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

North America Stories

18/07/2025

Realm of Satan Disturbs the Comfortable at 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...

18/07/2025

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the Directors of FOLKTALES

By Jessica Herndon One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...

18/07/2025

NESN Unveils Enhanced NESN 360 App for iOS, Android Devices

BOSTON Sports network NESN today relaunched the NESN 360 app with a redesigned user experience and upgrades....

18/07/2025

Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band

Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band Netflixs new music competition show features two Berklee artists looking to make their pop b...

18/07/2025

Trump Expected to Sign Bill Defunding CPB After House Approves $1B Cuts

As the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, advocates warned that the elimination of $1 bil...

18/07/2025

Imagine Communications Sharpens Focus on Sports, Live Events Market

DENVER Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its prod...

18/07/2025

Netflix Beats Revenue, Profit Expectations

LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix once again reported strong financial growth, with revenue increasing 16% year-over-year to $11.079 billion in Q2 2025 as net income s...

18/07/2025

Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enables Practice Scheduling for Players

Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enab...

18/07/2025

ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and Beyond Through Tracking Tech

ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and ...

18/07/2025

Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House

Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House Matchday Production produced 800+ matches across Denmark in its first year By Geor...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Support for NBC Sports

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Su...

18/07/2025

Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the Fight to Life with State of the Art Cameras and Graphics from DAZN and Gravity Media

Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight to life with state of the art cameras and ...

18/07/2025

Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's Head of Boxing Chris Glanville Talks Helicopters, a Ringwalk Spectacular and Directing the Action

Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, ...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Studio Gives Live From,' NBC Sports a Great View

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Stu...

18/07/2025

Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure the Future of the Business

Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Golf Coverage

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Go...

18/07/2025

ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend

ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend Besides the game, four studio shows will be produced onsite By Jason Dachman, Edit...

17/07/2025

Realm of SatanDisturbs the Comfortable at 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...

17/07/2025

L3Harris to Expand Solid Rocket Motor Production in Arkansas

An advanced large solid rocket motor hot fire test conducted at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, site....

17/07/2025

L3Harris Has the Future of PNT Ready Now

L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite-more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availab...

17/07/2025

L3Harris Introduces Launched Effects Vehicles to Increase US Multi-Domain Superiority

L3Harris' pack of launched effects is comprised of multi-role vehicles that ...

17/07/2025

Nielsen taps Ryan Moore as Chief Business Officer of Gracenote

NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...

17/07/2025

David Cohen Joins Miri Technologies as VP, Sales and Business Development

READING, Pa. Network technology startup Miri Technologies has added David Cohen as vice president, business development. He'll be tasked with expanding the ...

17/07/2025

Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign

Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign The Alumni Affairs team's Variations Signature Series earned recognition for offering an authentic p...

17/07/2025

Senate Votes to Strip Federal Funds for Public Broadcasting

Early Thursday morning, the U.S. Senate voted to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR in a bill that also included cuts for foreign aid. In a 51-48 vote, the act...

17/07/2025

British Innovation Leads the Way at IBC2025

GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions across IBC2025 (12 15 September, RAI Amsterdam) feature a remarkable 34 companies, each providing unique, innovativ...

17/07/2025

SMPTE Forms Study Group on Content Provenance and Authenticity In Media

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today introduced its Content Provenance and Authenticity (CPA) in Media Study Group (S...

17/07/2025

NBCU Reports Highest Sales Volume in History' for 2025-26 Upfronts

NEW YORK Despite widespread concerns about a soft advertising market, NBCUniversal said it closed its 2025-26 upfront negotiation cycle with a record ad sales v...

17/07/2025

Study: TV Ads Are Top Influencer of Older Adults Buying Retirement Homes

NEW YORK Television advertising remains an effective means to market and influence younger baby boomer and Generation X consumers approaching retirement age, ac...

17/07/2025

Service Electric Cable TV Deploys OpenVault PMN

ALLENTOWN, Pa. & JERSEY CITY, N.J. Service Electric Cable TV and OpenVault have announced that the operator is deploying the OpenVault Proactive Network Manage...

17/07/2025

FCC Chair Outlines Busy Summer Agenda That Includes Major EAS Vote

WASHINGTON Following up on his first major policy speech just two ago, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summ...

17/07/2025

Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards

Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards Twenty-seven Berklee alumni received nominations across categories in sound mixing, sound editing, and compositi...

17/07/2025

What We Watched the First Half of 2025

Back to All News What We Watched the First Half of 2025 Entertainment 17 July 2025 Global Link copied to clipboard Today, we're sharing our latest Eng...

17/07/2025

Vote for Ivory 3 American Concert D in the MIDI Innovation Awards!

Cast your vote in 2 categories for Ivory 3 American Concert DIvory 3 American Concert D is in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and we are honored to be nominated...

17/07/2025

SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on Evolving Data Management

SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on E...

17/07/2025

Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Adoption

Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Ado...

17/07/2025

NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing

NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing Audio mixing, intelligent camera framing are among AI-driven efforts By Ken Kerschbaum...

17/07/2025

SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today!

SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today! By SVG Staff Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 8:29 am Print This Story | Subscribe St...

17/07/2025

Gravity Media Chosen as Group Name for Merged OB Business

Gravity Media chosen as group name for merged OB business By George Bevir Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 11:30 Print This Story Gravity Media executive chairm...

17/07/2025

SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivity

SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivit...

17/07/2025

How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game

How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game Vintage content, state-of-the-art projection/processing combine in marvelous mile...

17/07/2025

Thai Legendary Bandit Explodes to Life in Netflix's Gold Rush Gang' - Streaming August 21

Back to All News Thai Legendary Bandit Explodes to Life in Netflixs Gold Rush ...

17/07/2025

GeForce NOW Delivers Justice With RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business'

Listen up citizens, the law is back and patrolling the cloud. Nacon's RoboCop Rogue City - Unfinished Business launches today in the cloud, bringing justice...

16/07/2025

May 2025 Spring with Miniscule drops in viewing figures in Poland

Warsaw - Poland, June 24, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest May All Screens Video Landscape...

16/07/2025

Bluey and Squid Game Top Nielsen's Streaming Charts in First Half of 2025

Bluey Tops Nielsen's Overall Streaming List with More Than 25 Billion Minutes Streamed from January through June 2025 Big June Vaults Squid Game into Top O...

16/07/2025

TV SIM builds for the future with high efficiency transmi...

TV SIM, the SBT affiliate serving Esp rito Santo state in Brazil, has launched a transmitter upgrade initiative with the installation of a Rohde & Schwarz R&S T...

16/07/2025

Pebble looks to the future of playout automation at IBC20...

Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, is turning its vision to the future of automation with its demonstrations ...

16/07/2025

Ikegami Announces UHK-X700RF Wireless Television Camera

Ikegami announces a new addition to its UNICAM-XE product range with the introduction of the UHK-X700RF wireless portable camera: The new version has the same f...

16/07/2025

TwelveLabs video understanding models now avail in Amazon...

Today, Amazon Web Services added TwelveLabs as a new model provider to Amazon Bedrock, delivering what could be the most significant breakthrough in enterprise ...