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At a neutral site with no fans, NBA eager to debut innovations for its broadcasts
Innovative technology seeks to make games better for TV viewers
Microphones will be placed under the floor and around the court. Cameras will be everywhere. Fans 3,000 miles away will be seen and heard.
The NBA, salvaging its season on what amounts to Disney stages with fans far removed, could not look as it had or still would prefer. So, as with players filling time by pulling fish from the campus lake or tossing beanbags at cornhole targets, it went for making the best of the unprecedented situation.
The league will look vastly different, with scrimmages so far offering a glimpse of what will come when games begin Thursday. In some ways, the NBA and its partners will try replicate what it can but also replace some of what will be conspicuously missing. It will attempt to make up for what cannot be offered in games without fans with options that could range from entertaining to cool.
“Right from the forefront, we’ve worked on this entire concept, this restart, basically from scratch,” said Paul Benedict, the NBA’s associate vice president for broadcasting and content management. “Innovation was the focus from the very beginning. How can we recreate what our shows look like and, in a lot of ways, take advantage of our fan-less, neutral site, turn the basketball court into our own TV studio?
“It’s been a challenging experience. In a lot of ways, you are rewriting the entire rule set. It was fun looking at the floor as your studio space without obstacles.”
There is a chance having virtual fans surrounding the court could feel dystopic. Roaring announcers or familiar trumpets signaling calls to “charge” might sound corny when there are no fans on site to respond. But initial reviews have been positive.
“I think it will be great,” said Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, who had been briefed on the ideas. “The NBA is always on the cutting edge of innovation. These are tough times. Great innovation can come out of it. I think we have an opportunity to do something to make it really enjoyable. It’ll be fun.”
But for the NBA, when bubble ball became unavoidable, there were endless arrays of those meetings when the person at the head of the table — or Zoom call — says no idea is a bad one and actually means it and many others start sentences with the phrase “what if we.”
“There’s no question at the forefront of all this is how can you recreate the energy you’re losing from fans being in the building,” Benedict said. “It’s an interesting problem to try to solve. Do we
want this to be a long-term solution? No. Of course, we want arenas full. It’s hard to replicate what that experience is like, but we’re going to do our best.”
Some of the ideas begin with offering more of what went into game presentations before.
There will be up to 31 cameras at games with many positioned in what normally would be high-dollar seats filled by the rich and famous. But of those cameras, 25 will be in positions normally impossible to use. (Nationally televised games typically have no more than 20 cameras with local broadcasts using seven to 10.) For the first time, almost all of the courtside cameras will be robotic.
The “courtside cam” will bring the view from roughly the 10th row. The “rim cam” will show battles in the paint, at least for teams that actually go there. The “rail cam,” unavailable in any NBA arena for 19 years, will move parallel to the court along with players as they go up the floor.
The music and PA announcers will be designed to sound like a home game. When the Rockets are the designated home team, baskets will be scored by
“JAAAAAAMES HARDEN!!!” or “Giannis Antetokounmpo.” Laker Girls will not take the court, though they did make a virtual appearance in a scrimmage, but Lakers fans could hear “I Love L.A.” as always.
The assorted sounds of squeaking sneakers and bouncing balls are not just heard on broadcasts because there is no fan noise to drown them out but because of enhanced microphones selected for these games.
There is, however, a determination not to make the production too intrusive. As much fun as it might be to experiment, those in charge of broadcasts pledge that they won’t.
“I think people are going to be pretty excited about what they see,” ESPN senior coordinating producer Tim Corrigan said. “It’s really super visual, but doesn’t compete with the game. I just think it’s going to be a really fabulous kind of venue because it has been built for TV. But our jobs are still to document the game, so we’re not going to experiment when the ball is in play too much.
“I think on and around the edges, coming and going from break
and dead ball situations, will prove to be really interesting for the fans and for the producers and directors of this event as well. But documentation is always the priority.”
Those who prefer to watch games from unusual angles will have that option. On League Pass and NBA-TV digital feeds, fans will be able to choose their audio or visual feeds. In some audio streams, they could opt for commentary from influencers focused on gaming or fantasy play.
The most obvious feature of the games will be the virtual fans displayed on the 17-foot video boards surrounding the court. By using a new “Together” feature on the Microsoft communication app Teams, invited fans could not only be seen on the video boards, but will be heard reacting in real time.
The designated home teams will invite roughly 320 fans to participate, along with NBA and family sections. (The Rockets will announce how they will select their virtual fans this week.) The sound of their reactions will be mixed with crowd noise and brought into the arena and the other customary sound effects and music to make the atmosphere at games feel closer to the real thing for viewers and players.
Crowd noise will even be tailored so reactions to a 3-pointer to go up 12-9 does not sound the same as taking a last-minute lead, presumably avoiding the canned feel of a sitcom laugh track.
“What we really have been focused on is creating the most genuine experience possible for our fans watching at home, but also for our players in the arena,” said Sara Zuckert, NBA head of Next Gen Telecast. “We wanted to create something that felt real and gave fans the opportunity to be present and also to interact digitally.”
Most of the ideas, especially the effort to have virtual fans, only will be necessary in these circumstances the league hopes to never revisit. Other innovations fit into the long-held goal to improve broadcasts. The NBA and even some vendors have worked on alternate broadcasts at summer league games to experiment with new technology or ideas.
The need to resume a season on the Disney campus amid a pandemic forced an urgency to come up with alternatives.
“It’s been a big focus for Adam (Silver, the NBA commissioner) specifically,” Benedict said. “How can we enhance our broadcasts for the future, not just … the next year, two years, three years, but looking further down the road? We have an internal workforce that’s generally really focused on this.”
Still, innovation is not ideally inspired by the need to make the best of a bad situation. The NBA will happily junk some of the best ideas for the restart games when it returns to the way things used to be, knowing cool ideas won’t actually replace being there.
“What we found through all technology is there’s nothing that can replicate the feel of being in an NBA arena,” Zuckert said. “We recognize that there’s nothing on any platform that can replace that, so I don’t think it is a concern. But we’re looking at this as our opportunity to test all of this technology for how we can introduce it in future opportunities wherever we are.”
As unprecedented as the situation might be, and as much will be tried to make it work, in the end, what will matter most will not have changed at all.
“We’re dealing with a very disruptive time and through disruption potentially, great innovation can emerge and evolve,” said Craig Barry, the Turner Sports executive vice president and chief content officer. “What’s happening on the court and the access to what’s happening on the court is the most important part.”