PBR Expands Production of Teams Championship With Third Mobile Unit, More Cameras

Additional gear includes a second, outside drone; a second slo-mo unit; and a wireless handheld carried by an operator in the ring

When the fifth-annual PBR Teams Championship takes over the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this weekend, professional bull riders will leave the individual competitive spirit aside in favor of competing on teams representing 10 cities. For the PBR production team, it's an opportunity to expand its production a bit (and the head count to around 65), add some studio-show programming, and deliver an event with two rings of action, not only offering fans twice the fun but also providing better sight lines for those in the arena.

The fans have got into the Teams concept, says PBR Director, Remote Production, Jim Palermo of the growth of the events since the competition was launched in 2022. It's a little different than the individual, where you're just rooting for your favorite rider. Here the fans are rooting for their hometowns.

The camaraderie between the riders, he continues, is something you don't see during the individual events: the riders, coaches, and teams are rooting for each other. It makes for such a great dynamic, and, for something that started out as an experiment, it has just grown by leaps and bounds in popularity.

PBR's Jim Palermo says the PBR Teams Championship continues to gain momentum with fans and viewers.It takes about 40 cameras to cover the championship, he says, with rides alternating between the two sets of bucking chutes on opposite ends of the arena. The cameras inside the arena will be complemented by more outside as PBR takes over Paramount+ Plaza with a preshow airing Friday and Saturday night. On Sunday, a live one-hour pregame show will air on the CBS broadcast network ahead of its NFL programming. An additional preshow segment will also air on The CW ahead of the final afternoon of live coverage of the competition.

The preshow will be located on the patio of a luxury box outside the arena that looks out over the plaza and has the arena in the background, adds Palermo. The Fan Fest will also be there, and we'll be able to see the rider arrivals and other activations like concerts.

The typical PBR Teams show is produced out of two 53-ft. expando mobile units owned by PBR. The A truck will handle the television production, the big-screen video feed, and the in-arena show. The B unit houses PBR's timing/scoring capabilities, a replay judge, and submix audio mixer. Panasonic PTZ robotic cameras will also be controlled from the B truck.

For this event, says Palermo, we have a third truck that provides space for editing facilities and offices. It was previously a stage truck we've transformed into a mobile production unit that we will use for the Premier Women's Rodeo, which is a new league that will begin its season in December. It's a big chance for us to highlight women's rodeo because there are a lot of great women competing in rodeo.

New camera positions for the Teams Championship will feature shots from four robotic cameras beneath the steel - the structures surrounding the dirt floor of the ring - which will get low angles of the rides. Getting those cameras in place required reconfiguring the chutes, but Palermo says they provide some great angles on the competition.

In addition to two slo-mo cameras (versus one for regular PBR events), an operator with a wireless handheld camera will be in the ring. He's a trained bullfighter and safety guy as well as a good camera operator. He knows what he is doing out there, Palermo points out. All the other camera operators are kept pretty much out of harm's way although the guys in the chutes work in a challenging environment: not only is it crowded, but sometimes the bulls are bucking.

Complementing a drone used inside the arena will be a second drone, deployed outside, Palermo notes. It will be able to shoot the preshow coverage and get other shots as well.

The Teams Championship is a fitting wrap for the PBR regular season, which comprised 12 events (10 homestands, two neutral-site events) and attracted 282,000 fans, up 7% from last year. The TV audience is on board as well: the Ridge Rider Days event last month averaged 1.9 million viewers on a Sunday afternoon, making it the top-rated sports broadcast that afternoon outside of the NFL.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/11/06/pbr-expands-production-of-team-...
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