‘NBA on NBC’ Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With ‘Coast-to-Coast Tuesday’

Revamped Studio 1 in Stamford offers 360 degrees of different looks and layouts

Tomorrow is the big day for NBC Sports’ Studio 1 in Stamford, CT: NBA on NBC will debut officially with a “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” studio show as well as an NBA doubleheader. And there’s more to look forward to: on Oct. 27, Peacock NBA Monday studio show will launch, and, after the NFL Playoffs conclude in February, Sunday Night Basketball will tip off.

NBC Sports director Jared Sumner comes to the NBA on NBC studio show fresh off directing NBC’s college-football studio show (he also directed the Gold Zone show during the Paris Olympics, directed games for the Sunday baseball Leadoff package and the early portion of the Kentucky Derby, and was lead director for college hoops). To say he and the rest of the NBC Sports studio-show production team are excited to work in a revamped production environment would be an understatement.

Jarod Sumner will direct the <em>NBA on NBC</em> studio show two nights a week until after the Olympics, when there will be three shows a week.

“I’ve touched a lot of things that have come into this building,” he says. “The whole idea is that we give the studio its own distinct look on every night. Mondays will look a little bit different from Tuesdays. It’s all about flexibility and versatility, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Studio 1 is swimming in monitor walls of various shapes and sizes. It features a studio desk that can be placed anywhere within the studio environment, and a circular track has two vertical monitor walls that can be moved anywhere along the 360-degree rail.

On Tuesdays, for example, the desk will be a home base within a studio environment offering 360-degree coverage and ample LED screens and displays. “The key is the three large displays behind the desk,” Sumner explains. “Two vertical monitors track along a 360-degree ring. That gives us several looks: we can set them in back of the desk or in front of the desk and have the talent talking to someone on the display.”

The Monday Peacock studio show will likely be a bit looser and more casual than the Tuesday show. “The idea on Monday’s show,” he says, “will be to host from the demo-court side of the studio with our regulation-size basketball hoop. On the back wall behind the hoop, there are also three movable monitors, [which can] move to different locations and provide additional different looks.”

While the studio is very much making use of physical set pieces and elements, it is also ready for AR and VR elements. The jib camera has a Stype AR tracker, and a PTZ “slamcam” is positioned behind the backboard.

NBC Sports’ Tom Popple in front of the studio jib camera, which is AR-capable via Stype.

“We have all the calibration technology in the ceiling and camera for AR and VR,” Sumner points out, “but, right now, it’s all about the practical sets and learning how to use the space.”

The revamped studio was designed by HD Design and the NBC Studio team led by NBC Olympics Coordinating Director Mike Sheehan.

According to NBC Sports VP, Studio Operations, Tom Popple, the studio’s NBA look will take a hiatus during the Milan Winter Olympics in February. But he is excited about the technology elements throughout the studio, which is truly designed for shooting anyone and anything from almost anywhere.

“Along with 4K monitors,” he says “we have an LED floor in the key in front of the hoop, and we’ll be able to bring in racks of basketballs so [talent and on-air guests] can start shooting. We also have touchscreens and a Sandbox [graphics] area with augmented reality, which is where we had the announcers manipulate AR graphics of riders during the Tour de France. For the NBA, they’ll be able to move around players [on a virtual basketball court].”

The key, says Popple, is a 360-degree studio that can give the production team multiple places to shoot. The desk can move so the jib can be positioned in a more central location, and there will also be a Steadicam.

“It’s state of the art and now our signature studio,” he adds. “It’s nice to see it ready for the season.”