Live From Final Four: SMT Expands To Include Live Data Integration to March Madness Live
New zoom telestration system proves its worth for replay
Story Highlights
For 17 years, SMT (SportsMEDIA Technology) has been the statistical and data-integration partner for CBS Sports and Turner Sports on the entire NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. This year, however, there’s a new wrinkle: a more holistic approach to content led to the integration of SMT data directly into the March Madness Live app experience.
Lee Brinson serves as team lead and spotter for SMT at the Final Four.
“That’s an exciting addition for us,” says Lee Brinson, SMT’s team lead onsite in Houston. “They really like the speed at which we input. It doesn’t change the types of stats we are tracking, because our system is already pretty robust, but the driving force behind the stat choices we make [is] CBS and Turner.”
All data obtained by SMT is pumped to other trucks in the compound; the company’s home offices in Durham, NC; Turner Studios in Atlanta; and CBS Studios in New York City.
Another new feature from SMT this year is a zoom telestration system called Smart Zone, which allows the production crew to get a high-resolution zoom on a close play and interact with the image by adding graphics. The tool could prove to helpful in a situation like during Syracuse’s Sweet 16 victory over Gonzaga when Orange guard Trevor Cooney was ruled in bounds following a rebound near the baseline in the final seconds of a 1-point game.
Two input stations in the production compound feed up-to-the-second statistical data to the CBS/Turner productions.
Also, the additional team-centric TeamStream productions at this year’s Final Four are receiving extra care from Turner Sports and CBS Sports, and that has resulted in an expansion of SMT resources in the compound. In previous years, one workstation in the graphics truck would have been enough. This year, there are two stat-tracking setups and a team of four onsite. Brinson is joined by Kevin Wang, (who focuses on stat input), Aaron Baker (who operates the zoom telestration system), and Dustin Vinton (who oversees integration of the data into Turner graphics).
