With NBA and NHL Playoffs in Full Swing, Never a Dull Moment for TNT Sports Production and Ops Teams

From March Madness through the Stanley Cup, the broadcaster relies on consistency

For TNT Sports, the spring season never lets up — and 2024 is no exception.

It all started in mid March when March Madness entered the picture to join TNT Sports’ ongoing regular-season NBA and NHL productions. Then came the MLB on TBS package, the SheBelieves Cup featuring the USWNT, and the NBA Play-In Tournament. The TNT Sports production machine hit full tilt over the past weekend with the concurrent start of both the NHL Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs. It’s an insane workload but one that the production and operations teams are well-equipped to handle.

Inside TNT Sports’ mobile unit for Game 2 of the Nuggets–Lakers Round 1 series in Denver

“Our playoff planning for both NBA and NHL starts long before the ball is tipped or the puck is dropped,” says Lee Estroff, senior director, strategic production planning, TNT Sports. “When we go through the process of securing mobile units, technical enhancements, and technical crew, it is always with an eye toward the postseason. After many years of transitioning from the regular season to the full-throttle playoffs, we’ve learned the importance of repetition and consistency.”

‘Like a NASCAR Pit Crew’: Experienced, Battle-Tested Teams

That consistency applies to mobile units, equipment levels, and technical crew — all of which are critical in developing experienced and battle-tested production teams who can quickly pivot into playoff mode, according to Estroff.

“Like a NASCAR pit crew,” he says, “the TNT Sports staff, the vendors, and technical crew have specific functions in successfully executing the production strategy. The repetition of a six-month season with 60+ NBA and NHL regular-season games allows the entire team to fine-tune the processes needed to execute at the highest level when faced with quick turnarounds, set/shoot/strikes, late-night scenario planning, and other characteristics of the NBA and NHL Playoffs.”

Full-Court Press: NBA Play-In Tournament and Playoffs

TNT is offering more NBA Playoff games than any network.

This year, TNT is the exclusive home to more NBA Playoff games than any network, including First and Second Round action and the exclusive presentation of the Western Conference Finals. As part of the new “TNT Sports on truTV” programming lineup, truTV is also offering simulcasts of TNT’s coverage and NBA BetCast alternative viewing experiences throughout the NBA Playoffs. All of TNT Sports’ coverage of the 2024 NBA Playoffs will be available to stream on Max’s B/R Sports Add-On. In addition, NBA TV — co-managed by TNT Sports and the NBA — will feature up to nine originally produced telecasts during the First Round.

NEP is once again providing TNT Sports’ mobile units for the duration of the NBA Playoffs: besides its regular-season Supershooter 8 and Supershooter 7, Supershooter 9 and Supershooter 4. As was the case throughout the regular season, TNT Sports will deploy remote graphics and multiple EVS replay positions from its Techwood studios in Atlanta for the first and second rounds. Once the Western Conference Finals begin, however, all games and Inside the NBA remote studio shows will be full onsite productions, with all facilities and crew at the venue.

TNT’s regular-season facility levels carried over into the Play-In Tournament and will continue through Round 1 and Round 2 with a robust 18 cameras: 10 hard, five handheld, and three robos. Other enhancements include above-the-rim robos, mid-court 6X slo-mo camera, coach mics, player mics, pregame “layup-line” player interviews, and the virtual shot clock via its partnership with Brand Brigade. Game 7s in any series will have upgraded facilities, such as additional super-slo-mos, robotics, and Steadicams.

In addition to Inside the NBA onsite, the Western Conference Finals coverage will include more high-frame-rate and shallow–depth-of-field cameras, as well as audio enhancements, drones, robotics, and “a few other surprises,” according to Estroff.

“The TNT Sports operation team continues to perform at the highest level,” he says. “The passion, dedication, and commitment of this team is evident in the successful planning of complex (and ever-evolving) productions on a daily basis. In this current climate of budget tweaks and workflow changes, the tech-ops, remote-ops, and crewing teams have consistently operated at the highest level while embracing every challenge.”

Power Play: NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs

TNT Sports’ networks and platforms will televise up to 49 games during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs with expansive digital content and highlights from Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, and B/R Open Ice.  All games feature a 30-minute NHL on TNT Face Off pregame show, as well as intermission and postgame shows from the studio. The coverage — live games, pre/postgame shows — will be available to stream live on Max’s B/R Sports Add-On as well as via the TNT, TBS, and truTV apps and websites.

TNT Sports’ regular-season mobile units, NEP ND6 and TS2, will serve as its primary facilities for Round 1 and 2. In addition, TNT will again collaborate and share mobile facilities in some markets with ESPN during the early rounds, deploying Game Creek 79, NEP Supershooter 6, and NEP Supershooter 24 mobile units.

New to TNT Sports this postseason will be “World Feed MFP” productions originating from selected Canadian venues. TNT Sports will work with Sportsnet to assist in producing these shows with supplemental facilities and crew.

For the NHL Conference Finals, the broadcaster will roll up NEP Supershooter 5 and Supershooter 6. All Conference Finals games will be fully produced onsite except for graphics operations, which will originate from the Techwood campus.

Early rounds will have elevated equipment levels compared with the regular season, with a total of 20 cameras on each game — six hard, five handheld, seven robos, two POVs — including five super-slo-mo cameras. Other enhancements include mid-ice speedy HFR robo, player mics on selected games, in-net robotic cameras, virtual power-play clock, and virtual puck speed via SMT.

For the NHL Conference Finals, TNT will double its complement of super-slo-mo cameras, with a total of 10 to catch all the excitement and emotion of playoff hockey. Additionally, the production will also feature high-frame-rate in-net robotic cameras, shallow–depth of field cine-style cameras, and additional robotics.

“What I am most proud of,” says Chris Brown, VP, technology and operations, TNT Sports, “is the team’s ability to continue to execute, following a busy stretch of the Final Four, the quick turnaround into the spring season with MLB, U.S. Soccer quickly followed by the NBA Play-In Tournament and Playoffs, and the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. The fact that we all continue to excel and provide the infrastructure and platform for our production partners to tell thoughtful and compelling stories is what makes me excited to watch and, at the same time, be a part of.”