NBA TV to deliver 100 hours of All-Star coverage

The National Basketball Association s NBA TV network will meet the demands of even the biggest pro hoops fans next week when it broadcasts more than 100 hours of All-Star game-related festitivities beginning with the arrival of players and coaches on Feb. 15.

“Everything will be shot in HD and then downconverted,” says Steve Hellmuth, NBA Entertainment. An HD truck from Turner will handle the production duties, with Turner and NBA TV tag-teaming for different event coverage.

The network will have more than 30 crews and 10 HD cameras on hand to give viewers of NBA TV the most comprehensive look ever into the All-Star game weekend festivities. The practices of both the East and West teams (broadcast in HD for the first time) to live interviews with coaches and players from the players hotel to the first-ever live telecast of the Legends Brunch are among the highlights.

In order for the network to insure that NBA fans get their all-access pass, the channel will be made available to all NBA TV distributors through a nationwide Free Preview Feb. 14-22. For fans, who may be on the move, the network will be providing comprehensive broadband news reports via NBA.com on the latest developments from Houston.

“We’ll be coordinating with Turner to deliver broadband video and reports from both Turner and the NBA,” adds Hellmuth. Six Avid edit suites will be on hand in Houston with an open fiber line sending the packages back to the NBA facility in Secaucus, NJ for encoding.

On Friday, Feb. 17, the network will begin its 24/7 coverage of the All-Star festivities when its signature basketball news and information show NBA TV Live broadcasts from the George R. Brown Convention Center, site of the 2006 NBA All-Star Jam Session and the NBA TV All-Star 2006 studios.
Next week SVG will bring you all the behind-scenes stories as a host of international broadcasters descend on Houston for the big event.