Nashville Predators' Bridgestone Arena Has a New Broadcast Infrastructure The downtown Nashville mainstay is finally fully recovered from a devastating flood in 2022 By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Black Friday 2022 was indeed a dark day. When a water-main break flooded downtown Nashville, millions of gallons of water poured through Bridgestone Arena, home to the NHL Predators, at around 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. The venue suffered millions of dollars in damage and had to postpone games for three days because of water 3 ft. deep in some areas, including the broadcast-control rooms.
The hockey resumed quickly, thanks to a herculean effort by the arena's staff and more than a dozen agencies and service providers, but full recovery took more than a year. A month into the new NHL season, the Bridgestone and the Preds have a reconstructed media infrastructure.
Bridgestone Arena's Jacob Lutz: We launched our new control room in the middle of a season. Over the summer, we dialed everything in closely, to make the facility what it can be.
The control room went down Black Friday of 2022, recalls Jacob Lutz, director, tech operations, Bridgestone Arena. We [produced] hockey three days later out of the small TNDV Red truck. Then we brought in Lyon-17 video truck on the first of December and used that until the 2023 CMA Awards in November 2023. It would've been almost a whole year under those circumstances. Right after the CMA Awards, we had a two-week period to finish the final commissioning and get online. We played hockey and used our new control room that first game the Saturday after CMA Awards. We pretty much worked through the night, got the room up, got it going, and haven't looked back since.
Said Predators CEO Sean Henry at the time, It would have been easy to shut the building down for 20, 30, 40, 50 days. Relocate the games. Work a deal with another city. Temporarily cancel or postpone concerts.
Instead, the production team decided to press on through the disaster. This season marks the first time the team is using the new broadcast infrastructure after it has been fully tweaked and fine-tuned.
We launched our new control room in the middle of a season, which is unheard of. Over the summer, we dialed everything in closely, to make the room all it can be, make the facility what it can be, Lutz says, noting that this was done even as some key staff positions changed, including the addition of VP of Game Presentation and Video Production, Dan Clark, Lutz's counterpart on the creative side. It was the first time an NHL team and venue had ever been taken out suddenly since it happened in Calgary some years ago. Even though we did get back up and running quickly, the full recovery has taken until now.
(A flood in June 2013 that ravaged parts of Southern Alberta inundated the Calgary Flames' Scotiabank Saddledome. The venue's event level was completely flooded, as was the control room for the video-replay screen, but the broadcast infrastructure was left largely intact. The timing gave the venue and team several months to recover before the start of the 2013 NHL season.)
Updates, Technology and Otherwise Restoring the infrastructure included adding a DiGiCo Quantum338 front-of-house audio console, which also feeds the game broadcasts, as well as new video displays around the arena concourse. Among other new gear are a Ross FR12 Ultrix Acuity switcher and a Riedel Artist 1024-frame comms system with MADI- and AES67-conversion capability.
Also new is a strengthened disaster-response plan for the venue, which sits five blocks from the Cumberland River, whose devastating 2011 flood cost an estimated $2 billion in reconstruction.
A water-main break in 2022 flooded parts of Bridgestone Arena, causing millions of dollars' worth of damages.
We did a number of key improvements and modifications to the space, Lutz explains. We raised the flooring system in a way that, if we have another a hundred-year flood, there's now a drainage pathway. Our control room is still on ground level; in most arenas, it's on the top floor. In 2010, the water came up from below, being so close to a river. You can't prepare for everything, obviously, but there's a lot that you can prepare for. Especially with everything that's going on in the Carolinas right now, it's timely having disaster-recovery plans and having everything ready for when you do have that dark midnight hour.
We're right at the corner of one of the busiest streets in the U.S., he continues. We're not moving, so it's all about how we make the best of the space that we have and improve it. That's the name of the game that we're in right now.
North America Stories
08/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Technology Exhibits Preview, Part 1By SVG Staff
Monday, December 8, 2025 - 6:56 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2025...
08/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Bill Rasmussen, the Entrepreneur Who Drea...
08/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Live Production Innovation Workshop Goes Deep on ST 211...
08/12/2025
#GALSNGEAR Announces East, West Leadership Retreats for 2026By Ken Kerschbaumer
Monday, December 8, 2025 - 9:10 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story High...
08/12/2025
MediaKind Acquiring Harmonic's Video Business to Create New Streaming-Video ...
08/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Sony HDR/SDR Camera Shading Techniques for Live Production...
08/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: NESN's Kenny Elcock and Harmonic's Jean Macher Talk Next-G...
08/12/2025
Monsters Funday Football,' ESPN's Latest Live Animation Effort, Advances...
08/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ESPN Director Jeff Nelson on Calling the (Animated) Action on Mon...
08/12/2025
Monsters Funday Football': Louisiana Philharmonic Delivers Again With Orches...
08/12/2025
Nielsen's robust data offering enables marketers to connect with their target audience more effectively and drive better results throughout Amazon's adv...
08/12/2025
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK Paramount has launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with an all-cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstandin...
08/12/2025
EMERYVILLE, Calif. Media and entertainment technology and services provider Advanced Systems Group has named Macky Beheshti as director, enterprise storage and ...
08/12/2025
DENVER MediaKind, a global provider of cloud-based video streaming technology announced today that it is acquiring the video business of Harmonic Inc. for appro...
08/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsen has announced that its Audience Segments from Nielsen Marketing Cloud (NMC) are now available across the Amazon Ads marketplace, including the ...
08/12/2025
Marshall Electronics showcases the CV355-27X-ND3 Optical Zoom NDI (NDI HX2, NDI HX3) Camera at ISE 2026 (Booth 4N900). Designed for users seeking high-quality ...
08/12/2025
Cinnafilm today announced the immediate availability of IPx LIVE and Tachyon LIVE, delivering broadcast-grade, real-time IP video transcoding and motion-compens...
08/12/2025
Following a successful 45th anniversary year in 2024, Hiltron reports increasing demand for its wide range of satellite communication equipment manufacturing, p...
08/12/2025
When was the last time you updated your default playlist(s)? A default playlist keeps your station(s) on the air should your team ever miss a step in sending mu...
08/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix ISP Speed Index for November 2025
Product
08 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
This month marks 15 years of the Netfl...
08/12/2025
Back to All News
Another Exciting Chapter in Our Book-to-Screen Journey and What's to Come
Entertainment
08 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboa...
07/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Takes Over the Oslo Skyline With Celebratory Troll 2 L...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public commen...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
Nashville Predators' Bridgestone Arena Has a New Broadcast Infrastructure The downtown Nashville mainstay is finally fully recovered from a devastating flood in 2022 By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
