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The Technology Behind the NBA Finals

Posted by Soulskill on from the invalid-three-pointer dept.

BobB-nw brings us NetworkWorld's behind-the-scenes look at the technology supporting the NBA Finals. They primarily use Lenovo ThinkPads which run an automated statistic-gathering system. The NBA eschews Wi-Fi due to security concerns, and it abandoned attempts to use touch-screen technology because of durability and ease-of-use issues. Whether or not basketball is your sport of choice, it's an interesting view of how modern sports presentations come together. "Other courtside systems with proprietary software synch up with compact belt packs worn by the referees, who automate clock stoppages by blowing their whistles. Hellmuth noted that he oversaw an effort to ensure that clock stoppages could be seen from any angle in the arena by having lights on the backboard and elsewhere all flash at once."

3 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmmm by drdaz · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the Boston Garden closed following the 1994-1995 NBA season. They now play here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD_Banknorth_Garden

  2. Referee belt packs by 2phar · · Score: 3, Informative

    Other courtside systems with proprietary software synch up with compact belt packs worn by the referees, who automate clock stoppages by blowing their whistles. Yeah those belt packs are amazing - especially the virtual reality part that lets NBA Refs see those game changing fouls that all the TV cameras and fans somehow miss.
  3. Re:Communication speeds by joseph.bartolotta · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a broadcast engineer for the company who provides the technical facilities to ESPN/Turner for the broadcasts of NBA games, I can say this network is only used for the statistics data.

    the live webstream is generated by an entirely separate entity who derives their video from our cameras, but as for their transmission, i believe they transfer from site to NBA.com offices via the house WAN (typically t3 trunks)..

    networking in television production trucks, while rather basic, employs some pretty interesting technologies... the EVS machines (basically really advanced dvr's that allow for "live slowmo", and creation of clips from the incoming video signals instantaneously, for all those instant replays) transmit all audio/tvideo to a proprietary dataserver located inside the truck by use of a proprietary coaxial network (called sdti)

    as for your hd broadcasts, those still go out the old fashioned way, via satellite...

    and i gotta tell you.. if you own an hdtv, you're getting hosed by your service provider. it's crazy how bad the signal you get at home is in comparison to what gets beamed to/from that satellite.