Live From 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend: After 25 Years, TNT Sports Goes All-In on Final Production Expanded production is set to highlight new game format with new angles By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 11:08 am
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For WBD VP, Technical Operations, Chris Brown and the rest of the TNT Sports production crew, this year's NBA All-Star Weekend at San Francisco's Chase Center spurs some extra emotion: it will be the last for the broadcaster, ending a run that began in 2003. And TNT 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 Weekend since 2011.
It's about continuing to treat the event as a premier property for the NBA, who are still our partner, 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, next to the Chase Center. The main production units on that street are 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 A unit, with the B unit handling EVS operations and C in the flex/storage role. Also onsite are 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 MU-15 and MU-16 for NBA-TV. NEP NCP11 was also on hand on Thursday night when NBA on TNT was staged at Pier 48.
NEP has a number of production units onsite at the Chase Center in support of TNT Sports' efforts at NBA All-Star Weekend.
Nearly 35 cameras will be deployed in the Chase Center, including 13 super slo-mo cameras and a Nucleus camera located in the base of each basket stanchion. Those are 4K and have pan-and-scan, notes Brown. It should be great to see how those look for things like the Slam Dunk contest, which should be pretty amazing.
The All-Star Game on Sunday will feature a new format designed to inspire a more competitive spirit. Four teams will play a total of three games. There will be no game clock or quarters, and the first team to 40 wins each game. The final will feature the winners of the first two games. 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 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, All-Star Saturday Night was played at Indianapolis's 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. With all of this weekend's action taking place at Chase Center, the floor won't be back, but other innovations will be.
Notably, the Enlouva Crane will be making its return after a two-year absence. That was a piece that was missing from our production, says Brown. We always wanted to bring it back, but we didn't have the space for it last year. And the court was raised off the ground, which made it difficult. Again, we just took a cue from production and brought it back.
Also returning is the Mindfly bodycam POV camera for both a player, to be determined, during practices and a referee during game play. We're super-excited to have that back, he adds. They'll get some cool use out of those.
Another returning element is a wireless super-slo-mo Steadicam for the Slam Dunk Contest, and a super-slo-mo camera position to the right of the foul line extended is making the leap from robotic camera to hard camera. There's going to be some really good images from that camera, says Brown. We are looking forward to that.
The NBA All-Star Game is very much a collaboration with the NBA, and, for All-Star Saturday Night, the league is rolling out a Jita Agito remote-controlled car carrying a Sony P50 and Canon wide-angle lens. With the operator sitting courtside, the car is on the court capturing unique angles not only 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 robos behind the glass, a robo with ultra-wide lens for beauty shots, robos in hallways outside locker rooms, robos on the benches, and a Dreamchip PTZ at the announcer and host tables. Also on hand will be a second RF Steadicam with a C-300 for shallow depth of field, a Sony 4800 with shallow depth of field and 8X recording, and aerials from Wingedvision.
The audio effort involves a large deployment of a new player mic transmitter from Q5X: the XD25 PlayerMic X. We are going to be able to use live player and coach mics the whole weekend, says Brown, adding, We will do our usual standards-and-practices delay in Atlanta.
The NBA on TNT studio show for NBA All-Star Weekend is located in front of the C
