Project Type
Live for Broadcast. Inside The NBA Live broadcast of Pregame, Half Time, and Post Game coverage
Project Name
Inside The NBA Live broadcast of Pregame, Half Time, and Post Game coverage at the 2026 NBA Finals in New York City and San Antonio for ESPN, produced by TNT, lighting by The Lighting Design Group.
Design Criteria
The intent of The Lighting Design Group's design was to bring the experience of watching the NBA Finals with the Inside the NBA broadcast team of Shaq, Kenny, EJ and Charles into viewers’ homes…to let them experience the energy of being in the middle of the event alongside four legendary broadcasters who also bring a unique level of access and perspective.
It had to look present, very specifically, the court, crowd, and architecture needed to feel present in the picture, with the hosts looking polished and connected to the environment around them. That sense of physical presence was essential. There should be no question that they were there and the chaos and impromptu nature was real .
We had to adapt to the technical, logistical and design difficulties of each room and use its character to our advantage, sometimes finding out where we were going only about 24 hours in advance. The overarching aesthetic stayed consistent even when the circumstances changed: make the broadcast feel immersive, immediate, and unmistakably inside the arenas and Inside the NBA.
Project Description
Inside the NBA is a sportscast desk show plopped into the middle of the logistics of one of the world's biggest sporting events. The lighting team was tasked with making the unpredictability and impromptu nature of the show translate while dealing with unpredictable fans, celebrities and…our own talent. From Spike Lee stealing our Apple Boxes, to having to get set mid court in 2.5 minutes after a buzzer beater, the project is based on flexibility and adaptability.
Challenges and Solutions
Challenges? Imagine you have LIVE coverage with four unpredictable talent, in two unknown venues, potentially separated by thousands of miles, and several time zones, venues you may have never been in, in locations INSIDE those venues that aren’t entirely locked in, with a shoot that's going to bounce between those locations for as long as two weeks…and in some instances, you find out the night before you get on a plane where you are flying the next morning, to be LIVE 30 hours later.
All of those challenges are before we get into the first venue and get to see what location was negotiated, and, working with the rest of the broadcast team, figure out how to get the best, most immersive camera shots, give room for our anchors to be their best selves…..but also be able to strike or lower the whole rig in the 3 minutes between our broadcast ending and the start of the game, so we don’t obstruct spectators sitelines. The restore for halftime needs to be equally as quick and seamless.
When we return for postgame, it meant on occasions, like at MSG, we needed to wade through seas of celebrating fans (get out of the way Timothy Chalomet!) to get to midcourt, dodging fans, other productions, and players, while seamlessly hitting air, calibrated, focused and balanced in about 4 minutes.
We traveled on the same schedule as the team, bouncing between San Antonio and NYC every few days.
Beyond the technical and logistical challenges…..we also had to make sure everyone looked their absolute best!
Equipment
For our quick court-side deployments we utilized four Creamsource Micro Colors. The compact form factor and punchy output combined with the long battery life made them the perfect choice for the pre and post game segments.
On our San Antonio set where we had to battle the lighting of the arena, we used the Apurture Nova2 panels to create a solid base of light with infinitely tunable color. The spectral quality of the NOVA IIs were really what made this hit. It’s not just about replicating ‘perfect’ light, but rather being able to mimic whatever light we are having to deal with.
For the units that needed to be raised and lowered we went with the Prolite Eclipse Profile FC and the CreamSource MicroColor. The ECL is a fantastic unit with great output and half the weight of similar lights.
Team
Lighting Designer: Mike Grabowski
Gaffer: Seán Linehan
Best Boy: Rachael Shair
Project Manager: Kyle Collop
ADVANCE TEAM: Karim Badwan (LD) Liam O'Brien (Best Boy)
Vendor: 4Wall (Drew DeCorleto, Tara France)
Gear: CreamSource, Apurture, Prolites