ESPN, ABC Set To Produce First-Ever Simulcast of NBA Draft The event returns to Barclays Center after the pandemic By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 12:32 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
At tonight's NBA Draft, ESPN will take a page from its NFL Draft playbook and, for the first time, simulcast its Round 1 coverage on both ESPN and ABC. Although it will be ESPN's 19th consecutive NBA Draft telecast, it will be the first that ESPN offers viewers in two parallel broadcasts.
ESPN has tapped Senior Operations Manager Steve Carter, a veteran of many NFL Draft broadcasts, to oversee the operation at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tonight's production marks the Draft's return to Brooklyn - its home since 2013 - after the pandemic forced last year's event to be held on ESPN's Bristol, CT, campus.
It's exciting to be a part of something new with the [dual broadcasts] , says Carter, and I think it's going to be really great for the fans. Also, I think that anytime we can get back to doing our business as normal is a good thing. Getting the Draft back at Barclays is great. It's a big step towards getting back to normal, which I know we're all looking forward to.
ESPN Rolls Out Game Creek 79, Pride for Dual Broadcasts Although ESPN has provided dual broadcasts of the NFL Draft since 2018, simulcasting coverage on ESPN and ESPN2, tonight will mark the first time the NBA Draft has received the simulcast treatment. ESPN has rolled out four mobile units at Barclays, with Game Creek Video 79 (A and B units) dedicated to the ESPN broadcast and Pride (A and B) handling the ABC show.
ESPN's coverage will be hosted by Rece Davis and feature analysts Jay Bilas and Kendrick Perkins and NBA Draft analyst Mike Schmitz. Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski will provide trade reports, breaking-news updates, and team insight throughout the night. ESPN's coverage will also provide commentary and analysis by NBA Front Office Insider Bobby Marks, host Rachel Nichols, and analyst Richard Jefferson.
On ABC, SportsCenter anchor and college football/basketball host Kevin Negandhi will host the coverage alongside NBA analysts Jalen Rose and Chiney Ogwumike and NBA reporter Malika Andrews. The panel will celebrate the prospects' journeys to the biggest stage in basketball. Andrews will conduct one-on-one interviews with draftees following each team's selection (20 prospects are expected to appear in person).
The ESPN and ABC sets will be located in front of a newly designed LED stage backdrop that will serve as the canvas for the night's festivities.
In addition, Miles Brown, actor/rapper/dancer and star of ABC's black-ish, will provide backstage access throughout Round 1 as an ABC Draft correspondent.
Both telecasts will begin with high-tech animation scored with original music by rapper Benny the Butcher, embracing the rap style of the early 2000s.
50+ Cameras Deployed for ESPN, ABC Broadcasts For the simulcast coverage, ESPN has rolled out roughly 50 cameras, most of them shared between the two productions. The complement inside Barclays includes nine robos, 13 roving RF cameras (including two Steadicams, five jibs with virtual-graphics capability, and an 8K shallow-depth-of-field camera), and a three-point aerial camera system.
ESPN also plans to mike up four prospects and will have dedicated robo cameras deployed at their tables to capture behind-the-scenes content as they wait to hear their name called.
In addition to coverage inside Barclays, ESPN has deployed cameras to capture shots of the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, and the NYC skyline, including a jib atop the roof of the Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport complex, where ESPN's Seaport Studios are located.
Virtual graphics and augmented-reality elements will play a major role in tonight's broadcast, with virtual banners and placards integrated into the show throughout the night. ESPN has outfitted five of its RF jibs, three additional jibs, and the aerial camera system with virtual-tracking technology to incorporate these elements.
Additionally, new high-end custom graphics and scores of personal player features will debut during the event.
SVG's Kristian Hernandez contributed to this report.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
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...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
ESPN, ABC Set To Produce First-Ever Simulcast of NBA Draft The event returns to Barclays Center after the pandemic By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
