ATLANTA—When the 2021-22 NHL season opened in October from its new home on TNT, Turner Sports unveiled a new broadcast studio powered by the disguise live visual creative platform.
Four disguise vx 2 media servers and five rx II render nodes are driving the more than 270-degree wraparound visual content in the studio, which will be used exclusive over the next three years as home to league coverage, disguise said.
Built in under two months at the end of summer with the help of disguise Certified Solution Provider and Atlanta-based creative studio MEPTIK, the studio is leveraging disguise’s ability to seamlessly combine LED and projection to create the massive canvas. The disguise deployment combines nine projectors, two LED walls and multiple cameras into a single end-to-end workflow.
“This is a full broadcast studio completely driven by disguise,” said Gideon Ferber, disguise director of product for broadcast who oversaw the development of the studio. “Turner Sports opted for the full disguise solution for its ease of use and efficiency of delivery.”
Custom-built curved LED panels on either side of the oval and the projection screen filling the remaining canvas display video, images and data via the disguise solution. A full height diagonal LED panel display and two large tracking monitors in the foreground of the studio further blend the LED and projection displays and offer additional flexibility for shots and presenter positions, the company said.
A pixel-accurate 3D project was created and played out before going live with the new studio. “It was absolutely crucial to be able to pre-visualize the studio because they didn’t have time to do rehearsals or block shots in advance during the build,” said Ferber. “The studio was actually up and running a week before the go-live date, so the ability to previs the whole setup and how the content would look, then build in animations and graphics, was imperative.”
The in-house production team of Turner Sports received training on the disguise workflow for broadcast from disguise and MEPTIK. Curricula for each key set of skills, from producers and creatives to engineers and operators, guided the training of a number of super users across each skill. Using disguise’s online training community, the aim was to have the team gain knowledge over time.
“We provided Turner Sports with a blank canvas for creatives to tell their best stories and engage the audience. We were so proud of being able to turn around this project in such a short timeframe and have it be such a success,” said Phil Ventre, vice president of broadcast at disguise.
More information about disguise is available online.
