Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Behind the Scenes of ESPN's Graphics-Laden Marvel's Arena of Heroes' Alternative NBA Broadcast

04/05/2021

Behind the Scenes of ESPN's Graphics-Laden Marvel's Arena of Heroes' Alternative NBA Broadcast Unlike past ESPN efforts, this was a standalone production with dedicated truck and crew By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor

Tuesday, May 4, 2021 - 3:34 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Last night, in an effort to bring new audiences to its NBA broadcasts, ESPN debuted its first-ever Marvel-themed alternative presentation during the Golden State Warriors-New Orleans Pelicans game. The broadcast featured Marvel-themed 3D virtual characters, custom graphics and animation packages, and a custom-designed Avengers-esque studio set at its Bristol, CT, headquarters, where a dedicated team of announcers called the Marvel's Arena of Heroes presentation.

ESPN's Creative Studio group produced the Marvel Arena of Heroes graphics package.

The Marvel-centric broadcast - carried on ESPN2, ESPN+, and ESPN Deportes alongside the traditional broadcast on ESPN - follows ESPN's MegaCast efforts and marks its latest attempt to appeal to demos outside the traditional sports fanbase. However, unlike most of the past efforts, the Marvel's Arena of Heroes NBA show was a full side-by-side production alongside the main broadcast production, with its own truck and crew onsite at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

ESPN transformed Studio Z into a Marvel-themed set for the broadcast.

This is a bit of a departure from [ESPN's MegaCast and other alternative presentations]: as big a show as the main telecast vs. what we normally would do with MegaCast and other [alternative presentations], which is to add to the existing resources and present it in a different way, ESPN Senior Coordinating Producer Ed Placey said before last night's game. This is a true side-by-side production, so it's a very different undertaking and required a very different mindset.

The Narrative: Avengers Seek New Members Via Marvel Hero Points' System At the top of the broadcast, ESPN's pregame show set the scene from the Marvel-themed set in Bristol: the Avengers are looking to recruit a new member for their team from the NBA elite and are observing the battle between the Warriors and the Pelicans, focusing on three star players from each team (the Warriors' Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins and the Pelicans' Zion Williamson, Grandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball).

Each of these players gained Marvel Hero points during the game (based on points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, as well as missed field goals, free throws, or turnovers plus 10 points for the winning team), and the player with the most Marvel Hero points - which ended up being Draymond Green - was crowned Marvel's first Champion.

ESPN's Creative Studio group created the look and feel of the broadcast, working alongside the Marvel Creative Team and technology providers SMT, Second Spectrum, and Girraphic. Among the highlights were comic-book-style insert graphics and scorebug; player- and shot-tracking graphics; Marvel-themed animations overlaid on the basket at each made field goal; and other augmented-reality elements, including a viewing deck above the floor where the Avengers (as 3D virtual renderings) monitored the action on the court.

All insert graphics were given a new comic-book-style look for the alternative presentation.

Our amazing ESPN Creative Studio group built everything, says Placey, and the Marvel Creative Team worked side by side with us, providing the assets, giving feedback, and guiding us every step of the way. It has been a wonderful collaboration between ESPN and Marvel, and we couldn't be happier with it. It has taken our previous projects and stepped [them] up to a new level.

Marvel Broadcast Is a Full-Fledged Standalone Production ESPN rolled out NEP EN3 mobile production unit and a dedicated crew in New Orleans (graphics operators were located in Bristol) to produce the Marvel broadcast. The production controlled its own complement of nine cameras (including the Above the Rim robos), shared eight other camera feeds from main telecast and the six cameras provided to both shows by the arena.

The production team set up a low corner camera to serve this angle featuring 3D virtual animations of Marvel characters like Black Panther.

This is a true side-by-side, so we're down in New Orleans with our own truck separate from the game truck, says Placey. We're sharing a few of the main game cameras for a replays. But we control all the cameras that we're cutting for the Marvel telecast. The other cameras are just to make sure we have additional replay angles so nothing gets missed on either show.

AR elements were featured heavily in the Marvel-centric broadcast.

On Sunday, ESPN brought a local team into the Smoothie King Center to conduct a thorough rehearsal for the Arena of Heroes broadcast. After months of development, this was the first time hundreds of Marvel-centric elements were integrated into a live game. ESPN Monday Night Football director Phil Dean and Sunday Night Baseball director Doug Holmes were at the front bench.

A 3D virtual rendering of Iron Man looks on from the watch deck above the floor.

Placey notes that this was significantly different from ESPN's previous alternative-presentation productions - such as MegaCasts for the CFP National Championship Game and last season's NFL Wild Card Game or the recent NBA Daily Wager Special - which used primarily a clean feed from the main show.

On the other broadcasts, he says, including the NFL Wild Card and the National Championship MegaCast, we made it a point to make sure that nothing was taking away the primary focus on the main ESPN telecast; everything was supplementary. But this strikes more of that equal balance and gives us a great opportunity to s
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/05/04/behind-the-scenes-of-espns-grap...
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 ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

07/05/2026

Convergence is Now Established Reality,' Says NAB 2026 Report

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase Best in Class QC Monitoring a...

At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...

07/05/2026

PlayBox Neo shines a spotlight on delivering Secure Scala...

At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...

07/05/2026

BFBS selects Synamedia to deliver New Digital Platform fo...

Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...

07/05/2026

Amagi Unlocks New Opportunities for CTV Performance with...

Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...

07/05/2026

Lightware Introduces Rack Taurus For Clean Centralized AV...

Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...

07/05/2026

Jigsaw24 Showcases End-to-End Media Workflows at MPTS 202...

Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...

07/05/2026

Ease Live Granted US Patent for Technology Powering Perfe...

Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...

07/05/2026

Leader prepares advanced Test and Measurement showcase fo...

Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...

07/05/2026

LiveU Signals a New Era of Live Broadcasting at Broadcast...

At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

07/05/2026

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray G...

07/05/2026

Powerful four generation story A Traveller Family airs on RT One and RT Player this Monday night

RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...

07/05/2026

Linked and Loaded: Gaijin Single Sign-On Now Available on GeForce NOW

Less typing, more tanking. Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Expands Leadership Structure Appoints Marc Engroff...

Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...

06/05/2026

Production Sound Mixer Dirk Sciarrotta Delivers Camera Re...

For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...

06/05/2026

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing

ZEISS CinCraft LensCore: Cinema Lens Looks for Compositing Brie Clayton May 6, 2026 0 Comments ZEISS announces the launch of CinCraft LensCore, a nove...

06/05/2026

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Media

Wisycom Solves Extreme RF Challenges Across Miles of Live Action for Gravity Med...

06/05/2026

NAB Launches Weekly Podcast on Local Broadcast Policy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Mavis Launches Mavis Studio iPad For Media Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...