Turner Sports Opens NBA Regular Season

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Turner Sports’ regular-season coverage of the NBA tips off Tuesday night with a double-header that features several powerhouse teams, and Turner is providing an equally weighty equipment complement. The Cleveland Cavaliers host the Boston Celtics before the Los Angeles Lakers’ ring ceremony serves as a prelude to their game against the Los Angeles Clippers, and Turner Sports is setting up 18 cameras on both courts to cover every inch of the action.

“We’re kicking off the regular season with equipment levels that are equal to our playoff coverage,” says Jeff Behnke, executive producer for Turner Sports. “We always upgrade as we move into the playoffs, but we’re kicking off tonight at playoff level.”

Ten of those 18 cameras are dedicated to game coverage. While the other eight can be utilized for the game as needed, their primary purpose lies elsewhere.

Now Hear This
A block of four cameras, for example, will be used solely for audio access with players and coaches.

“That’s something that we’ll definitely be stressing in our broadcast this year,” Behnke says. “The NBA has been a great partner in allowing us access to the players, so now it’s up to us to upgrade the delivery of our player and coaching sound.”

Those four cameras will be dedicated to isolated shots of the players and coaches who will be wearing microphones, and two of them will be robotic cameras placed inside the locker rooms.

Two on Three
Two additional robotic cameras will be mounted on a stanchion above the three-point line on each side of the court, providing Turner with a definitive look at three-point shots.

“That camera will give us, the viewers, and the referees a definitive look on whether a shot was a two- or a three-point shot, depending on whether the player’s foot was over the line or not,” Behnke explains.

Mounts will position the camera above the key so that operators can see the entire three-point line and follow the ball movement accordingly. These dedicated cameras will provide a clear shot of the line to see whether the shot was worth two or three points.

“Turner Sports debuted this camera as a test during the Boston-Orlando playoff series last year, and we had a lot of success with it,” Behnke adds. “We decided this year to work it into our budget and make it a full-time, new definitive look camera for the NBA, one that has not been used before.”

The final two hard cameras are used for the mosaic offering on TNT’s broadband channel, NBA Overtime on NBA.com. Through the Overtime offering, fans can vote for the player they want featured by those cameras, and a different player is followed during each half of the game.

Good Looks
Turner Sports has also upgraded its graphics presentation for this season, putting more emphasis on the Orad system.

“It’s got extremely good video quality,” says Tom Sahara, senior director of IT and remote operations for Turner Sports. “We have some new effects that we’ll be trying out this year using that device.”

Chyron Duets provide the remainder of the graphics support, including the bug box for all of the score graphics.

“We’re still pushing the envelope on the graphics side,” Sahara explains, “trying to give the fans the information they want and dressing it up so it looks good.”

More Creativity for Kenny
On the studio side, Turner upgraded the touch screen that analyst Kenny Smith uses for his “Kenny’s Court” segment. The SportMedia interface allows Smith to manipulate video footage on the screen so that he can diagram plays, play, freeze, rewind, and telestrate. SportMedia provides a PC-based program that allows the touch screen to interact with the graphics that Turner Sports provides.

“As he watches the first half, Kenny tries to come up with things that are out of the ordinary,” Behnke says. “We’ll still use the ‘Kenny’s Pictures’ segment with the telestrator, but this obviously takes it to another level. He can manipulate player icons on the screen, move and place them on the court, diagram out what happened on the play. It plays into Kenny’s creativity.”

Easy Does It
With all of the gadgets at Turner Sports’ disposal throughout the regular season, the network’s biggest challenge is to enhance the production value without overdoing it.

“If you have a lot of equipment — like the 18 cameras and eight six-channel EVS units that we’re using — you have to have the personnel to know how to use it to enhance your broadcast,” Behnke says. “Otherwise, the extra equipment can just get in the way.”

Behnke and Sahara have spent significant time with Turner Sports’ producers and directors discussing the most effective ways to utilize all of the equipment the network has at its disposal. With a crew of 80 people supporting every remote broadcast and 30 more in the studio, Behnke is positive that Turner Sports has the talent on hand to pull off a great show every night.

“We’ve certainly come a long way from the days of seven cameras, four 1-in. [tape] machines, and a Chyron 4100,” he says. “Things have grown in our 26 years of broadcasting the NBA.”

Sahara concurs: “It’s a huge team effort, and every person on the team is experienced. We spend a lot of time with them creating the vision and the program plan so that everything comes together.”

Those things start coming together on Turner Sports Oct. 27, with the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the Boston Celtics at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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