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Behind the Scenes at the 2018 AAC Tournament

Amway Center - Orlando, FL

Here at BRO Sports® Network, we intend to bring you some of the best sports coverage on the blockchain! In addition to the quality reporting across the wide spectrum of sports available from BROSPN contributors, I will be providing a periodic peek behind the scenes at what it takes to bring these sporting events into your living room, sports bar or wherever you choose to cheer for your team! I recently had the pleasure of working for ESPN to help bring this tournament to the masses on TV.

When I left off last with part 1 of this behind the scenes look at the AAC tourney, we had just finished set day. All of our cameras, mics, talent consoles, monitors and other hardware were in-place and ready for the show. Bright and early the following morning we arrived back at the arena to perform another full test of all equipment.

Thankfully there were no surprises and our test went off without a hitch so it was time to head back to the truck and eat breakfast with the crew. After a welcome respite with no 'fires' to put out, it was time for everyone to get into positions in anticipation of the tournament tip-off!

I grabbed my two-way radio, earpiece, flagged down my assistants and we headed out towards the court. At this point Murphy's Law almost always comes into play.

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It was a bit hectic during the first game getting everyone on the floor happy with their comm mixes. There was a plethora of personnel on the floor who all have to communicate with various positions inside the production truck. Just another responsibility for me courtside.

It was pretty smooth sailing after the first game, thankfully.

There were two teams of broadcast commentators, each pair worked either the two early or late games.


Here you can see a picture from behind the 'booth' including our 'color' commentator who joined us for the evening games each day along with our mid-court handheld camera operator.

In addition to the mid-court handheld there were two other HH cams under each bucket. These can be quite dangerous positions to run. I've seen guys get plowed running this position, the shots looked AMAZING though!

We positioned several other cameras throughout the arena to maximize the viewing experience for those of you on the other end.

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Above you can see the two big lens cameras positioned on the club level for the main play-by-play and isolation angles that are the primary two shots used for basketball. Speaking of the club level, let's make our way towards the elevator and take a look at our setup a few stories above the court. As you exit the elevator, it's a short walk to mid-court.

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Walk down a few stairs and you'll find the camera cove, with some of the best positions to run camera from. Affectionately known as 'Star Wars' seats in the business, these seats allow the cam ops to smoothly slide side-to-side with ease.

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So besides the cameras with big 60x glass on them, you can also see my two RF (wireless audio) antennae sticking out. The wireless mics were placed on the coaches in the locker room prior to the game. Clips were taken of the coaches during timeouts and such to add the 'story' being told over air. Let's head back down to the court for a bit.

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Usually during game time I'm hanging out near the corner of the court or right next to the booth. While the commentators you listen to during games are actually very informed when it comes to team stats and other bits of info you're fed throughout the broadcast, there is a 'STATS' person sitting right next to the commentators feeding them stats live. In this picture it happens to be the large man in the ugly plaid suit. His outfit day 2 was just as ridiculous.

Let the Games Begin!

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Of course I was a bit favored towards the USF BULLS but they got knocked out round 1!

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Of all the cameras positioned throughout the arena to help bring the action to you, one camera was easily the favorite of every crew member. While we had cameras behind each backboard for dunk cams, one of those cams was a robotic cam controlled by an old XBox controller inside the production truck! This guy was tracking the ball for each game for those shots. It certainly looked like a fun position if you ask me.

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After each game we typically had an interview with the 'player of the game' to fill time until our satellite window closed ending the scheduled air-time for the game. As you can see in the following pictures, post-game interviews with our early commentator team included former Hoya coach John Thompson III who can stand toe-to-toe with the big guys! Our 'color' commentator for the evening games was much shorter so the post-game interviews were conducted at the booth on headsets.

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post-game interview with UCF's BJ Taylor

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post-game interview with Memphis' F Kyvon Davenport

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post-game interview with SMU G Ben Emelogu II

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post-game interview with HOU PG Rob Gray

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Meeting of the Minds

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Memphis coach Tubby Smith and former Hoya coach John Thompson III

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I hope you enjoyed this brief peek behind the curtain of live sports TV production. There's plenty more to come, exclusively here on the BRO Sports® Network!

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_{Author: @liberty-minded
Editor: @liberty-minded}

_{©2018 BRO Sports™ Network}