TNDV and Live Media Support NCAA Final Four Weekend for 13th Consecutive Year

TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March Madness Music Festival and in-game programming at Lucas Oil Stadium. TNDV and Live Media collectively deployed 20% of the mobile units on the venue compound.

TNDV's Aspiration production truck and Vibration audio truck supported three nights of the March Madness Music Festival, featuring 21 Pilots (Friday), Zac Brown Band (Saturday), and Post Malone (Sunday). Inside the stadium, TNDV's Exclamation production truck supported the first live concert broadcast integrated into a Final Four game window, featuring The Chainsmokers in 1080p HDR. Live Media produced international feeds for both Final Four games and live media commentary insertions for a major sports broadcast network.

Thirteen years into this event, the scale is familiar but the expectations keep rising, says Rob Devlin, President, TNDV. This year's workflow really showcased how our Aspiration and Vibration units complement each other. We dedicate one environment entirely to music mixing while the other handles production, switching, and delivery. That separation is critical to achieving both broadcast polish and musical integrity. Our friends at Live Media produced studio-style coverage throughout the weekend while managing international feeds. These workflows required careful handling of clean feeds and multilingual commentary integration, ensuring seamless delivery to audiences worldwide.

In-Stadium HDR Concert Broadcast

The Exclamation truck deployed an eight-camera configuration using Sony HDC-4300 systems, handhelds, hard cameras, and a jib, captured in 1080p HDR. AJA FS-HDR processing managed SDR-to-HDR conversion across sources.

This was a unique moment both for us and the event itself, says Devlin. It was the first time a concert was fully integrated into the game broadcast window, and doing it in HDR meant it had to visually match the rest of the network production seamlessly.

Outdoor Music Festival

The Aspiration production for the outdoor festival used an 11-camera package built around Sony HDC-4300 systems, complemented by a Sony P50 Skycam, Panasonic UE150 robotic cameras, handhelds, and a drone. Signals were routed through TNDV's Evertz NEXX routing infrastructure.

Bringing Skycam back into the mix was a big win, says Nic Dugger, Founder, TNDV, who served as director on Aspiration. Along with our hard, handheld, robotic, and drone cameras, it gave us a dynamic visual language that really elevated the show and matched the scale fans expect from Final Four weekend. Running Aspiration and Vibration together gave us the flexibility to support broadcast, streaming, and full-scale music mixing simultaneously. It's not a typical setup for a festival like this, but it made a noticeable difference in both workflow and overall production quality.

Audio

Audio production used a split-mix architecture, with Vibration dedicated to music mixing on a Studer workflow and Aspiration integrating that mix into the full program feed. Broadcast music mixer Matt Manix of Method Audio led the audio team on Vibration, using Third Ear AT6 reference monitors in a 5.1 configuration, Shure DCA901 microphone arrays for crowd capture, and DirectOut PRODIGY.MP systems for Dante/MADI conversion.

The Shure arrays gave us incredible control over audience capture, says Matt Manix, Broadcast Music Mixer, Method Audio. We could steer pickup zones in real time and isolate crowd energy exactly where we needed it. Combined with discrete channel routing, it gave us a much more immersive and precise crowd sound than traditional methods.

This is a true broadcast music mix and not just a pass-through of the house feed, says Devlin. It allows the A1 to focus entirely on the performance, while a separate production mix handles everything else happening in the show. Our goal is to make the broadcast viewer feel like they're in the best seat in the house without losing clarity or impact on smaller devices. We're building a mix that translates across phones, TVs, and surround environments, which requires a very different approach than mixing for a live audience.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/05/12/tndv-and-live-media-support-nca...
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