An inside look at what Miami Heat broadcasts will look like for the rest of the season
The Miami Heat’s three-game scrimmage schedule will serve as a dry run for the games that will actually count, an opportunity for players, coaches and staff in Walt Disney World to get used to the COVID-19 health and safety protocols that will make game days feel very different.
But the scrimmages won’t just help those in the NBA’s Disney bubble prepare for the start of “seeding” games. They will also serve as “live rehearsals” for the Heat’s broadcast team, which will be working in an empty AmericanAirlines Arena more than 200 miles away from the court the Heat will be playing on at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
“We were planning to just use those ourselves as technical rehearsals because we felt like, ‘Hey, you know, we’ll have all these great rehearsals and we’ll be able to flush it all out,’” Heat executive director of broadcasting Ted Ballard said before Miami’s first scrimmage Wednesday night against the Sacramento Kings. “And we realized, as did everybody, like we can’t not broadcast these. People have been waiting forever. People want live content. Most people won’t care that you’re still fixing things. They just want to see the content, and that’s what we’re going to show them.”
Fox Sports Sun will air all three of the Heat’s scrimmage games, with the second scrimmage (vs. Utah Jazz on Saturday at 4 p.m.) on tape delay on television and streamed live on the FOX Sports GO app.
“People want this. So what do we do? We give it to them,” Ballard said of the decision to broadcast the scrimmages. “And if they ride along a couple of our uneasy parts on the roller coaster ride to start, they hopefully will understand.”
In addition, Fox Sports Sun will carry live broadcasts of the Heat’s full eight-game “seeding” schedule. All “seeding” game broadcasts will feature a half-hour pregame show and extended postgame coverage.
The broadcasts will include all of the familiar faces and voices — Heat television play-by-play announcer Eric Reid, television color analyst John Crotty, radio play-by-play announcer Mike Inglis, television studio and radio analyst Ruth Riley Hunter, television studio analyst and radio analyst Ron Rothstein, television host and courtside reporter Jason Jackson, Spanish radio play-by-play announcer Jose Paneda and Spanish radio analyst Joe Pujala.
But it will be anything but familiar to those involved with the broadcasts, working out of an empty AmericanAirlines Arena and calling Heat games off a pair of 75-inch television monitors in front of them. The pair of monitors in front of each broadcast crew includes one screen featuring the program feed and the other featuring “several camera feeds, including a camera that is a lockdown of the entire court. So they can see the entire court in case we’re on something else. And they will have what’s called the game camera, which is the one that follows the ball all the time.”
Physical distancing protocols are also in place, with most meetings held virtually even if everybody involved is inside the arena.
“Unless there is a specific reason for people to be anywhere but in the position they need to be in, we’re trying to limit interaction,” Ballard said. “People have very specific roles in very specific areas.”
Reid and Crotty will call games from their usual table next to the AmericanAirlines Arena court, but they will be sitting more than six feet apart and with plexiglass between then. Jackson will lead the pregame and postgame shows from his usual spot on the arena’s suite level. Rothstein will provide his halftime and postgame analysis from a spot on the court. And the radio announcers will be working at a table on the opposite side of the court of Reid and Crotty.
Also, those who used to work out of a production truck situated just outside of AmericanAirlines Arena are now working in the arena control room.
“[Senior director of arena broadcasting services] Ed Filomia and his group have sacrificed greatly,” Ballard said. “His whole team of broadcast engineers is just tearing apart and rebuilding that room to make it feel like a truck. That is quite a challenge.”
Among the other health and safety protocols in place for the broadcast team: Plexiglass will separate every announcer and broadcast engineer, each person has their own headset assigned to them that will be individually bagged each night, each broadcaster has their own arena dressing room to prepare for games and facilitate physical distancing, and meals are eaten in shifts while the spaces being used are continuously cleaned throughout the day.
All involved must also wear masks, with only the broadcasters allowed to go without a face covering when they are on the air.
Employees from all levels of the organization have been involved in planning for the broadcasts and helping to shape the arena to make it as safe as possible.
“That again goes to how devoted and how serious people are taking it and how dedicated they are to making this a reality,” Ballard said of the planning process. “We all feel the obligation to deliver these games to the fans. We get it. They want them. To do that, I don’t think people will ever know just how difficult or challenging it is.
“There’s no question that safety is first. Yes, the broadcasts are important. Yes, we want to do this for the fans. But health and safety unquestionably is the top priority.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 1:30 PM.
