NHL Puck Drop 2021: NHL on TNT Debuts With High-Speed Cameras, Tracking-Fueled Graphics With more than 20 cameras per game, Turner Sports brings ambitious' plan to hockey coverage By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 3:15 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It's a new era for the National Hockey League in the U.S. Tonight, Turner Sports debuts as a national rightsholder for the league, with TNT carrying a doubleheader of the New York Rangers visiting the Washington Capitals at 7:30 p.m. ET and the Colorado Avalanche hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at 10:30 p.m.
Although Turner's agreement with the league is for the NHL's B package, the NHL on TNT schedule is loaded. It includes 25 Wednesday nights throughout the season and marquee tentpole events like the 2022 Winter Classic (Minneapolis) on Jan. 1, the 2022 Stadium Series (Nashville) on Feb. 26, and the 2022 Heritage Classic (Hamilton, ON) on March 13. Turner will also help carry the Stanley Cup Playoffs and host the Stanley Cup Final in three of the seven years covered by the rights agreement.
It's a sizable investment of time and resources, and the Turner Sports team is hitting the ground running. For game coverage, Turner Sports VP, Sports Production and Technical Operations, Chris Brown describes the team's plan as extremely ambitious.
Game production will, over the course of the season, lean aggressively into leveraging player- and puck-tracking data provided by the league and displaying unique graphic enhancements, including dynamic line changes (where tracking data can be used to monitor shift times and display lineup changes in real time) and a virtual power-play clock projected onto the ice (similar to the virtual shot clock used by NBA on TNT).
Our goal is to find ways to inform the diehard fan in ways that they haven't been informed before, says Brown, while also providing information for the casual fan that is trying to learn the sport.
In 2019, NBA on TNT debuted a virtual shot graphic projected onto the playing surface. Turner Sports is looking to add a similar execution on the ice for power plays on NHL on TNT.
Onsite, the camera complements rely on super-slow-motion cameras, with more deployed than for a typical show. Of the 25 camera feeds (20 are originated by Turner; five are blue-line cams and net-cam feeds provided by the league), from eight to 11 units on a given night will be high-frame-rate cameras. Brown says those acquisition devices offer a smoother look for a sport that moves extremely fast.
This has been the production request to answer the question, How do you portray the speed and fluidity that this game presents? says Brown.
Coordinating directly with the league on venues and standard game-broadcast operations has proved critical to helping Turner boot up this property in a relatively short time. To help out on the remote technical side, Turner added Eric Grossman, a veteran of hockey broadcasting, as lead tech manager.
One of the biggest things with the NHL is developing all of the new workflows that are going to have to surround it, says Brown. [That's] not just in the remote environment but in the studio as well because of the confluence of highlight operations. There's tons we have been trudging through to pull this all together. We're also doing this while maintaining the technical quality for all the productions that we do and giving each property its just attention.
NHL on TNT games are directed by Paul Hemming (who joins the Turner family after four years directing Carolina Hurricanes games for Bally Sports South/Fox Sports Carolinas). Kevin Brown and Joe Whelan will alternate in the producer's chair. The primary mobile production unit that will be used throughout the season is NEP ND5.
Graphics Package Designed To Stay Out of the Way' In addition to all the necessary technical infrastructure, one of the more substantial - and exciting - parts of beginning to broadcast an entirely new property is development of the on-screen look.
The Turner Sports Creative team was tasked with building an entire graphics package from scratch for the new NHL season, including insert graphics, full animations, studio graphics, and, of course, the in-game scorebug.
The NHL on TNT debuted a version of its scorebug during a preseason broadcast this month.
Hockey is such a fun sport to design for, says Jordan Shorthouse, VP/creative director, Turner Sports. There's so much energy, and the challenge is ensuring that fast-paced energy makes it onto the screen for the viewers. When it came to designing the insert package, we just wanted to make something that was unobtrusive, stayed out of the way, and was easy, simple, and clean. We wanted the viewers to stay focused on the action on the ice and not get confused about where they have to look to find stats.
The scorebug is a simple design, featuring solid colors and clean presentation of team logos. When it comes to designing scorebugs, which receive the most significant amount of airtime of any element in a graphics package, Shorthouse says, the creative process can be lengthy when team elements to include are debated. Are there logos? Is it just team tri-codes? A great scorebug, he notes, manages to integrate both pleasingly.
These logos are so beautiful and, to the hardcore fans, don't need the tri-codes, says Shorthouse, who has worked on graphics for Turner Broadcasting for more than two decades. They know who is playing based on the logos. However, you want to build something that new viewers can understand. For that reason, tri-codes are necessary. In the perfect world, you find the way to do both without making the bug too big. That's the challenge.
For major animations, Turner Sports worked with Toronto-based design
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
NHL Puck Drop 2021: NHL on TNT Debuts With High-Speed Cameras, Tracking-Fueled Graphics With more than 20 cameras per game, Turner Sports brings ambitious' plan to hockey coverage By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
