NHL Stadium Series: Turner Sports Rolls Into Nashville With 40-Camera Show

'B/R Open Ice' digital vertical sets up fan activation at Florida Georgia Line House

It’s back outside for the NHL and its newest national broadcast partner Turner Sports as TNT will carry live coverage of the 2022 Stadium Series game between the Tampa Bay Lighting and the Nashville Predators from Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

This marks the second outdoor game that Turner Sports has produced with the NHL in the past two months, including that blisteringly cold Winter Classic in Minneapolis on New Year’s Day.

The 2022 NHL Stadium Series will be hosted from Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Saturday. (Photo Courtesy of Lee Estroff, Turner Sports)

“These types of events are so special and the NHL is just so good at putting these on,” says Lee Estroff, Director of Technical Operations for Turner Sports. “We are only four months into the first season of our NHL package and it’s been an incredible learning process and events like these are a lot of fun.”

While it’s been a rainy week in Nashville, Estroff says the conditions are looking much more favorable for a crew that won’t have to deal with subzero temperatures and am Omicron surge this time around. The show promises to be another big one, though, as Turner has filled Nissan Stadium with approximately 40 total cameras, while parking four full-sized production trucks out in the compound.

Turner Sports’ game coverage cameras for the 2022 Stadium Series features 40 cameras, including these POVs positioned inside the penalty box. (Photo Courtesy of Paul Hemming, Turner Sports)

The camera arsenal includes 12 super slow mos, a pair of RF handhelds, a SkyCam, AnkleCams in the corner boards, and SkateCam, a shallow depth of field camera on a gimbal. The camera will be operated by veteran on-ice camera op Zac Laszuk. There are also weather-permitting plans for a blimp.

The show will be cut from NEP’s Supershooter 9, an IP-based, 1080p HDR/4K-capable mobile unit. At the front bench, the game will be directed by NHL on TNT’s lead director Paul Hemming and produced by Joe Whelan. Accompanying them will be veteran technical director Paul Harvath. Helping manage the complex technical plans with Estroff are Turner Sports’ VP, Operations and Technology Chris Brown and Tech Manager Jeff Millett. Overseeing the audio plan is longtime hockey A1 Tim Dunn.

On air, Kenny Albert will serve in play-by-play duties alongside analysts Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones.

Studio Coverage Remains In Atlanta

As part of its coverage, the NHL on TNT will host a one-hour pregame show which will originate from Turner’s new NHL studio on its Techwood campus in Atlanta.

The view from inside NEP Supershooter 9, parked outside of Nissan Stadium during set up this week. SS9 is the main game truck with producer Joe Whelan and director Paul Hemming will call the shots of the 2022 NHL Stadium Series. (Photo Courtesy of Paul Hemming, Turner Sports)

While the studio show has a full truck on site in Nashville, its being used primary to funnel 30+ direct feeds back to the control room in Atlanta. There, the team will have full comms with on-site camera ops and be able to cut their own show.

Pre-game coverage will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET with an hour-long NHL on TNT Face Off Presented by Verizon pregame show. Host Liam McHugh will be joined by Wayne Gretzky, Rick Tocchet, Anson Carter, and  Paul Bissonnette.

The studio crew will return for the Lexus First Intermission Report, the Discover Second Intermission Report and a 30-minute postgame show.

B/R Open Ice Hits the Road For the First Time

Bleacher Report is also on-site in Nashville providing added digital and social coverage of the festivities. The B/R Open Ice vertical is celebrating its first on-site activation by taking over the iconic Florida Georgia Line House, a landmark bar on Nashville’s famed Broadway Street.

In addition to offering fans who visit live music, giveaways, and more, B/R will be producing live content for the B/R app and their various social channels. The scene will likely go live on the linear broadcast as well as NHL Network’s Jackie Redmond will be reporting from that spot throughout the day.

Jennifer Zudonyi, Senior Director, NHL Marketing for WarnerMedia and Evan Sporer, Content Strategist for B/R Open Ice played key roles in driving Bleacher Report’s presence in Nashville.