On the Hardwood: Minnesota Timberwolves Feature On-Court Media Day With Drone Flyover at Target Center Even without fans onsite, game-day experience offers usual intro video, mascot antics By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Friday, January 22, 2021 - 9:17 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The doldrums of 2020 may be in the past, but 2021 is still presenting challenges to in-venue production teams. Now out of the Orlando bubble, NBA organizations are hosting games in their home arenas and navigating the continuing difficulties of the pandemic. Like SVG's At the Ballpark and On the Gridiron series, On the Hardwood will take a look the hardships, creative ideas, and teamwork of NBA franchises.
Basketball fans around the country were already excited about the 2020-21 regular season, but, 24 hours before tipoff, anticipation increased for Minnesota Timberwolves supporters when the franchise released a cinematic drone flyover of the interior and exterior of Target Center. As one of the video's highlights, the production team conducted a new version of its Media Day, which has become a microcosm of in-venue operations this year.
Media Day was really strange this year, says Alyse Danikowski, manager, game presentation, Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. We usually have a whole round-robin with local and national media there, but, this year, it was just our in-house team.
MORE ON THE HARDWOOD INTERVIEWS:
After Assisting Fox Sports Sun, Miami Heat Retrofit Control Room for Games in AmericanAirlines Arena
Denver Nuggets Repurpose RSN Broadcast With Some In-Venue Flavor
Atlanta Hawks Honor Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in First of Season-Long Unity Nights'
Player-Generated Content: Inside the Timberwolves' Preseason Media Day Prior to the start of the regular season, the production crew put in a lot of energy and effort putting Media Day together. In prior years, each player and a team representative would meet with each national and local media outlet for about 10 minutes. With the external organizations kept away from the venue by the COVID-19 pandemic, Danikowski's in-venue team and other departments collaborated on a safe yet efficient plan.
Inside the Minnesota Timberwolves control room
We had four total stations: two on the court for some intro videos with dramatic lighting, another with a green-screen station, and one with a gray screen for interviews, she says. Our RSN [Fox Sports North] had a station as well as two photo stations and a couple of Zoom stations that no one manned.
Other than the players, only 15 people at a time were allowed inside Target Center. Throughout the two-hour period, the Timberwolves' production staff coordinated with the players when they had free time after practice. Since personnel within the organization are all tested and abiding by safety protocols, the staffers were able to direct each player as to what station to go to next. Since this operation had some new workflows and elements, the crew wanted to make sure that they grabbed what they needed while they had premium access to the players.
At the end of Media Day, you're always asking, Did I get what I needed?' but it was even more so this year, says Danikowski. Even though it was definitely different, it went pretty smoothly.
Maintaining Energy: In-Venue Show Includes Intro Video, Pregame Light Show Since fans aren't experiencing the game in person this season, many production crews are forgoing the traditional videoboard show and game-day experience. This isn't the case in Minnesota: the team is opting to continue elaborate pregame festivities. Even so, the staff is adjusting the run of show to omit content that would be geared toward patrons onsite.
Mixers provide fake crowd noise at Target Center.
We're pumping in music since we still want to create that home-court advantage, Danikowski explains. We're also producing our intro sequence with a video and lights, but we're not necessarily running the different player features or the Military Member of the Game that we usually would.
The team is having some fun with the empty arena, including humor that features Crunch the Wolf. The goal is to fire up the players with some of the stimuli they're accustomed to.
We don't have the fans necessarily cheering along with our videoboard prompts, notes Danikowski, but we want to keep the energy high for the guys on the court. We're still getting used to the [fake] crowd noise in terms of keeping it realistic, but it has been interesting to find that balance when you're the one actually controlling it.
Connecting the Lynx: WNBA Bubble Gives Much-Needed Practice Minnesota Timberwolves' Alyse Danikowski in front of the videoboard during the season opener vs. the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 23
Preparations for the 2020-21 NBA season began months ago during the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, FL. Working with the four-time-champion Minnesota Lynx, Danikowski and company showcased their creativity with content shown in the confined space during the three-month Wubble.
They had a couple of screens for sponsorship and corporate partners, but we created an intro video, various noise prompts, and Lynx Win' graphics, she says. We also produced pregame shows for these games on our website, Twitter, and Facebook that presented player and coach interviews as well as player features.
This content allowed the team to take a different approach and become a little more comfortable with what has become the standard over the past 10 months.
Getting that sort of experience was a good way to build up to the Wolves' season, Danikowski adds. We were able to get into that headspace of bringing this entertainment to a fan-less arena and engaging our fans that are at home. A lot of other teams
North America Stories
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
12/11/2026
Ben Winston, Glenn Weiss, and FIFA's Jenni-Lee Van Gelder headlined a day fo...
12/11/2026
Free interactive platform visualizes team tendencies, formations, and schemes, updated weekly...
12/11/2026
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Jablonski's broadcasting career is...
12/11/2026
Gracenote's 2026 State of Play report signals a rising retention risk: More ...
On the Hardwood: Minnesota Timberwolves Feature On-Court Media Day With Drone Flyover at Target Center Even without fans onsite, game-day experience offers usual intro video, mascot antics By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
