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.
Most recent headlines
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
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 
