SVG Sit-Down: NBC Sports’ John Barnes, IMS Productions’ Kevin Sublette on Big Machine Music City Grand Prix
Production for this weekend’s IndyCar street race in Nashville will be primarily onsite
Story Highlights
The third edition of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix (Sunday, Aug. 6, noon ET, NBC and Peacock) in Nashville, one of IndyCar’s flagship races, shows off its growing connection to a city increasingly known as much for sports — it’s home to the NFL’s Titans and the NHL’s Predators and is on the short list for an MLB expansion franchise — as for music.
The inaugural Music City Grand Prix in 2021 averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.212 million viewers on NBCSN, making it the most-watched NTT IndyCar Series race on cable on NBC Sports since 2009.
John Barnes, senior producer, NBC Sports, and Kevin Sublette, president, IMS Productions — who will be joined onsite by director Roger Vincent — sat down with SVG this week to provide an update on what viewers will be seeing this weekend.
IMS Productions’ Kevin Sublette: “If you stretch each strand [of the fiber infrastructure] end to end, it’s about 135 miles, or the same distance from Nashville to Chattanooga.”
Sublette: Our fiber team, made up of 10 people, starts deploying our TAC-12 fiber on Tuesday, after the mobile units are parked. By Thursday afternoon, they will have deployed 90,000 ft. of fiber, connecting 11 hard cameras, eight robotic cameras, eight POVs, and eight Hydra boxes. Five of the hard cameras are SSMO (Sony 4300) and one (Sony P50) on a robotic head. IMS Productions also works closely with IndyCar to provide support for Timing and Scoring, Race Control, and Big Screen Productions. If you stretch each strand end to end, it’s about 135 miles, or the same distance from Nashville to Chattanooga.
What’s the production model? Any REMI? Hybrid? All onsite?
Barnes: Our production model is mostly onsite with all of our production and technical team. We have selected at-home personnel working on video and graphic elements, also with an edit onsite at every race that focuses on creative content.
Sublette: We deploy seven units, HD5 main production, B1 fiber headend, GFX, submix and robotics, C1 driver’s radios, Big Screen Productions, IMS Radio Network and network edit, TX4 dual dish uplink, and three other support trailers.
Who are the main production vendors for this?
Sublette: The main production vendor is IMS Productions, owned by Roger Penske, who also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar.
NBC Sports’ John Barnes: “Nashville has proven to be one of the most unpredictable races on the circuit, and we want to do everything we can to convey that unpredictability around each turn.”
What are the main production challenges?
Barnes: Our biggest challenge with the Nashville street course is to properly illustrate the frenetic racing. In just two years, Nashville has proven to be one of the most unpredictable races on the circuit, and we want to do everything we can to convey that unpredictability around each turn. Throughout the season, IndyCar races give us multiple storylines and entertaining drama within the field, but Nashville will push our broadcast team to the limit. It has been a memorable race the past two years, so we want to rise to the challenge of making sure viewers get a complete sense of the racing action.
What special camera/video techniques are you rolling out for this race?
Barnes: Our aerial shots will be unique in Nashville because it never gets old watching race cars drive over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge from a vantagepoint that’s 80 ft. in the air. With every IndyCar race, particularly street races, our on-board cameras provide the best look at how drivers work throughout the race. But the aerial shots of the bridge in Nashville give us a look we don’t get anywhere else.
How are you weaving the entertainment/music concerts into the larger production?
Barnes: The race has become a marquee event for IndyCar, and the entertainment that comes with the weekend gives our broadcast a big-event feel. We’ll work in video elements of concerts and highlight the celebrities and entertainers that show up to the track over the weekend. Each time we can show someone notable or something entertaining to complement the racing, we hope it makes people watching at home think, “I want to be there.”
