Turner Sports Debuts New Studio Set for NBA on TNT, Inside the NBA

A new NBA season has brought with it a flashy new studio set at Turner Sports for the NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA. The set features a chrome look with lots of grey tones, is very heavy on LED lighting, and hosts a large LED monitor wall.

Turner’s new NBA set debuted on Oct. 30.

The studio space was gutted and remodeled over the summer offseason and debuted on-air on Oct. 29.

“This is a totally new direction for us from sets in the past,” says Steve Fiorello, VP/coordinating director, Turner Sports. “It really ties in well with our graphics package, and, from an architectural standpoint, it ties everything together very well.”

The set was designed by Jack Morton Production Design Group, which has done each of the past three NBA studio sets for Turner Sports. The company also recently designed and built new sets for ESPN’s SportsCenter and NFL on CBS, as well as for The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

The set uses the same control room that the previous set used and includes a Techno-Jib with a telescoping feature that allows the arm to extend from 8 ft. out to as long as 32 ft., Orad virtual graphics, and a Steadicam. LED lighting allows the production team to easily customize the set to whatever colors are desired.

VIDEO: NBA on TNT aired a time-lapse of the new set during its broadcast on Oct. 29.

A giant new LED wall enables analysts to make more-descriptive breakdowns of plays.

“When Kenny steps up to it to do an analysis on a play,” says Fiorello, “it’s so large, it looks as if he’s embedded into the video. It’s life-size, and it’s an incredibly cool feature.”

Fiorello’s favorite feature of the new set, though, is the new Shaq Cam, a pan-tilt-zoon (PTZ) robotic camera mounted atop the clock on an NBA-regulation basket stanchion on the set. Turner is essentially turning NBA analyst Shaquille O’Neal into a camera operator by placing the controls to the camera right at his desk position.