Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live From NBA Finals: ESPN Operations Weathers South Florida Storms, Cross-Country Travel for Heat-Nuggets Title Bout

09/06/2023

Live From NBA Finals: ESPN Operations Weathers South Florida Storms, Cross-Country Travel for Heat-Nuggets Title Bout Covering games 2,000 miles apart requires both a strategy and flexibility By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Friday, June 9, 2023 - 12:15 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The Denver Nuggets played the role of spoiler and ruined the party for Miami Heat fans at Kaseya Center in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. With one more game to go in Southern Florida before shifting back to the Mile High City, ESPN's operations team has withstood the challenges of this nation-spanning championship with logistical know-how and arduous planning.

[The Finals] have gone very smoothly, but a lot of our job is about reducing risk, says Eddie Okuno, senior remote operations specialist, ESPN. We always have to keep an eye on the calendar and the standings to see which cities we'll be going to.

Game of Logistical Chess: Team Maps Out Potential Sites Prior to Finals From an operational perspective, one of the hardest parts about the job is foreseeing where the action will end up. At the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, many teams and their home cities were in the mix to host the NBA Finals, and the crew adjusted its plans as the postseason went along. By the Conference Finals, the potential sites had been reduced to four: Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and Ball Arena for the Western representative, TD Garden in Boston and Kaseya Center in Miami for its Eastern counterpart. At that stage, Okuno deployed a strategy to alleviate some of the stress that comes with the unknown.

Eddie Okuno is at the helm of ESPN's remote-operations team for the 2023 NBA Finals.

Our strategy is to build City 1 and City 2 infrastructures that are identical between our two mobile-unit providers, NEP Group and Game Creek Video, he says. We stayed with our regular ABC Saturday Primetime strategy for the first two rounds, but, when we got to the Conference Finals, we just didn't have time to set up everything for a big show in one day.

Luckily, the team on the NEP trucks knew fairly quickly that they'd be going to Denver when the Nuggets made relatively quick work of the Los Angeles Lakers. If the Lakers had made a dramatic comeback and the Heat finished off the Boston Celtics, the scenario would have changed, with the West Coast crew having to scramble to Los Angeles since the Lakers would have been the higher seed. When the Heat-Celtics series became a lot more interesting with a winner-take-all Game 7, the East Coast-based team knew that they'd be traveling regardless of the winner. As Boston gained momentum from a 3-0 hole, Okuno and company had to consider both cities as a possibility.

When we got to Game 6, he says, we had to start building out for Boston because the series would have ended on Monday, May 29 and we would have to be ready to go there for Game 1 on Thursday, June 1. Ultimately, Boston lost, and we headed out to Denver.

Game Creek Video 79, Victory, and Gotham are driving productions in Miami.

Sifting through cities and laying out scheduled departures requires moving a lot of parts, and each city has a unique venue. For example, the Milwaukee Bucks play in the four-year-old Fiserv Forum with an updated and broadcast-ready infrastructure. On the other hand, all the teams in the Conference Finals play in venues that opened before 2000.

We needed to know how much land or space would be given to us for our compound [at each venue] and when it would be available to us, Okuno explains. Between the NBA and the venues, there were multiple things that we had to coordinate.

Quick Thinking: Miami Thunderstorms Flood the Compound Playing ball in the Sunshine State comes with a hefty number of unexpected thunderstorms. Typically going as quickly as they come, these pockets of rain can still pack an aggressive punch. When you place these torrential downpours over a broadcast compound with equipment that isn't compatible with water, producing games in Miami can be physically and figuratively slippery. Arriving at Kaseya Center May 30, the operations crew had a few days to construct a compound on a grass field before the surrounding area became too muddy. Although rain is always expected, it's difficult to know when these storms hit, how much of a deluge they will bring, and how long they'll stick around.

The operations crew had to contend with flooding in the broadcast compound.

When we first came here, says Okuno, the entire compound was flooded, and we were pretty much underwater by about almost 2 ft. We had to install pumping stations at the center of our compound and move the trucks out of that area.

Among other efforts to combat the problem, the temporary floor of the compound was built on a slant to enhance runoff and drainage.

[Unforeseen events] like that unfortunately happen, he notes. Fighting Mother Nature at this time of the year is always part of the challenge.

Production Standouts: Broadcast Includes Sony HDC-4800 Cinematic 4K Cameras Inside the venue, the team has a total of 55 camera feeds to choose from for the 1080p broadcast. Leading the way, the Sony HDC-4800 cinematic 4K camera is providing super-slow-motion shots at 8X speed. Sony has a large presence in the productions, with more than 30 cameras deployed in the lower bowl and around the arena, including 18 HDC-4300's (five handhelds at speeds from 4X to 6X), two P-43's above-the-rim robos, two HDC-5500's, and two PXW-Z450's. More important, the camera manufacturer plays a part in the Skycam system with a Sony HDC-P50 and in ESPN's preferred shallow-depth-of-field rig with a Sony Alpha 1.

Kaseya Center and the Miami skyline provide the backdrop for the compound.

In the compound, the efforts of the 85 credentialed personnel is centered
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/06/09/live-from-nba-finals-espn-opera...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

18/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Is Most Watched Since Jordan Bulls Era; FIFA World Cup Opens Big

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics Debuts Healthcare Visual Reasoning Integration with LayerJot

PTZOptics has unveiled new Visual Reasoning demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 (Boo...

18/06/2026

IBC 2026: Announces New Future Tech Ignite Initiative, Expanded Exhibitor Participation

IBC2026 will take place at the RAI Amsterdam from September 11-14, bringing toge...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026 Holds Inaugural Media Day with Product Announcements from 19 Exhibitors

InfoComm 2026 held its first-ever Media Day on June 17, providing journalists an...

18/06/2026

Info Comm 2026: FOR-A America Announces TAA-Compliant LED Display Package

FOR-A America has announced a Trade Agreements Act (TAA)-compliant LED display solution combining Alfalite's Litepix LED displays and Brompton Technology...

18/06/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 20: Cleveland Browns Kyle Millen - Run of Shows & Rock n Roll

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level have one major thing in common: the intensity and attention to detail ramps up dur...

18/06/2026

International Federation of American Football, TMRW Sports Partner on Global Growth of Flag Football

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and TMRW Sports have an...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for KONA and Corvid PCIe I/O Cards

AJA Video Systems has unveiled Io Xpand, a Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion ...

18/06/2026

ESPN Marks 30th Anniversary of WNBA's Inaugural Game With Liberty-Sparks Broadcast

ESPN has announced its coverage plans for the 30th anniversary of the WNBA's...

18/06/2026

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff Heads to London for Union Jack Classic From Wembley Stadium

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff will broadcast live from Wembley Stadium in Lon...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Show Opens With Microsoft Keynote, Media Day, and New Industry Initiatives

InfoComm 2026 opened on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, bringing t...

18/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Akta's Matt Smith on Building AI Into the Foundation of the Video Workflow

As media companies look to deliver more live, VOD, and snackable sports content ...

18/06/2026

2026 Sundance Film Festival: Local Lens

Top L-R: Take Me Home, The Lake Bottom L-R: TheyDream, Union County Free Summer Screening Series Announced Screenings for the Local Utah Community at...

18/06/2026

The Gauge: Poland | May 2026

The average daily TV screen time in May was 3 hours and 36 minutes, marking a clear decrease of 15 minutes compared to April. This trend proved to be much stron...

18/06/2026

Gracenote and PubMatic Bring Curated Live Sports and Content-Level Deals to Programmatic CTV

Integration embeds Gracenote content intelligence, including contextual segments...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for...

AJA Video Systems unveiled Io Xpand, a high-performance Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion chassis for AJA KONA and Corvid video and audio I/O cards. As dema...

18/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Faster AV-over-I...

New NVRT-driven workflow enables on-demand traffic mirroring and guided troubleshooting for AV teams, integrators, and support organizations ahead of InfoComm 2...

18/06/2026

Mavis Studio Brings New Muscle to Mobile Production on iP...

At InfoComm 2026, Mavis announced a major update to Mavis Studio, its live production app for the iPad, with new features designed to make professional AV produ...

18/06/2026

Harmonic Completes Divestiture of Video Business to Media...

Transaction Positions Harmonic as a Pure-Play Broadband Company Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtualized broadband solutions, today a...

18/06/2026

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR Partner to Power the Futur...

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR have announced a strategic partnership that establishes verified interoperability between NETGEAR Switches and key technologies fr...

18/06/2026

IBC2026 creates new pathways from innovation to real-worl...

IBC2026 is set to bring the global media, entertainment and technology community together at the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September, enabling industry players f...

18/06/2026

PLIANT TECHNOLOGIES DEBUTS CREWCOM FLEX THE WORLDS FIRST...

Pliant Technologies is proud to introduce CrewCom Flex , the world's first frameless matrix intercom system and the only complete matrix IP-based intercom s...

18/06/2026

XR Sports Alliance Strengthens its Capabilities with New...

The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced that a new cohort of members has joined the strategic initiative: ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agen...

18/06/2026

Hollywood Filmmakers Launch AI Production Platform Cascade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

ATVA Blasts Deltavision Media for Demanding 'Egregious' Retrans Fees

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

AJA Unveils Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis At InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship The Berklee professor, bassist, and composer will use the fellowship to debut Dreams of Knowing, an interdisci...

18/06/2026

Sync and Stream: GeForce NOW Connects to Members' Game Libraries Across Devices

Play favorite titles from popular game libraries, keep progress synced and jump ...

18/06/2026

At Cannes Lions, NVIDIA Partners Reshape Advertising and Marketing With AI

The digital era gave the advertising and marketing industry speed; the AI era is giving it autonomous operations. For companies building next-generation techn...

17/06/2026

EVS Achieves EcoVadis Gold Medal, Ranking in Top 5% of Companies Globally

EVS has announced it has received the EcoVadis Gold Medal for sustainability performance, ranking among the top 5% of companies globally in the Technology/Mid-S...

17/06/2026

Chyron Releases Weather 2.4 with Updated DataFlow Module

Chyron has released Weather 2.4, an update to its weather suite for broadcasters and meteorologists. The release focuses on enhancements to the DataFlow module,...

17/06/2026

VSiN Launches Best Bets TV, a 24/7 FAST Channel

VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, has announced the launch of Best Bets TV, a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel. The 24/7 channel is currently avail...

17/06/2026

Snapchat and Team Whistle Launch World Cup Creator Program Across Miami, New York, and Los Angeles

DAZN's Team Whistle and Snap Inc. have announced a creator program centered ...

17/06/2026

LiveU Supporting Broadcast and Public Safety Operations for Summer of Soccer

LiveU is providing video transmission technology for broadcasters, production companies, and public safety agencies across North America's busy Summer of So...

17/06/2026

NATAS Announces Two New Board Members and COO Promotion

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has announced that Laurens Grant and Jacob Ullman have joined its Board of Directors. Chief of Staf...

17/06/2026

Akta Brings AI-First Cloud Video Workflows to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Akta, the AI-First SaaS video platform for modern broadcast and streaming operations, today announced that its video platform is now generally available on Orac...

17/06/2026

SVG Students to Watch: Nicholas Stafford, Texas Southern University

This recent graduate from Houston found inspiration in technical directing and now eyes a future career in sports production...

17/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Audio-Technica Brings New Wireless, Networked Audio, and Certified Conferencing Solutions

Audio-Technica (booth C7959) arrives at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas with a slate ...

17/06/2026

SNS Positions AI Suite as On-Premise Answer to Video Indexing and Search Demands

SNS has published a guide addressing growing demand for AI-powered video indexing, transcription, facial recognition, and searchable metadata across media libra...

17/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Network Troubleshooting on NETGEAR Pro AV Switches

Providius has announced Providius Direct, a workflow for investigating network i...

17/06/2026

NEP Launches NEP Platform Software Orchestration System, Selects Bridge Technologies VB440

NEP Group has announced the commercial availability of NEP Platform, a software ...

17/06/2026

BBright White Paper: SRT vs. RIST for Professional Video Contribution and Distribution

A new white paper examining Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) and Reliable Interne...

17/06/2026

Bango Research: 51% of Gen Z Say Highlights Are Replacing Live Games

New research from subscription bundling platform Bango finds that younger sports fans are increasingly consuming sport through highlights, clips, and social med...

17/06/2026

SMPTE Opens Entire Standards Library to Public at No Cost

SMPTE has announced that its complete Standards catalog is now freely available to the global media technology community, including all published SMPTE Standard...

17/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business, Creating Independent Video Infrastructure Heavyweight

Harmonic has completed the sale of its Video Business to MediaKind for $145 mill...

17/06/2026

Omaha Productions to Produce 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event Coverage for ESPN

Omaha Productions will produce the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vega...

17/06/2026

NABLF Graduates Its 2026 Broadcasting Leadership Training Class

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

ABC and ESPN Score Most-Watched NBA Finals Since 1998

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/06/2026

Smartly, Roku Bring Social Performance Tools to CTV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...