Live From 2025 NBA All-Star Game Weekend: After 25 Years, Turner Sports All-In For Final Production Expanded production set to highlight new format with new angles By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 11:08 am
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For Chris Brown, WBD, VP of Technical Operations, and the rest of the Turner Sports production crew this year's NBA All-Star Game at the Chase Center in San Francisco weekend has some extra emotion to it given that it will be the last for the network, ending a run that began in 2003. And Turner Sports is looking to make sure the weekend's activities, which include broadcasts from the Chase Center of the Rising Stars last night, All-Star Saturday Night tonight, and the game tomorrow night, get the quality production they deserve and have always received.
Doug Haskin (left) and Chris Brown have worked together on the NBA All-Star Game Weekend since 2011.
It's about continuing to treat the event as a premier property for the NBA who are still our partners, says Brown. Production is charging hard at this event so that means the same core infrastructure we've always brought to this show but it has also continued to grow.
That core infrastructure is located along both sides of 16th Street which is located right next to the Chase Center. Production units on that street include NEP Supershooter CBS-A (handling Friday and Sunday Production and Graphics); CBS-B (Friday and Sunday audio and video); CBS-C (Friday and Sunday EVS replay); and CBS-D (flex and storage). All-Star Saturday Night, meanwhile, will be produced out of NEP Supershooter 4's A unit with the B unit handling EVS operations, and C in the flex/storage role. Other trucks on site include NEP Supershooter 5 and ST5 for studio operations; Supershooter 6 for NBA Entertainment needs; NEP ND-2 A, B, C, and D for transmission and shared resources; Mobile TV Group's 46 Flex for World Feed operations; CCR for NBA Entertainment audio mix; and LMG's MU-15 and MU-16 for NBA-TV. NEP's NCP11 was also on hand on Thursday Night when the NBA on TNT Show was staged at Pier 48.
NEP has a number of production units on site at the Chase Center in support of Turner Sports' efforts at NBA All-Star Weekend.
As for cameras, nearly 35 cameras will be deployed in the Chase Center, including 13 super slo-mo cameras as well as a Nucleus camera located in the base of each basket stanchion.
Those are 4K and have pan-and-scan and it should be great to see how those look for things like the slam dunk contest which should be pretty amazing, adds Brown.
The All-Star Game on Sunday this year will feature a new format designed to get more competitive spirit. This year's format will feature four teams playing three games total. There will be no game clock or quarters and the first team to 40 wins each game. The final will feature the two winners of the first two game. It is, in some ways, similar to what the NHL is also doing this week with its Four Nations tournament (four teams playing three full games) in lieu of an actual NHL All-Star Game.
We're excited about it, says Brown. Our production team sat with the NBA, trying to work together with them on the format and hopefully it drums up a little more excitement this time around.
The whole weekend, of course, is designed to drum up excitement and that especially includes All-Star Saturday Night. Last year in Indianapolis the All-Star Saturday Night was played at Lucas Oil Stadium which gave the NBA a chance to experiment with a state-of-the-art full video LED court developed by ASB GlassFloor. Given that all of this weekend's action is taking place at Chase Center the floor won't be back, but other innovations will. Exhibit A is the Enlouva Crane which will be making its return after a two-year absence.
That was a piece that was missing from our production and we always wanted to bring it back, says Brown. But we didn't have the space for it last year and also the court was raised off the ground which made it difficult. Again, we just took the cue from production and brought it back.
Also coming back is the Mindfly bodycam POV camera for both a TBD player during practices and a referee during game play.
We're super excited to have that back and they'll get some cool use out of those, says Brown.
And another returning element is a wireless super-slo-mo Steadicam for the slam dunk contest and a another super slo-mo camera position on the right side of the foul line extended is making the leap from being a robotic camera to a hard camera.
There's going to be some really good images from that camera, so we are looking forward to that, adds Brown.
The NBA All-Star Game is also very much a collaboration with the NBA and the league this year is rolling out a Jita Agito remote controlled car with a Sony P50 and Canon wide angle lens on it for or All-Star Saturday Night. The operator sits courtside, controlling the car on the court so it can capture unique angles during player introductions but also during events like the skills competition.
It's free roaming, unlike things like a rail cam that can only go back and forth, says Brown. It'll be an exciting addition.
Other enhancements include robotic cameras above the rims, three-times robos behind the glass, a robo with ultra-wide lens for beauty shots, robos in hallway outside locker rooms, robos on the benches, and a Dreamchip PTZ at the announcer and host tables. Also look for a second RF Steadicam with a C-300 for shallow depth of field, a Sony 4800 with shallow depth of field and eight times recording, and aerials from Wingedvision.
As for audio look for the largest deployment of a new player mic transmitter from Q5X: the XD25 PlayerMic X.
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