January 29, 2017
Brandon Costa, SVG
This weekend, NBC Sports heads to Los Angeles for NHL All-Star Weekend, and, through a collaborative effort with Canadian broadcasters Rogers and TVA and the NHL, its coverage of the event promises loads of interesting enhancements.
NBC is set to deploy 22 cameras, but the production team — headed by producer Matt Marvin and director Charlie Dammeyer — will have 39 feeds at their disposal; all the networks will be sharing each other’s resources. The highlight of those shared resources will be RefCam. Rogers SportsNet will deploy the RF unit, which will be affixed to the head of a referee on the ice. The technology is being used at the All-Star Game for the third straight year and has received acclaim from fans. It’s used mostly in replays but does have the ability to be taken live.
In its own arsenal, NBC will have two Sony HDC-4300 super-slow-motion cameras and two Grass Valley LDX C86 compact XtremeSpeed robotic cameras, the latter provided by Fletcher Sports. One of the LDX cameras will be positioned at center ice; the other, behind one of the goals.
NBC is also installing bench POV cameras, an RF handheld camera, and a “hothead” camera beneath the scoreboard to provide an aerial view of the ice/action.
On the graphics end, NBC has called on SMT to provide its SportsCG (the main scorebug graphic), NBC Studio Ticker, and the NHL’s official real-time scoring system, which it calls HITS.
HITS supports the NHL year-round through data collection, scoring administration, distribution of data to the teams and NHL headquarters, a broadcaster interface for easy use of data by broadcasters, and technological support for the arenas.
With events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the league and the Skills Competition taking place on Saturday, all the festivities in Los Angeles will culminate in the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, marking the first time this game has aired on broadcast television since 2004 (ABC).
NEP’s ND6 will serve as NBC Sports’ main production truck at Staples Center, with support from ST28.