Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live From NBA All-Star: New Game Format Gives New Energy to Turner Sports Efforts

16/02/2020

Live From NBA All-Star: New Game Format Gives New Energy to Turner Sports Efforts Fourth quarter will be a tribute to Kobe Bryant By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Sunday, February 16, 2020 - 9:43 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

The NBA All-Star Weekend at United Center in Chicago concludes tonight with the main event: the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. And it will be a game unlike any other basketball game ever because the final quarter will be a race to a target score that is 24 points higher than the leading score after the third quarter. It's all part of a tribute to NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who died three weeks ago in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles.

The new format absolutely has an impact on the production, and the devil in in the details, says Chris Brown, VP, operations and technology, Turner Sports. It puts a whole new spin on scoring, the stats feed, and how we manage the scorebug. Everything had to be redesigned because we will not be displaying a clock for the last quarter.

Chris Brown and the rest of the Turner Sports team are looking forward to a new format tonight that will honor NBA legend Kobe Bryant.

Besides the absence of a game clock counting down the seconds until the end of the game (a shot clock will be in use), there will also be no commercials.

The hope is that, by eliminating the game clock, there is a chance for a team that is down by 20 points as they don't have to race the clock, says Brown. They can slow the game down and execute to make shots. The coverage philosophy stays the same, but it will be a more interesting story to tell as there are a lot of unknowns.

A traditional scorebug will have the current score and shot clock, but, during the fourth quarter, a scorebug in the upper right will show the race to the target score, so viewers know how close the teams are to hitting it.

Tech Showcase

The NBA All-Star Game is a great place to showcase things that have gone through an extensive vetting process, Brown says. We hope to bring things in here, and then, by next season or the playoffs, everyone is comfortable with it, so we can put it to use during a real game. It's really the last step in the vetting process for players and coaches; the Summer League is the first step in real-world testing.

New production elements for the weekend include NBA on TNT studio analyst Shaquille O'Neal sitting courtside with a 5G camera phone.

We've been working with LiveU and AT&T to provide those phones so that Shaq can do commentary courtside that is sent through the 5G network, says Brown. We did a lot of playing with it to optimize the picture quality.

The virtual shot clock, provided by Vizrt, makes its All-Star game debut tonight, its biggest stage to date. The virtual clock debuted earlier this year during the regular season and makes the clock appear to be built into the surface of the court.

The compound at 2020 NBA All-Star Game Weekend at The United Center in Chicago

The feedback has been positive, and people want to see it out there, says Brown. We hope it becomes a staple of our coverage and something people expect to see.

The Turner team will also work with CP Communications on Bluetooth IFB units to enable the announce team to talk to talent seated on the bench. Look for it to be used tonight during warmups.

We're looking forward to seeing how those work for us, says Brown.

Team Effort

On hand for the weekend's festivities is 300+-member Turner Sports crew, along with teams from numerous technology and production partners. NEP EN1 A, B, C, and E units will be at the center of tonight's coverage, having produced Friday's Celebrity Game and Rising Stars Game; Supershooter 24 A, B, and C units handled NBA All-Star Saturday Night.

We like having Supershooter 24 here for Saturday night as we needed more edit space this year, says Brown. THUMBWAR this year is providing those nine edit suites as well as four Adobe After Effects systems and a 5.1-surround-sound ProTools audio-editing system.

The entertainment portion of NBA All-Star Game is another important element of both the pregame and halftime shows, and NEP Supershooter 16 will be used for that show.

The Image-Cam courtside jib is an NBA All-Star Weekend staple.

The NBA All-Star Game was last in Chicago in 1988, when hometown hero and NBA legend Michael Jordan won the slam-dunk contest and was MVP of the game. That game was played at Chicago Stadium, which was torn down in 1994. The Bulls and Blackhawks subsequently moved to a new home: the United Center, which is where this year's events are taking place.

It is an older building, Brown points out. In an environment like this, there is a lack of fiber in the building, and we needed to bring in Bexel to run the fiber and headends. It's historic, but those buildings bring their own challenges. We've been working with NBA Entertainment and the rigging folks to make this work in a very confined space.

Bexel handled fiber and cabling at Wintrust Arena, where the NBA All-Star practice and media event took place, as well as camera sheds and Ross Xpression systems at both locations. It also provided player mics for tonight's game, super slo-mo cameras with EVS units, and an IPTV system at the United Center.

A Fletcher robotic in the main camera gantry at NBA All-Star.

Other key partners for the event include Program Productions for crewing; Lyon Video for NBA TV; and AVS for RF Steadicam, RF handheld, and RF POV for the game, Skills, and House of Blues. Fletcher is also on hand with three Sony P1 robotic cameras and Sony P50 super-slo-mo cameras located above the rims. Image-Cam, meanwhile, provides a key jib camera used for the entertainment show and game coverage.

Expanded Studio Shows, Digital Presence

Turner Sports expanded its studio-
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/02/16/live-from-nba-all-star-new-game...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

03/09/2026

Yospace releases new Ad Presentation solution, unlocking revenue opportunities with non-linear ad formats

Yospace will be at IBC from 11th - 14th September (booth 5.C78). For more inform...

03/09/2026

Creative Technology Group Announces Leadership Transition Effective January 2027

NEP Group has announced leadership changes at Creative Technology Group. Founder and CEO Graham Andrews will step away from day-to-day leadership at the end of ...

03/09/2026

NFL and TikTok Renew Multi-Year Partnership

The NFL and TikTok have announced a multi-year partnership renewal expanding the league's presence on the platform. NFL posts on TikTok increased more than ...

03/09/2026

Grass Valley Appoints Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras

Grass Valley has appointed Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras. Van Geel began his career in 1999 at Philips DVS and moved into product management in 2005...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream to Preview Vantage Super Resolution

Telestream has announced Vantage Super Resolution, an AI-powered upscaling capability for the Vantage media workflow platform, developed in collaboration with N...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Solid State Logic TCA Tour

Solid State Logic (SSL) will debut the TCA Tour at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand 8.B45), a portable production system built from System T components in a desktop frame...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: DPA Microphones Launches 6388 CORE+ Headset Microphone

DPA Microphones has announced the 6388 CORE Headset Microphone, making its debut at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand D60). The supercardioid headset features a physicall...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Qvest to Demonstrate Multi-Vendor Dynamic Media Facility Showcase

Qvest will present a multi-vendor Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) showcase at IBC2026 (Booth 10.C24), demonstrating how the EBU's DMF architecture can be imple...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Imagine Communications Debuts Magellan PanelFlex

Imagine Communications will showcase the Magellan PanelFlex control surface and other control portfolio updates at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, Septembe...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Bridge Technologies Launches Software-Based VB440 Deployment Option

Bridge Technologies will announce at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71) that its VB440 production probe is now available as a software-based solution, deployable on commerci...

03/09/2026

Audio-Technica Launches BP350ST Mid-Side Stereo Microphone in Two Variants

Audio-Technica has unveiled the BP350ST MS (mid-side) microphone in two versions: the camera-mount BP350ST-UL and the boundary or gooseneck-mountable BP350ST-UB...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Jnger Audio flexAI Adds CastCompanion, 12G-SDI, NDI, and TVU MediaMesh Integration

Telos Alliance will introduce updates to the J nger Audio flexAI audio processin...

03/09/2026

DUNKMAN to Expand in 2027 with Team Competitions, Junior Division, and Global Qualifiers

DUNKMAN, the professional dunk league founded by Shaquille O'Neal in partner...

03/09/2026

Orlando Magic Tap DAZN as DTC Streaming Partner, Will Join OTA Distribution Plans for 2026-27 Season

Orlando's WRDQ TV 27, WFTV Channel 9 previously named over-the-air broadcast...

03/09/2026

EverPass Media Expands NFL Agreement with Netflix for Commercial Venues

EverPass Media has announced a multi-year commercial distribution agreement with Netflix, expanding on an existing partnership that has delivered NFL Christmas ...

03/09/2026

Yahoo Sports and Apple TV Partner on MLB and MLS Alternate Broadcasts

Yahoo Sports and Apple TV have announced a partnership to deliver alternate broadcasts of select Friday Night Baseball and MLS games on the Yahoo Sports website...

03/09/2026

BIG EAST's Scott Hecht on the Evolution of Campus Production and What Comes Next

With another academic year underway, college athletic departments across the cou...

03/09/2026

ESPN Debuts Revamped, Cutting-Edge Studio W in Bristol as New Home to NFL Live, College Football, and More

Facility becomes permanent home of NFL Live on Sept. 9; centerpiece studio for c...

03/09/2026

Anthony Marinelli launches Bass DNA course

Create musical synth bass sounds from scratch Anthony Marinelli Music have recently announced the launch of Bass DNA, a new online course that teaches music...

03/09/2026

IK Multimedia unveil the Tonex Board

Most powerful Tonex hardware to date IK Multimedia's latest release introduces their most advanced Tonex hardware unit to date, combining their AI Machi...

03/09/2026

Penteo Audio Plugins announce Penteo 8

Upmix & downmix software upgraded Penteo Audio Plugins have announced that the latest version of their powerful upmix and downmix software is now available....

03/09/2026

Young talents begin their training at SGL Carbon in Germany

With the start of the new apprenticeship year, young talent has once again begun their professional careers at SGL Carbon's sites in Germany. Recently, the ...

03/09/2026

Calrec advances EBU's Dynamic Media Facility vision at IBC 2026

With the industry increasingly embracing hybrid, software-defined production models, Calrec will preview a series of Argo and ImPulseV software enhancements at ...

03/09/2026

NAB Backs Most Proposed EAS Changes at FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

TiVo Expands FAST Channels, AI Discovery with Latest OS Update

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Eluvio Advances Content Fabric, AI at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Haivision Adds Bonded 5G Cellular Support to Makito ONE

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Alex Pannell Joins Gravity Media as Chief Business Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

AI-Media To Feature Multilingual AI Developments At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Tuxera and ATTO collaborate to deliver blistering macOS n...

Recognizing the ever-increasing demands for media throughput in challenging environments like post-production, two leaders in network technology have worked tog...

03/09/2026

EVS and Matrox Video Join Forces to Accelerate Dynamic Me...

EVS, a leader in live video technology and production infrastructure solutions, and Matrox Video, a leader in software-defined media technology and IP-based vid...

03/09/2026

AJA Debuts OG-FiDO-4 openGear Four-Channel SDI/Fiber Conversion Cards

AJA Debuts OG-FiDO-4 openGear Four-Channel SDI/Fiber Conversion Cards Brie Clayton September 3, 2026 0 Comments New product family expands 12G-SDI and...

03/09/2026

Nice Touch launches V2 of its AI edit assistant for professional editors

Nice Touch launches V2 of its AI edit assistant for professional editors Brie Clayton September 3, 2026 0 Comments Built by two editors with twelve ye...

03/09/2026

Accedo and MediaKind Launch End-to-End Streaming Solution...

Accedo, a global provider of video streaming software and services, and MediaKind, a world-leading video technology company and the number one independent provi...

03/09/2026

14 Percent of live sports viewers have considered switchi...

International research from Big Blue Marble puts a consumer churn number against a technical failure, and sets out what streaming providers must fix before 2030...

03/09/2026

Broadpeak expands CDNaaS for streaming at scale with new...

High-performance points of presence power video streaming delivery to large audiences across Latin America with guaranteed quality of experience Broadpeak , a ...

03/09/2026

Dalia Delivers New Agentic Workflows Changing How Media W...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, will unveil the next evolution of Dalia at IBC2026 (7.A43), its media-aware agent...

03/09/2026

CGI showcases AI-assisted newsroom and radio workflows pa...

CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the world's largest independent IT and business consulting services firms, will showcase CGI OpenMedia Evolve and CGI d...

03/09/2026

LiveU Joins IBC Accelerator Smart Stories Consortium to D...

LiveU is participating in the IBC Accelerator Incubator 2026: Smart Stories The New Knowledge Architecture for Content Production, an industry-wide initiative...

03/09/2026

Christer Palsson brings global experience to Broadcast So...

Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, has taken another major step in its...

03/09/2026

Quortex brings AI and IP transition into focus at IBC 202...

Quortex today announced that it will showcase how it is accelerating innovation and the transition to IP at IBC 2026. The company will debut its newest intellig...

03/09/2026

Grass Valley Names Ronny Van Geel Vice President Of Cameras

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

VisualOn and EZDRM Enable Visualization of C2PA Provenanc...

The EZDRM approach to Revenue Security on streaming video can be visualized as a multi-dimensional set of solutions. A growing dimension of that approach is the...

03/09/2026

Kiloview Brings Hybrid AV-over-IP to Life at IBC 2026 wit...

From field capture to management, control and production, Kiloview will demonstrate one connected Hybrid AV-over-IP workflow including a complete 4RU producti...

03/09/2026

Mediagenix Curation Unlocks Greater Catalog Value Through...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced Mediagenix Curation, a new...

03/09/2026

LucidLink brings distributed media into active workflows...

LucidLink, the Emmy-winning cloud-native file streaming platform for instant, secure access to large files, today announced the next step in its vision to make ...

03/09/2026

Fraudulent communications purportedly from Screen Australia

Fraudulent communications purportedly from Screen Australia 3 September 2026 Screen Australia is aware of scam attempts involving fake emails and promotional m...