The NBA's production and programming division, NBA Entertainment, used a Snell & Wilcox Ukon universal format conversion platform to prepare HD footage of the NBA finals for use by Japanese broadcaster NHK.
The games, recorded at the home venues of the San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets by NBA Entertainment's mobile truck, were converted from 720p for American broadcast to 1080i for Japanese broadcast through the Ukon before being recorded onto HDCam. The tapes were then sent to NHK.
The Ukon is designed to convert between SD and HD in any direction, whether up, down or across formats. The equipment can also convert aspect ratios and time coding, and has comprehensive audio handling and 3:2 cadence detection and repair. It performs these duties simultaneously, allowing excess nonlinear software tools to remain free for other uses.
