With the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors set to face off in the NBA Finals, it's d j vu all over again for the ABC/ESPN production and operations team. Not only will the same two teams face each other for the second straight year, but ESPN will once again use the occasion to debut a brand-new Sony high-speed camera on the hardcourt. Having rolled out Sony's HDC-4300 camera for last year's Finals, ESPN will launch the brand-new HDC-4800 4K 8X slo-mo camera for this year's series.
ABC's 14th consecutive NBA Finals, which tips off Thursday night, will be yet another colossal production for ESPN and feature an extensive onsite presence at both Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland and Oracle Arena in Oakland.
Commentators (from left) Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mike Breen along with reporter Doris Burke (not pictured) will call their record seventh NBA Finals as a full broadcast team - the most for an NBA Finals quartet on TV.
One thing we learned last year was that we have very good building-management people in each city. They are, without question, some of the best, says ESPN Operations Manager Pete Rintelman. They help us do anything that we need to do to put on our show, and we're excited to be working with them again this year.
The HDC-4800 high-frame-rate camera with cut-out zoom will be paired with the PWS-4500 server at the Finals. Accompanied by a choice of telephoto Canon and Fujinon PL-mount lenses, the camera system and server will be used to capture the fast-paced Warriors-Cavs action in 4K at a high frame rate.
The HDC-4800, which debuted unofficially for CBS Sports at Super Bowl 50 and was officially unveiled in April at NAB 2016, offers 4K recording at up to 480 frames per second in 4K or 960 fps at HD resolution. Coupling it with the BPU-4800 baseband processor unit/replay server creates a fully networked, 4K live ultra-high-speed production workflow. The HDC-4800 makes use of a new Super 35mm CMOS sensor and wide color space (BT.2020 and BT.709) and also supports PL-mount lenses.
The HDC-4800 headlines a massive 40-camera complement that will feature a total of 13 high-speed cameras. The NBA will also provide high-speed above-the rim cameras on both backboards.
ESPN's production in Cleveland, handled out of Game Creek Video's PeacockOne (A and B units) for the game production and Spirit (A and B units) for the onsite studio show, will feature all HDC-4300s. In Oakland, NEP's EN1 (A, B, C, and D trucks plus an E support unit) will serve both the game and studio shows.
Intel's 360-Degree Replay Back on the Court
Intel's 3D 360-degree replay technology will also be used in ABC's NBA Finals telecasts - as it was during ESPN's Eastern Conference Finals coverage. Intel's technology delivers 360-degree replays and highlights using massive data collected from UHD cameras that enable viewers to virtually fly around the action and see it from almost every conceivable angle. Intel 360 replay technology stitches together video captured by these cameras into one seamless shot, which can then be manipulated and rotated for a view of the play from all angles.
Connecting Both Cities With Bristol
ESPN also continues to evolve its file-transfer and content-sharing workflow between its Bristol, CT, operations and its NBA remote productions. The effort began during the regular season, following deployment of a similar workflow for Monday Night Football remotes. However, since ESPN deploys a variety of trucks on its NBA games (MNF uses EN1 solely), the network was forced to create custom kits to make the workflow a reality.
CMSI [Creative Mobile Solutions Inc.] is a big vendor for us on that because one big difference for NBA vs. [Monday Night Football] is, we don't have the same truck every single show. So we have had to build kits that work for any truck that we use, says Rintelman. It's an initiative that we started this year, and it's been very successful, so we definitely want to keep advancing [it].
ESPN relies on CMSI hardware kits and remote management to synchronize highlight, program, and melt footage between cities via CMSI's 10Gb software and hardware, giving EVS operators and editors full availability to all media in both cities.
Plenty of Onsite Studio Presence
The team of Mike Breen, analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, and reporter Doris Burke will call a record seventh NBA Finals as a full broadcast team - the most for an NBA Finals quartet on TV. Former NBA official Steve Javie will provide analysis from the NBA replay center in Secaucus, N.J. ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Tim Corrigan will produce the NBA Finals on ABC, and Jimmy Moore will direct.
Every game will be preceded by a 30-minute onsite edition of NBA Countdown pregame show on ABC featuring host Sage Steele and analysts Doug Collins and Jalen Rose. Additionally, Paul Pierce, 10-time NBA All-Star and 2008 NBA Finals MVP, will join the Countdown crew as a guest analyst for selected games. SportsCenter will take its 6 p.m. show (hosted by Lindsay Czarniak) on the road for the majority of the games as well as for onsite postgame SportsCenter coverage. The Jump, ESPN's new daily NBA show featuring Rachel Nichols, will also hit the road for the Finals (weekdays at 3:30 p.m. ET)
All NBA Finals games will air live on ESPN Deportes TV (called by Alvaro Martin and Carlos Morales with reporters Claudia Trejos and Sebastian Martinez-Christensen), preceded by a 30-minute NBA Previa show featuring commentators Ernesto Jerez and Fabricio Oberto.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...
07/04/2026
April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...
07/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...
07/04/2026
Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...
07/04/2026
Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867):
Cuez ...
07/04/2026
CueScript to Showcase Innovations at NAB that Add Mobility Options, Ease Editing...
07/04/2026
Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder
Brie Clayton April 7, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...
07/04/2026
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...
07/04/2026
Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...
07/04/2026
Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
With the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors set to face off in the NBA Finals, it's d j vu all over again for the ABC/ESPN production and operations team. Not only will the same two teams face each other for the second straight year, but ESPN will once again use the occasion to debut a brand-new Sony high-speed camera on the hardcourt. Having rolled out Sony's HDC-4300 camera for last year's Finals, ESPN will launch the brand-new HDC-4800 4K 8X slo-mo camera for this year's series.
