As far as Joseph Maar is concerned, he doesn't work for a regional sports network. Not in the traditional - or technological - sense anyway. The VP of programming and production for New England Sports Network notes that it's hard to tell the difference between his regional productions and a full-blown national one.
NESN's broadcast of the Boston Bruins' season opener against the Tampa Bay Lighting was the second-most-watched Bruins opener in network history.
Nowhere is that more evident than in NESN's newest mobile-production truck for Boston Bruins broadcasts. Provided by Game Creek Video, the multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art, double-expando trailer - which made its debut during the Bruins' season opener at TD Garden on Oct. 3 - opens doors to a bevy of new opportunities that have already taken Bruins hockey on TV to a new level.
A new arsenal of cameras, seemingly unlimited slow-motion capabilities, a top-notch replay infrastructure, and enhanced audio capabilities all make NESN's hockey coverage the continued envy of the league.
We wanted to take what the national networks are doing and bring that technology to the regional level, especially with NESN doing shows that are fairly advanced and sophisticated in terms of number of equipment and quality of signal, says Maar, who joined NESN in the summer of 2012 following a career at Fox Sports North and ESPN. To be able to take what is normally done for a Super Bowl production and start doing that on the regional level is pretty phenomenal.
Picture Sharp as Skates
NESN's Bruins broadcasts are a 1080p show, one of the many RSN rarities that NESN treats as the norm. For a Bruins home game, 18 cameras cover TD Garden, many of them new Sony HDC-2500L units.
On most nights, NESN can access as many as 22 or 23 cameras because the new Game Creek truck possesses interconnectibility that allows multiple feeds to be shared with the visiting broadcaster's truck.
NESN is using a new Game Creek Video mobile-production unit for Bruins games at TD Garden.
We don't have to care what flavor of HD it is or what frame rate something's at, says Maar. The ability to mix and match that pretty quickly is important, and that's what this truck is set up to do.
Inside the truck, the producer/director team of Brian Zechello and Rose Mirakian use a brand-new scalable video-monitor wall that has the ability to display up to 144 images.
Never Enough Replay
Perhaps the biggest workflow change for the NESN crew is wildly increased replay-recording capability. A sophisticated network of nine six-channel EVS devices (including SpotBox) connected with NESN's Watertown, MA, studios gives NESN the ability to record and use up to 18 replay angles at all times.
Research that we have [indicates] that, for NHL fans, there's no time that you can't replay a goal, says Maar. In the third period, you can show a goal from back in the first period, and they still want to see it, and they want to see every possible angle of that goal. Before, we had to parse our resources and say, What's going to happen here, I'm only going to to record these things. Now we've got the ability to really expand that.
A scalable, sideways monitor wall allows Bruins director Rose Mirakian to view up to 144 images at a time.
In NESN's current setup, the Sony HDC-3300R serves as Mirakian's slo-mo camera to access. The new production setup also offers her a lot of creative freedom throughout the season when deploying the camera.
[Rose] is looking forward to moving it around, says Maar. The way this technology works will give her the freedom and the ability to say, This worked well with this opponent, but, when we're going against Toronto, we may want to change what that super-slo-mo look is, based on how they play their game. With a team that's more defensive on the ice, you're going to position your super-slo-mo camera differently than if it's a team that's much more about offense.
Maar and Game Creek Video President Pat Sullivan suggest that a yet-to-be-announced slo-mo camera will take the place of the 3300 come spring. They would not, however, disclose which camera that will be.
During a broadcast, Mirakian can use many of the 2500 cameras, which are slo-mo-capable as well.
Given the quality of the image of the 2500, to a fan, it's very difficult to see the difference between the 2500 at 2X versus the 3300 at 3X, says Sullivan. There's a lot of flexibility for [Rose] to basically pick whatever camera she wants. She doesn't even have to commit to that for the whole game; she can change to whatever she wants. It's simply assigning it to the correct EVS.
Sounds of the Game
Bruins games on NESN are produced in 5.1 surround sound, yet another RSN rarity.
A total of 20 microphones are positioned throughout TD Garden to help give NESN telecasts an elite audio production. A Calrec Artemis console (64 faders, 96 96 AES, 128 28 analog, 12 12 MADI) is at the center of it all inside the Game Creek truck.
NESN hosts its pregame, between-periods, and postgame coverage from a set inside a luxury box at TD Garden.
NESN has also revamped its internal-communications system, deploying five wireless IFB/mic combos, which enable more people in the arena and in the truck to communicate with each other. An RTS ADAM intercom (160 Analog ports, 16 RVON channels, 64 MADI channels) pull together 12 wet PLs, 16 wet IFBs.
On-Air, On-Ice Talent Boost Ratings
In Boston, the Bruins are already a popular product, but, thanks to last season's Stanley Cup Finals, NESN is pulling in record ratings. NESN will deliver local coverage of 71 Bruins games during the 2013-14 season, which began with the Oct. 3 home opener against Tampa Bay, the second-highest-rated regular-seaso
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
As far as Joseph Maar is concerned, he doesn't work for a regional sports network. Not in the traditional - or technological - sense anyway. The VP of programming and production for New England Sports Network notes that it's hard to tell the difference between his regional productions and a full-blown national one.
