NBA Summer League Once Again a Breeding Ground for Tech Innovation By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, July 19, 2024 - 2:55 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The temperature isn't the only thing heating up in Las Vegas this week during the annual NBA Summer League festivities; the level of technological innovation is sizzling as well. The league's basketball strategy and broadcast ops teams are collaborating on a bevy of experiments that aim to enhance the quality of gameplay, officiating, live production, and the viewing experience.
From a broadcast operations and engineering perspective, Summer League is an invaluable opportunity to try out new technologies and continue to evolve, says Barney Carleton, Senior Director, Broadcast Planning and Strategy. The best piece of the Summer League for us is the fact that not everything necessarily has to make it to air. That opportunity to do offline testing is something that's absolutely really critical to us. It enlightens us and provides us the opportunity to try new things that we can either hold on to or throw away. We can also go back to it in future seasons and continue to develop, iterate, and improve.
Summer League is a critical R&D lab for us for two main use cases, says Tom Ryan, VP, Basketball Strategy, NBA. The first is tactical in that it gives us some final reps and a chance to tune up before the upcoming season. And the second is experimental where we can throw out some new ideas that you might see in the NBA in 3-4 years. It's an amazing forum for experimentation because we have NBA-caliber buildings and there's a lot of games, so it just allows us to get a lot of data and a large sample size in a 10-day stretch, which is pretty unique.
From Vegas to Secaucus and beyond: The HSAN and the Cloud The league has rolled out two of its portable remote HSAN transmission kits - one for each arena in Vegas - and secured additional connectivity from Verizon to create a robust network to connect both the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas with the NBA Replay Center in Secaucus, NJ. This network not only serves the NBA's content creation and international-distribution needs, but it also provides a backbone for the plethora of tests taking place in Vegas.
The NBA is also working with MediaKind and a handful of other vendors to test JPEG XS encoding on the HSAN in an effort to enable more efficient video transmission and overall flexibility in the future.
As was the case last year in Vegas, the NBA continues to test out new cloud-production workflows for both alternate feeds and multi-language broadcasts. As part of this testing, the league is working with Microsoft Azure on running Evertz' DreamCatcher BRAVO production suite in the cloud.
We're really excited by the maturation that we've seen in cloud production when it comes to versioning and scaling up the quantity of feeds that we've been able to produce, as well as streamlining our distribution, says Carleton. This is a continuation from last year and we're taking another step this year that will give us more scalability and flexibility in the future.
The NBA is working with a number of other partners on cloud-based production workflows in Vegas, including Tagboard on their HTML5 graphics platform.
Next-Gen Viewing Experiences: Cosm, C360, and Quintar For the second consecutive year, Cosm (which inked a multi-year deal with the league last year to create 8K shared-reality experiences for fans) is in Vegas testing both immersive and VR capture systems.
We're working with Cosm on a number of different exciting experiences both in the broadcast space as well as some of these emerging markets, says Carleton. The goal of their testing is to look at some new camera angles and continue its development as it relates to creating the best possible user experience for basketball.
Cosm's C360 crew is also collaborating with the league on a proof-of-concept that integrates Hawkeye player tracking data into C360's CX Video Hub platform to create automatically-generated ISO shots.
It's early days so you may not see in the broadcast, but that continues to be of great interest to us here at the league, says Carleton. We view it as an opportunity to create more content and explore how we can use AI in conjunction with our player tracking data to create a better experience for fans.
The NBA is also collaborating with Quintar creating spatial video content for platforms like Apple Vision Pro.
We are working with them to just figure out new ways to create new types of content so that we can reach fans where they are, says Carleton. It's unclear if we'll be publishing any content from this event specifically, but it's an amazing opportunity to experiment and refine the way we can tell stories.
Working with ESPN: New cameras, Mics, and Data Visualizations ESPN continues to produce all of the Vegas summer league games (including broadcasts on NBA TV) this season, but for the first time, all game broadcasts from both the Thomas & Mack and Cox Pavilion are being produced back in Bristol, CT using REMI-production models.
ESPN and the NBA are testing new, smaller digital Q5X player mic transmitter/receiver systems that include various types of lavalier mic capsules and transmitters. In addition, ESPN and Riedel are working with the league on two-way in-game conversations with players similar to what viewers have seen in MLB coverage in recent years.
We continue to work really closely with ESPN on a lot of our testing initiatives and one of the key initiatives is finding opportunities to improve our player access opportunities, says Carleton. That includes getting better player sounds with the Q5X microphones and experimenting with two-way interv
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
NBA Summer League Once Again a Breeding Ground for Tech Innovation By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
