ESPN Tips Off NBA Playoffs Run With First-Ever Play-In Tourney, Adds Cine-Style MōVI Camera for Selected Games

All productions will be onsite beginning with Conference Semifinals

ESPN could not have been dealt a better hand for the first-ever NBA Play-In Tournament, with the defending NBA champion Lakers and LeBron James hosting the Warriors and Stephen Curry tomorrow night. However, the Play-In Tournament Western Conference games are just the start of a long playoff push for the network, which will deploy a wealth of new technologies and transition back to full-time onsite production operations as the postseason progresses.

“This has been one really long season. [From the 2020] bubble leading right into this season, it has just been continuous for us,” says Tim Corrigan, senior coordinating producer, NBA on ESPN, ESPN. “[There have] been all sorts of crazy things that would have been unimaginable until this year, but I’m really proud of what we’ve done and the level we’ve done it at and the passion and commitment from everybody who has been involved. We’re really excited to get to where we are now and thrilled about what we get to do beginning tomorrow night.”

MōVI Camera Brings Dramatic Cinema-Style Look to NBA Hardcourt

With the popular RailCam systems at several NBA arenas benched by the increase in fans courtside during the playoffs, ESPN is exploring new angles to retain the intimacy it offers. With that in mind, the broadcaster will incorporate a new cinema-style shallow-depth-of-field wireless MōVI camera on a handful of early-round games and on all games beginning with the Conference Finals.

“In a time when we’re having to use our lenses more than ever because of health and safety [limitations in game coverage],” says Corrigan, “this will allow us to have some intimacy with the athletes. With autofocus [technology], it brings a cinematic kind of feel to some shots.”

ESPN tested the RF MōVI system, which can be deployed in a Steadicam or a standard wireless configuration, on a Nets-Bucks game earlier this month and was happy with the results. A Canon EOS C500 Mark II was used as part of the RF Steadicam MōVI rig. According to Senior Operations Manager Patricia Mattero, the broadcaster is still exploring different possibilities moving forward and has not finalized which camera will be used in the MōVI system during the playoffs. (UPDATE 5/22: AVS will be supplying ESPN with two systems featuring Canon EOS C500 Mark II cameras, debuting in Game 1 of the Suns-Lakers Round 1 series on Sunday).

“Our tech group and operations group are always investigating different and new technologies and different vendors to do it, so that’s going to be ongoing,” say Corrigan. “I would guess [we will use it] probably four or five times leading into the Conference Finals and Finals and see what we learn and how much better we can get. And, hopefully, we hit our stride when we get to the Conference Finals and Finals.”

Shallow-depth-of-field cameras have become a hot trend in the industry. Turner Sports used an EOS C500 Mark II during the NBA All-Star Game. The systems offer cinematic shots of players that have caught the eye of viewers on the NFL, golf, and other major events.

“It can provide more-dynamic, interesting shots beginning during warmups for pregame shows, show opens, and things like that,” says Corrigan. “We also want to try [to use it as] part of the live cut of the game a little more and use it for replays. I’m hopeful it can help us in dead-ball situations, going into break, coming out of breaks, and in pregame. I’m hopeful that, when you look at our line cut of what our overall broadcast looks like, during those downtimes, I think it can be impactful.”

More Tech Toys: Skycam, Virtual Graphics, Alternative Presentations

ESPN will also be adding a Skycam wired aerial system beginning with Conference Finals and hopes to leverage it to showcase the enhanced virtual graphics that will be featured in its NBA Playoffs broadcasts. Plans are to increase the use of virtual ads displayed on the court for sponsorship, similar to what the league did in the bubble last year.

“For Skycam,” Corrigan says, “Conference Finals and Finals is the goal, and we would incorporate it sooner because, in addition to just getting into a rhythm of using Skycam in our productions, we want to integrate some of these virtual graphics. Much like you see in football — on Monday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and the bigger Fox and CBS games — it’s a much more dynamic presentation when you’re flying through the graphics or flying over or under them. We have some opportunity to do really cool stuff with that, too, so we’re really excited.”

He  adds that ESPN is also exploring creating alternative game presentations at some point during the playoffs, similar to the Daily Wager Special “BetCast” and Marvel’s Arena of Heroes productions rolled out during the regular season.

“We’re working with programming now to figure out where the opportunities are for alternate presentations,” says Corrigan. “We’re definitely evaluating and trying to figure out what we can bring back and how it can be most effective. While [the pandemic] is going on under these circumstances, we’re still trying to figure out how to grow our audience and bring in more people. We’re continuing to look at all this and figuring out what we can do to make the NBA as appealing to as many people as possible.”

ESPN Operations To Return Fully Onsite With Conference Semis

This week’s new NBA Play-In Tournament adds a new wrinkle to the postseason for Mattero and her team. Typically, the regular season ends on a Wednesday, and the playoffs begin on Saturday, but this year’s last-minute positioning for Play-In spots created an even shorter timeline than usual for the ops team.

“We knew who the production teams and the talent were going to be, so it was more just about mobilizing and moving,” says Corrigan. “To that same point, we don’t know our exact weekend schedule for Saturday and Sunday until we know what happens tonight in the East and tomorrow night in the West. It’s going to be an ongoing [operation], but, quite honestly, it’s something we’re used to doing. I just think the COVID factors make it a little bit more challenging.”

The Play-In games will have production levels similar to the weekly NBA on ABC game, with 15 cameras for game coverage plus additional POVs for back-of-house and locker-room coverage. As was the case during the regular season, ESPN/ABC Play-In Tournament and First Round games will be a mix of full onsite operations with announcers at the arena and enhanced- world-feed (EWF) shows that leverage the home-team RSN feed and have announcers calling the action remotely.

Beginning with the Conference Semifinals, all productions will be onsite with all graphics and some replay operators located in Bristol, CT, as part of ESPN’s GREMI model. Although REMI and GREMI will continue to play a big role in ESPN’s NBA productions, Corrigan hopes to have announcers fully back onsite next season.

“We’d love to have everybody back in the building calling the game [next year],” says Corrigan. “We’ll still use these other production models, using Bristol and Charlotte to bring [announcers] back and into games. But, yes, I would say 100% that is a goal for what we want to get to [next year].”