Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NBA Finals: ESPN Operations Team Looks To Tie a Bow on Peculiar NBA Bubble in Orlando

30/09/2020

NBA Finals: ESPN Operations Team Looks To Tie a Bow on Peculiar NBA Bubble in Orlando In a once crowded compound, ESPN is the last network standing By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 - 1:49 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

After an interesting playoff format inside the NBA bubble at the Wide World of Sports complex, the NBA will finally crown a champion within the next two weeks. One of the main broadcasters to set up shop in Orlando in late July, ESPN is poised to put a proper ending on this unique scenario. During the two-month period, the broadcaster's operations team has gained a wealth of experience and knowledge after an arduous planning process.

When we first laid out the design, says Eddie Okuno, senior remote operations specialist, ESPN, the goal for all of us was to build a robust compound and broadcast environment. We had to endure the summertime weather, thunderstorms, and all of the different things that would normally come in a remote setting but over a long stretch of time. Along with Turner and the NBA, it paid off for all of us because we were all on the same page on how everything was stable throughout [the postseason].

In the Rearview: Lessons Learned From an Olympic-Style Production In August, ESPN was joined by Turner Sports and others in a congested television compound at the Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando.

When you're stuck in one spot for a long time, a fair amount of that time is used in outward and internal reflection. Prior to Turner Sports' exit from Orlando, the two broadcasters established a strategy for a smooth departure to ensure that the correct infrastructure was broken down and crews would remain safe. A similar strategy was used internally when ESPN disconnected from Court 3 after games were concluded at that site.

We had a layered exit plan, so that, when Turner left, there was no disruption to how [cabling] was pulled out and how [sets] were struck, says Okuno. It was a clean break, but the most important part is that everybody is abiding by the rules, protocols, and safety measures. The bubble has created an incredible sense of safety and security that everybody needed during this very challenging time.

The broadcaster's NBA team is accustomed to constant travel and getting to different cities before executing a broadcast. Without games' being played in alternating arenas, the team had to deal with a situation more typical of international contests like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics.

A closeup look at ESPN's position outside the venue

While there are no headaches with travel, Okuno notes, two months is a long time to stay in one place. It's a huge sacrifice made by families and everybody to work pretty much every day in an unusual environment. It's more of an Olympic-style [production], but from an NBA perspective, we've never had to do that.

Dealing with a single location means dealing with a specific set of weather concerns. With the sports calendar flipped on its head, the entire postseason and upcoming Finals are being played in Florida during the heart of hurricane season. In the event of inclement weather and potential safety hazards to the crew, Okuno and company needed to take those possibilities into account.

We had to leave extra space within the compound if bad weather came through, he explains. All of this was planned in advance, but we would have to remove the truck tents if a Category 5 storm came by.

In retrospect, there might have been a few elements that would have provided an even smoother production from the beginning. Despite the various unknowns and unresolved questions, the ESPN operations team would be more aggressive with the technology if it had a second chance.

We already knew how to produce television, Okuno points out. We did have technology in mind, but, since everything went smoothly, it would've been nice to have played with a little bit more of some of those elements.

What's New: Team Upgrades Cameras to HFR, Tries Different Angles and Lenses At the height of hurricane season in Florida, extra spacing was provided at the compound at Wide World of Sports in case trucks had to be moved when inclement weather arrived.

As the last network left in Orlando, ESPN is implementing extra technologies to cover this year's championship series. After the departure of Turner Sports, NEP EN2 and EN3 are the two mobile production units outside the venue, and equipment congestion is no longer a factor inside. Some additions include new camera angles and a handful of cameras that had been used in previous rounds.

We've boosted a lot of our regular cameras to high frame rate for better clarity, says Okuno. We also had an opportunity to try out some new lenses.

Besides upgrading cameras to high frame rate, ESPN is experimenting with several new lenses during the Finals, including Canon's CJ20ex5B 4K UHD portable lens, which simultaneously extends both extremes of the focal range (a wide 5mm and a telephoto 100mm). The lens is being used for handheld shots under the basket, as well as in other handheld situations and on robos.

The lens came to the Finals soon after being evaluated on Monday Night Football in several configurations, including SkyCam and Steadicam.

The Greater NBA Family: ESPN Succeeds Through Collaboration With Turner Sports, Other Partners In 18 NBA Finals at ESPN, Okuno has never had to produce the completion of an NBA campaign under these circumstances. When there is no blueprint to follow or playbook to rely on, answers and solutions are found through ingenuity and assistance from those around you. After enduring the highs and lows that the NBA bubble has presented, all involved have helped ESPN get to tonight's Game 1.

I'm extremely proud of
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/09/30/nba-finals-espn-operations-team...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

15/04/2026

WIDOW: The Mission Software Defining Rotary Strike

Image courtesy of MD Helicopters...

15/04/2026

L3Harris Announces Billion Dollar Expansion to Boost Solid Rocket Motor Production in Orange County, Virginia

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, L3Harris VP Mark Farley, and state and local l...

15/04/2026

Advancing America's Space Defense: L3Harris Completes Critical Milestone on Way to Delivering GBOSS Capability to the Warfighter

U.S. Space Forces Ground-Based Optical Sensor System upgrade at the Maui Space S...

15/04/2026

Winter Olympics, Super Bowl Power NBCU-Versant to Gold Medal Performance in Nielsen's February Gauge Reports

NBCU-Versant notches 13.1% of TV viewing in February, its best since August 2024...

15/04/2026

Nielsen CMI shows New Zealand's over-65s are a growing, cashed-up and still-working audience brands can't ignore

New data reveals older Kiwis are financially resilient, loyal to local products,...

15/04/2026

Autocue to Mark 2026 NAB Show Debut of its New PTZ Prompter

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Locality Deploys Nielsen's Media Data Engine

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Viant Announces Agreement to Acquire TVision

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Evergent introduces Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platfor...

Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...

15/04/2026

CentralCast Delivers Breakthrough Efficiencies to Public...

Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...

15/04/2026

DPA N Series Wireless System Unlocks Duplex Gap and Guard...

LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...

15/04/2026

Cobalt Iron Launches Compass Tape Gateway Modernizing IBM...

Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...

15/04/2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More at NAB 2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More...

15/04/2026

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound. Apri...

15/04/2026

Panasonic, NEP Partner on IP-Based Live Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media Powers Global Cloud Transformatio...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...

15/04/2026

Viaccess-Orca Powers MasOranges Multi-Brand TV Expansion...

VO Integrates Client-Side and Server-Side Ad Technologies with its Secure Video Player and Segmentation Tools, Leveraging Broadpeak's SSAI and BPK SmartLib ...

15/04/2026

TMT Insights Unveils AI at NAB 2026

TMT Insights, a leader in professional services and software development for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, today announced the launch of TMT AI at...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure E...

Encompass Digital Media, a global leader in managed broadcast and cloud-based media services, today announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infrastr...

15/04/2026

Middleman Software Debuts PhaseLock Technology and Expand...

Middleman Software, a leading provider of signaling and synchronization solutions for broadcast and streaming workflows, today announced it will unveil PhaseLoc...

15/04/2026

Deity Announces PR-4 Compact Field Recorder

Deity Microphones today announced the PR-4, a compact six-track field recorder featuring four inputs, 32-bit float recording, advanced routing, and a workflow-f...

15/04/2026

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments Powerful software-based live audio mixer with support for SMPTE-2110...

15/04/2026

Haivision Launches Falkon X4 5G Transmitters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

JB&A Spotlights Exhibitors Ahead of Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wave Central, EVS Announce SMPTE ST 2110 Interop Collaboration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Top Reason for Subscribing to Pay TV Is Live News and TV, Survey Finds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

NAB Leadership Foundation Honors Outstanding Broadcasters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wisycom Expands MPR60 With New Multichannel IFB Mode

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Thomas Riedel Acquires Premium Manufacturer ARRI

Strategic Alignment With the Riedel Group for Innovation and Growth Thomas Riedel, founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group, has acqui...

15/04/2026

Iyuno Deploys SDVI Rally Platform to Accelerate and Scale...

SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company's Rally platform has been deployed by Iyuno Media...

15/04/2026

Frequency Leads the Industry in Live Local News on FAST

Frequency, the engine behind many of the worlds leading streaming television channels, has become the platform of choice for leading U.S. broadcasters bringing ...

15/04/2026

Harmonic Introduces Breakthrough AI Orchestration Service...

New Service Simplifies Integration of AI Applications with Exceptional Reliability and Security SAN JOSE, Calif. April 14, 2026 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) t...

15/04/2026

VIDI and Media Links Bring Scalable IP Transport to Germa...

During the 2025 off-season, VIDI completed a major upgrade of the broadcast infrastructure across all 36 stadiums in Germany's 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The p...

15/04/2026

Clear-Com Introduces Transformational Arcadia and Eclipse...

Clear-Com announced significant updates to its award-winning Arcadia Central Station as well as enhancements to the Eclipse HX Digital Matrix System now runn...

15/04/2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026 Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments New system removes PTZ pan restric...

15/04/2026

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File Workflow Integration

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File...

15/04/2026

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation Keefer Glenshaws latest project is about collaborating with the Berklee community and beyond. Apr...

15/04/2026

The Countdown Has Begun! Netflix Drops Trailer and Release Date for Second Season of 'Roosters'

Back to All News The Countdown Has Begun! Netflix Drops Trailer and Release Dat...

15/04/2026

Celebrating BEEF' Season 2 and Storytelling That Connects Cultures

Back to All News Celebrating BEEF' Season 2 and Storytelling That Connects Cultures From left to right: Matthew Kim, Jinny Howe, Lee Sung Jin, Seoyeon Ja...

15/04/2026

Made in New Jersey: Dan Levy's New Comedy Big Mistakes' Makes a Big Impact

Back to All News Made in New Jersey: Dan Levy's New Comedy Big Mistakes...

15/04/2026

LinkedIn's 2026 Grad's Guide shows where opportunity is...

LinkedIn's 2026 Grad's Guide shows where opportunity is growing Published on Apr 15, 2026 Categories: Company News, Data and insights LinkedIn Corp...

15/04/2026

Rethinking AI TCO: Why Cost per Token Is the Only Metric That Matters

Traditional data centers only stored, retrieved and processed data. In the generative and agentic AI era, these facilities have evolved into AI token factories....

15/04/2026

New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs

The NAB Show 2026 trade show, running April 18-22 in Las Vegas, is set to showcase a wave of new features and optimizations for top video editing applications. ...

14/04/2026

NAB 2026: Haivision Launches Falkon X4 5G Mobile Video Transmitter

Haivision has announced the Falkon X4, a 5G mobile video transmitter for live broadcast and remote production. The device will be showcased at NAB Show 2026. ...

14/04/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Stripe TVs Matthew Pavey on Making Live-Production Tech More Portable, Intuitive, and Accessible

Founded by veterans of the production-truck world, Stripe TV was born out of a d...

14/04/2026

Studio Berlin Adds LDX 135 and LDX 180 Camera Systems from Grass Valley

Grass Valley has expanded its partnership with Studio Berlin, supplying 12 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 12 LDX 180 Super 35mm cinematic cameras, including...

14/04/2026

LTN Appoints Mark Romano and Edward Cox to Vice President Roles

LTN has announced two senior appointments ahead of NAB Show 2026: Mark Romano as Vice President, Multichannel Platforms, and Edward Cox as Vice President, Sales...

14/04/2026

Agor and Sennheiser to Deploy Largest Spectera System to Date at Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Sennheiser and Italian rental company Agor have begun preparations for their Eu...

14/04/2026

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet Announce Prediction Market Partnership Ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced a partnership to integrate ADI Predict...

14/04/2026

Deltatre Completes Digital Platform for Serie A as Part of Four-Season Partnership

Deltatre has announced the completion of a direct-to-fan website and app for Leg...