WNBA, NBA D-League Employ Latest NewTek Tricaster to Deliver Games in HD

The WNBA and NBA Development League will use the newly-launched NewTek TriCaster TCXD850 HD/SD portable live production system, to produce and deliver a full season of live games, online in HD for the first time, on WNBA.com and NBA.com/dleague. TriCaster TCXD850, which NewTek unveiled and received multiple awards for at the 2010 NAB Show, is the latest addition to the TriCaster line of products.

“TriCaster has provided us with a cost-efficient tool to produce and deliver NBA D-League and WNBA games to multiple distribution platforms,” says Steve Hellmuth, NBA EVP of operations and technology. “The architectural advances in the new TriCaster TCXD850 will allow us to facilitate expansion as our needs dictate.”

NewTek TriCaster has been used to produce and live stream events from the 2010 NBA All-Star Jam Session Sprite Slam Dunk Showdown in Dallas, as well as full seasons of NBA D-League games, since 2008. The NBA also used the NewTek 3PLAY HD/SD slow motion replay system, during 2009 NBA D-League All-Star practice events in Phoenix.

“The NBA Development League’s Futurecast webcasts represented the first time that an entire professional sports league made their full season available online, for free,” says Philip Nelson, NewTek SVP of strategic development. “With the success of Futurecast, we are excited to expand our relationship to the WNBA and help bring their games in HD to a larger audience, both on the Web and on broadcast television.”

The TriCaster TCXD850 is a 22-channel HD/SD live production switcher in a rack mount form factor, with redundant power supply and removable storage; eight external sources, eight virtual/mix channels; live HD virtual sets and advanced matte generation; overlay with rotation, positioning and scaling in 3D plus animated effects; HD live streaming; increased media player capabilities; and multi-view monitoring of all inputs and outputs.

With TriCaster a single operator or small team can simultaneously produce, live stream, broadcast, project, and record HD and SD network-style productions. The Tricaster switches between multiple cameras, virtual inputs, and live virtual sets, while inserting clips, titles, and motion graphics with multi-channel effects.

The TriCaster family of products in NTSC is available in North America starting at US$4,995, and multi-standard internationally starting at US$5,995.

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