At Mediapro Facility, TNT Sports Operations Team Devises Agile Production, Tech Plan for Startup League

At Mediapro Facility, TNT Sports Operations Team Devises Agile Production, Tech Plan for Startup League

Dedicated space, high-quality gear create a sandbox for experimentation

Unrivaled, the long-awaited professional 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, officially tips off its inaugural season this evening with a doubleheader on TNT. From Mediapro’s customized facility in Miami, TNT Sports will broadcast the thrice-weekly, eight-week-long schedule with the production and tech firepower of its South Florida host and thorough planning by the young organization.

The new Unrivaled 3-on3 women’s hoops league will be played in Mediapro’s facility in Miami.

“Our role is to support these games as a broadcast partner but have our studio-content and production teams collaborate with Unrivaled’s collective vision,” says Chris Brown, VP, technology and operations, TNT Sports. “It has been a lot of fun because, anytime you get to do something that has never been done before, it’s exciting to build it from the ground up.”

CLICK HERE for Part 2 of our two-part series on Unrivaled, focused on TNT Sports’ studio show productions. 

Doing the Homework: Unrivaled Relies on Mediapro, TNT Sports To Realize Its Vision

Many things make the brand-new league noteworthy and special. From a societal perspective, Unrivaled will provide equity in a way that international leagues cannot guarantee. For example, all players will receive a six-figure salary, operate in a communal setting alongside other top players of the sport, and have a significant say in how the competition is presented to viewers. From a broadcast perspective, Unrivaled’s choice to roll with the production expertise and tech capabilities of Mediapro offers the possibility of an engaging televised product polished by the battle-hardened experience of TNT Sports. Although it’s the league’s first year, all business decisions are being made by seasoned executives, including EVP, Broadcast and Production, Matt Miller, and Tech Director Petro Mnych.

“Unrivaled definitely did their homework,” says Brown. “Their consultants and the individuals that they work with have ties within the NBA, so they’re bringing a lot of those ideas to the table.”

These ideas, rooted in innovation and the commitment to producing the best product possible, are seeping into the technology and workflows that fans will see immediately in the first game. The 12-camera complement, for example, will include two above-the-rim POVs, a roaming RF handheld, and, most notably, a court-length RailCam and aerial drone. The drone is an Unrivaled-owned device and will fly, like other drones used inside, above the playing surface during stoppages in play. The RailCam will travel along the court at ankle height to showcase the action on the floor. Off the court, access will be a priority.

“Providing unprecedented access will be key to this league,” says Brown. “We’re going to do our best to leverage elements like live microphones [on a delay] throughout the broadcast. It’s going to be a crawl, walk, run approach as we sort out what this product is going to be.”

A new league wouldn’t be complete without a reimagined on-air look, and TNT Sports’ creative department has been hard at work translating the league’s color pattern and logos into an eye-catching graphics package. “There are elements that are going to be new and will incorporate the look that the league has created,” he says. “You’re also going to see some traditional TNT Sports elements displayed in a way that’s easily digestible for the fans.”

Nimble Environment: Miami Facility Allows Crew To Adjust Tech Infrastructure

TNT Sports’ crawl, walk, run mentality is commonplace in producing games of a new league, but another factor particularly makes this a viable approach: the broadcast-centric venue. The nearly 130,000 sq. ft. facility offers players all the creature comforts, but, for the production and operations team, it’s a playground for experimenting with both gear and concepts. Scrimmages and rehearsals during the week enabled the broadcaster not only to time out its studio programming but also to line up desirable shots, understand how this game translates in real time, and finalize what will make it to the first broadcast and what will not.

Unrivaled’s opening night will tip off tonight with two games on TNT.

“We have a plan of what we think we’re going to do,” Brown notes, “and then there’s going to be what actually happens once they tip off and the season begins. We have a very short amount of time to do this, with the season being eight weeks, but this tech-friendly sandbox is going to allow us to change things quickly. For instance, we can see something on Friday and have something else in its place by Monday.”

With the added wrinkle of 3-on-3 basketball, the court will be much smaller than a conventional court. This will prevent injuries and provide a tighter space for the players to show off their speed and athleticism. The scale permits use of fewer game cameras but also causes unique issues for some pieces of technology.

“With the court being so small and the game being so fast,” Brown explains, “the question is whether the RailCam is going to able to capture gameplay. Working with Unrivaled, we’ll be able to make decisions that are going to create a better viewing experience.”

Content Pipeline: Mediapro Facility Links to TNT Sports’ Techwood in Atlanta

Because the entire 45-game regular season — plus a three-day 1-on-1 tournament with a minimum payday of $250,000 in mid February — takes place in one location, the broadcast compound will be quite light. Mediapro’s facility will be augmented by its Alto mobile unit for game coverage and will send live feeds to TNT Sports’ Techwood facility in Atlanta for studio coverage. The mobile unit represents a reliable transmission source, but the relationship between South Florida-based company and the national broadcaster goes beyond that.

“They have a very large fiber-optic footprint, particularly along the East Coast,” notes Brown. “Our Warner Bros. Discovery team partners with them and their circuits between Mediapro’s facility in Miami and [WBD’s] facility in Sterling, VA. There’s already built-in connectivity, but we’re layering into that.”

As a bonus on the connectivity front, Unrivaled’s workflows in Miami accesses TNT Sports’ content and storage pipeline, informally known within the walls of Techwood as the Autobahn. The league’s content teams in Florida go online via Autobahn Juniors, portable computers that tap into the permanent network in Atlanta. The connection will synchronize the work of both locations and create a high-speed lane for file sharing.

“Our teams back home can create promos and features [with these resources], and we can properly store melts and other game footage,” says Brown. “We’ve walked them through how to get onsite content back to us and how to find content that we create in Atlanta that can be implemented into their game coverage.”

Proceed With Patience: Broadcaster Starts 2025 With Basketball-Heavy Schedule

TNT Sports has long been a hub for the die-hard basketball fan. Unrivaled’s debut makes that even truer, but, adding its six games per week to the two nights per week of NBA on TNT doubleheader action, can strain the logistics. Luckily, the broadcaster is accustomed to handling simultaneous seasons: for example, its current slate of NHL on TNT broadcasts and the upcoming MLB on TBS.

“[All these properties] have prepared us to get here,” says Brown. “Everyone has had to shift responsibilities around and take on more assignments, but a couple things are helping to spread the load a little bit. We’ve shifted to remote-production workflows for many of our properties, but, with Unrivaled handling production of their games, the work falls on our studio-operations team.”

The never-ending nature of live sports production in 2025 can be daunting, and the prospect of being part of an upstart professional league is particularly so, but Brown and his crew — including Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Manager, Technical Operations, Mark Hershner and TNT Sports’ Manager, Strategic Production Planning, Jimmy Bligh — are industry veterans. And what makes the effort tick smoothly? Patience.

“We’re letting [this project] develop and recognizing that it’s a marathon, where you have to pace yourself,” he says. “You also need to take the help when it comes and be open to anything, because great ideas come from everywhere. When you’re launching something that’s new like this, it forces you to stop, listen, and consider what others on your team are saying, because everybody wants to achieve the same goal.”

Coverage of Friday’s Opening Night doubleheader of Lunar Owls Basketball Club vs. Mist Basketball Club (7 p.m. ET) and Rose Basketball Club vs. Vinyl Basketball Club (8 p.m.) will begin with a 30-minute pregame show at 6:30 p.m. on TNT and Max.


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