. That includes coverage not only of the NBA Playoffs but also simultaneous productions of the NHL Playoffs and MLB Tuesday games. The effort requires coordination between various production and technical teams at Techwood, as well as an understanding of the logistics and pacing of each league's action. It's a ferocious, unrelenting, and fast-paced time of the year, but Brown is surrounded by technical experts to handle it all.

For the NBA productions, he notes, the crew includes Technical Operations Manager Brent Brown; Tech Managers Dean Koenig and Brian Irrizarry, who worked the Play-In game between the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks at Orlando's Kia Center; and Tech Managers Debra Zouvas and Shaun Reid, who worked the other Play-In game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors in the Bay Area.

We're excited that the company at large has leaned into the retooling of Techwood with the addition of control rooms and infrastructure in the ROC that's able to accommodate some of these remote workflows, says Brown. The investment
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/04/17/nba-playoffs-2025-as-play-in-to...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

23/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: For IMS Productions and HD-5 Truck Revamped With IP and HDR, It's All Systems Are Go

Live From the Indy 500: For IMS Productions and HD-5 Truck Revamped With IP and ...

23/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: FOX Sports' Mike Davies on a Historic Production Effort at the Brickyard

Live From the Indy 500: FOX Sports' Mike Davies on a Historic Production Eff...

23/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: FOX Sports Revs Up the Audio for Its First Time Covering the Iconic Race

Live From the Indy 500: FOX Sports Revs Up the Audio for Its First Time Covering...

23/05/2025

SVG College Summit 2025: Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 2

SVG College Summit 2025: Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 2 By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Friday, May 23, 2025 - 9:01 am Print This Story | Subsc...

23/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: FOX's Zac Fields Says AR Is Set To Help Celebrate the Big Race

Live From the Indy 500: FOX's Zac Fields Says AR Is Set To Help Celebrate th...

23/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: FOX's Motor Sports Engineering Team Is Ready To Shine

Live From the Indy 500: FOX's Motor Sports Engineering Team Is Ready To Shin...

23/05/2025

UEFA Women's Champions League Final 2025: DAZN on Plans and Challenges for the Arsenal vs Barcelona Face Off

UEFA Women's Champions League Final 2025: DAZN on plans and challenges for t...

23/05/2025

Live from the Indy 500: IMS Productions Revamped HD5 Unit, with IP and HDR, All Systems Go for Race Day

Live from the Indy 500: IMS Productions Revamped HD5 Unit, with IP and HDR, All ...

23/05/2025

Live from the Indy 500: Mike Davies of Fox Sports on a Historic Production Effort at the Brickyard

Live from the Indy 500: Mike Davies of Fox Sports on a Historic Production Effor...

23/05/2025

Prime Video Hits the Gas on First Season of NASCAR Cup Series Action

Prime Video Hits the Gas on First Season of NASCAR Cup Series Action On the agenda: pre/post-race shows, 70+ cameras, double-box ads, Key Moments, Rapid Recaps ...

22/05/2025

Live From the Indy 500: NEP Specialty Camera's Sean Seavers on a Historic RF Effort

Live From the Indy 500: NEP Specialty Camera's Sean Seavers on a Historic RF...

22/05/2025

PWHL Wraps Up Sophomore Season With Focus on Storytelling, Graphics Presentation in Finals

PWHL Wraps Up Sophomore Season With Focus on Storytelling, Graphics Presentation...

22/05/2025

MSG Network's XR Studios Heat Up Manhattan as Knicks Heat Up the NBA Playoffs

MSG Network's XR Studios Heat Up Manhattan as Knicks Heat Up the NBA Playoff...

22/05/2025

The Triangle: Bringing the International Northwest 200 Motorcycle Race to BBC Sport Viewers with Greenlight Productions

The triangle: Bringing the International Northwest 200 motorcycle race to BBC Sp...

22/05/2025

SVG College Summit 2025: Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 1

SVG College Summit 2025: Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 1 By SVG Staff Thursday, May 22, 2025 - 12:15 pm Print This Story | Subscribe Story Highlight...

22/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' Chad Hudson & Wade Echer on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' Chad Hudson & Wade Echer on the 2024 Paris Ol...

22/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: FOX Sports' Bardia Shah-Rais on FOX MLB: The Postseason

2025 Sports Emmys: FOX Sports' Bardia Shah-Rais on FOX MLB: The Postseason By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Thursday, May 22, 2025 - 1:08 pm ...

22/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' John Jelley on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' John Jelley on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Thursday, May 22, 2025 - 1:14 pm ...

22/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: UFC's Craig Borsari on For Mexico, For All Time with Noche UFC

2025 Sports Emmys: UFC's Craig Borsari on For Mexico, For All Time with Noch...

22/05/2025

SVG College Sports Media Awards 2025: Outstanding Social Media Video, Outstanding In-Venue Video Winners Announced!

SVG College Sports Media Awards 2025: Outstanding Social Media Video, Outstandin...

21/05/2025

PGA TOUR's Live Drone AR Snags the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award at 46th Sports Emmy Awards

PGA TOUR's Live Drone AR Snags the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award...

21/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: ABC/ESPN's Phil Dean on SEC on ABC

2025 Sports Emmys: ABC/ESPN's Phil Dean on SEC on ABC By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - 2:33 pm Print This Story | ...

21/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' Molly Solomon on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

2025 Sports Emmys: NBC Sports' Molly Solomon on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - 2:40 pm...

21/05/2025

2025 Sports Emmys: FOX Sports' Matt Gangl on Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues

2025 Sports Emmys: FOX Sports' Matt Gangl on Rickwood Field: A Tribute to th...

21/05/2025

Paris 2024 Olympics Top 46th Sports Emmy Awards With 10 Wins; NBC and ESPN Lead All Networks With 13 Apiece

Paris 2024 Olympics Top 46th Sports Emmy Awards With 10 Wins; NBC and ESPN Lead ...

20/05/2025

NBA Western Conference Finals: ESPN's InsightCast' Features Avatar Shot Charts, Virtual 3D Replays, Immersive Analysis

NBA Western Conference Finals: ESPN's InsightCast' Features Avatar Shot...

20/05/2025

Broad Strategy: DAZN on Creating the Perfect Ecosystem Between Broadcasters, Sponsors and Teams for World Sevens Football

Broad strategy: DAZN on creating the perfect ecosystem between broadcasters, spo...

20/05/2025

Storytelling, Monetization and Engagement: Making the Pitch for AI in Sports Broadcasting

Storytelling, monetisation and engagement: Making the pitch for AI in sports bro...

20/05/2025

FanDuel Sports Network Rolls Out WireCam in Cincinnati; Milwaukee Is Next, With Other Parks To Follow

FanDuel Sports Network Rolls Out WireCam in Cincinnati; Milwaukee Is Next, With ...

20/05/2025

UEFA Europa League Final 2025: Broadcast Facts and Camera Plan for Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester United

UEFA Europa League Final 2025: Broadcast facts and camera plan for Tottenham Hot...

20/05/2025

NBA Eastern Conference Finals: TNT Sports Bids Farewell With Upgraded Tech, Onsite Crews for Classic Knicks-Pacers Series

NBA Eastern Conference Finals: TNT Sports Bids Farewell With Upgraded Tech, Onsi...

20/05/2025

NBA Western Conference Finals: ESPN's InsightCast' Features Avatar Shot Charts, Virtual 3D Replays, and Immersive Analysis

NBA Western Conference Finals: ESPN's InsightCast' Features Avatar Shot...

19/05/2025

F1's Dean Locke on Getting Closer to the Action With Drones, New Camera Angles and More Team Radio

F1's Dean Locke on getting closer to the action with drones, new camera angl...

19/05/2025

F1 Continues IP Advances and Centralizes AR Tracking and RF Control

F1 continues IP advances and centralises AR tracking and RF control By George Bevir Friday, May 16, 2025 - 10:29 Print This Story Away from the MTC and in...

19/05/2025

F1's New Ghost Car Comparison Feature Aids Broadcaster Race Analysis

F1's new Ghost Car comparison feature aids broadcaster race analysis By George Bevir Friday, May 16, 2025 - 10:18 Print This Story Max Verstappen and ...

19/05/2025

F1 TV Premium Offers UHD HDR and Multiview in New Era of Personalized Race Viewing

F1 TV Premium offers UHD HDR and multiview in new era of personalised race viewi...

16/05/2025

The FA Cup Final: Telling the Story With Graphics Technology

The FA Cup Final: Telling the Story With Graphics Technology Manchester City meets Crystal Palace on Saturday in this years FA Cup Final By SVG Staff Friday,...

16/05/2025

PBR's Wild 11-Day Stretch Culminates in World Finals at AT&T Stadium

PBR's Wild 11-Day Stretch Culminates in World Finals at AT&T Stadium The operation will have produced 250 streams and broadcasts across 10 platforms By Mar...

16/05/2025

SVG Cloud Production Forum Draws 200 to NYC to Tackle One of the Industry's Significant Growth Areas

SVG Cloud Production Forum Draws 200 to NYC to Tackle One of the Industry's ...

16/05/2025

Eurovision Song Contest: Behind the Scenes with Eurovision Services

Eurovision Song Contest: Behind the scenes with Eurovision Services By Jo Ruddock Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 09:41 Print This Story Credit: SRG SSR The 69t...

16/05/2025

NEP Mobilizes European Network for Eurovision Song Contest 2025

NEP mobilises European network for Eurovision Song Contest 2025 By George Bevir Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 10:29 Print This Story NEP camera operator Tomas ...

16/05/2025

WNBA Tip-Off 2025: ESPN Elevates Coverage Through Expanded Remote-Production Workflows

WNBA Tip-Off 2025: ESPN Elevates Coverage Through Expanded Remote-Production Wor...

16/05/2025

WNBA Tip-Off 2025: Scripps Sports' Friday Night Spotlight' Features More Games, Dedicated Studio Show on ION

WNBA Tip-Off 2025: Scripps Sports' Friday Night Spotlight' Features Mor...

16/05/2025

FloSports Debuts The Athlete's Lounge' Alternate Broadcast for Wanda Diamond League Track and Field

FloSports Debuts The Athlete's Lounge' Alternate Broadcast for Wanda Di...

15/05/2025

PGA Championship: CBS Sports Rolls Out 5G-Powered AR, FlyCams, RailCam, 4K BunkerCams, Live Drones, and More at Quail Hollow

PGA Championship: CBS Sports Rolls Out 5G-Powered AR, FlyCams, RailCam, 4K Bunke...

15/05/2025

PGA Championship: ESPN To Produce 225+ Hours of Live Play on Multiple Platforms

PGA Championship: ESPN To Produce 225+ Hours of Live Play on Multiple Platforms Expanded ESPN BET' telecast, live SportsCenter' segments add to a full...

15/05/2025

This City Is Ours: The Continuing Evolution of Manchester City's City Studios

This City Is Ours: The Continuing Evolution of Manchester City's City Studio...

14/05/2025

SVG Sit-Down: Live Media Group's Ryan Jones on Exponential Growth, New Production Trucks, the Rise of REMI

SVG Sit-Down: Live Media Group's Ryan Jones on Exponential Growth, New Produ...

14/05/2025

PGA Championship: T-Mobile's 5G Advanced Network Powers Wireless Cameras on Back Nine and AI-Generated Mixed-Reality Graphics

PGA Championship: T-Mobile's 5G Advanced Network Powers Wireless Cameras on ...

14/05/2025

NBC Sports Shows Off Features For NBA Streaming Experience on Peacock

NBC Sports Shows Off Features For NBA Streaming Experience on Peacock The NBA returns to NBC Sports this fall By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Wednesday...