NBA - Footage Delivery Workflows

Deliverables for NBA Prime Games:

• Prime Video Game Feeds - Dirty, Clean, PVZ, Net Returns, ISO Cams, Spanish - These feeds are ingested directly into the Culver City facility using Telestream Light Speed ingest servers. As files are being recorded live, we have the ability to edit those growing files in Adobe Premiere for any highlights being produced. Once the ingests have completed, all feeds will be accessible in Iconik immediately after the records are completed. 
  • NBA on Prime game feeds can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 01_GAME-RECORDS sub-collection. They can also be found in the _INGEST collection, within the INGEST-ALL sub-collection. 
  • NBA on Prime games are being transcribed, specifically the Domestic Dirty feed of all Prime games. The transcriptions are searchable in Iconik once you open the Transcription panel.
  • All Prime Sports NBA broadcasts get time-based NBA statistical metadata applied to them, so every event from the game is viewable as a sub-event and filterable.
• Prime Video Pregame, Halftime, Postgame Shows - We record Dirty, Clean and Net Return versions of all our shoulder programming for NBA. These feeds are ingested in real-time using Telestream Light Speed ingest servers and available in Iconik immediately after the records are completed. NBA Shoulder Programming includes the following shows: NBA Tonight, NBA Halftime, NBA Crossover, NBA Nightcap
  • NBA Pregame/Halftime/Postgame Shows can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 10_SHOWS collection. They can also be found in the _INGEST collection, within the INGEST-ALL sub-collection. 
  • NBA Pregame/Halftime/Postgame Shows are indexed in Twelvelabs for semantic search.
  • All NBA On Prime shoulder programming is being transcribed in Iconik. This is on the US Domestic version of all shows. The transcriptions are searchable in Iconik once you open the Transcription panel.
  • We do not record any Camera ISOs from our studio programming as SOP, so those will only be ingested upon request.
• Prime Video Melts - Melts are also referred to Alt-Z clips and are the individual camera angles from the broadcast truck EVS that get archived. There can be multiple melt clips per play, depending on the number of cameras used at the game and what angles the EVS operator chooses to archive. Melts include SSMO versions which are Super Slow-Motion clips. These will present in Iconik as duplicate versions of the real-speed clips, but are at a higher frame rate. These clips are typically 4x (4 times slower than real-speed or 240 fps) or 6x (6 times slower than real-speed or 360 fps)
  • Any Prime melt clips generated from our trucks are transferred in real-time back into Iconik using an ISG and the bandwidth available at the truck. 
  • When these clips are ingested, we automatically trigger an API call to ingest all the NBA play-level metadata and map it on those clips in the Iconik MAM. 
  • For the Prime NBA melts, we are passing the full metadata payload to a large language model (Claude) to create AI Play Summaries of each clip. That metadata maps back to an AI Summary field in Iconik and is searchable. 
  • We are indexing all of the Prime melts in Twelvelabs for semantic search. 
  • For all Melts created at Prime produced games, we are ingesting EVS metadata from the EVS sidecar xml’s. These xml files contain information about the Camera Label, or what the name and location of the camera was that captured the clip. That metadata maps back to an EVS Camera Label field in Iconik and is searchable. 
  • We are ingesting EVS sidecar metadata for Star Rating, which is user generated metadata applied by the EVS operators in the truck. Rather than have a multi-star rating scale, we are using a Star-No Star system, so a clip either has no star and isn’t notable or a clip has a star rating and is considered a great shot, moment or angle from the game on that specific shot. That metadata maps back to an EVS Star Rating field in Iconik and is searchable. That EVS Star Rating is a True/False field, so if a clip was starred then it sets to True. Clips that are not starred are set to False.

You can access all of these Prime Alt-Z melts in real-time during the game directly from the ISG

• Bird truck melts can be accessed in Iconik at ISG332-NBA-GCV-BIRD-MELT_332-to-1005
• Magic truck melts can be accessed in Iconik at ISG322-NBA-GCV-MAGIC-MELT_322-to-1005

If Prime Sports produces additional NBA games beyond the Bird and Magic truck each week, then additional ISG’s will be available for those games.

Additionally, there is a Saved Search created in Iconik each week that points directly to the Bird and Magic melt ISG’s. These Saved Searches provide 1-click access to all melt clips from a live game, as it updates dynamically while clips are delivered. The Saved Search is repurposed each week and will typically be labeled as 010226 OKC GSW MELT, where the team matchups and date is updated for each game. If Prime Sports produces additional NBA games beyond the Bird and Magic truck each week, then additional Saved Searches will be available for those games.

During the game, access the Alt-Z melt clips directly from the ISG path. This is the temporary path to look during the live event.

After the game is completed, you can access these melts from the NBA Content Collection, inside the 02_MELTS collection within the individual month collection. These Alt-Z individual files are found in a collection labeled for that specific game. This is considered the permanent location for these clips in Iconik.

Bandwidth constraints at the venue can impact the ability to deliver NBA Melt clips into Iconik in real-time. If a typical allocation of 2GB/s is dedicated at the venue for file transfers and that allows us to maintain a real-time workflow for melt delivery. If the bandwidth falls below 2GB/s or is unstable and fluctuates, that can impact melt delivery timing and create a backed-up queue of clips.

Additional broadcast trucks are deployed when Prime has an extended schedule of live game that exceed the capacity of the Bird and Magic trucks. This can include the Emirates Cup playoffs, International Games, or any time we have multiple night’s of NBA coverage in the same week. 

Additional trucks in use include: Columbia, Varsity, Pride. We also use additional trucks when producing International games, but those truck names are noit consistent.

Deliverables for NBA Games Non-Prime Games (Also called 3P games)

• Dirty, Clean and ISO Cam Feeds - We have access to the NBA’s HSAN network, which allows us to bring in live feeds from every NBA venue and record them in real-time in Telestream Live Schedule Pro. 
  • A standard record configuration on days when Prime Sports is live on the air is as follows:
    • Dirty Feed Home
    • Dirty Feed Away
    • Postgame Press Conference Home
    • Postgame Press Conference Away
  • A standard record configuration on days when Prime Sports is not live on the air is as follows:
    • Dirty Feed (Home or Away is determined by matchup)
    • Clean Feed
    • Handheld Left
    • Handheld Right
  • HSAN NBA Game Feeds are located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 01_GAME-RECORDS collection organized by month. They can also be found in the primary _INGEST collection, within the INGEST-ALL sub-collection. 
  • All Non-Prime Sports NBA Dirty and Clean broadcasts get time-based NBA statistical metadata applied to them, so every event from the game is viewable as a sub-event and filterable.
• Handheld ISO Cameras - In addition to the Clean and Dirty feeds, we are also ingesting Handheld Cameras from most NBA games coming through HSAN. There are up to 2 Handheld Cameras being ingested from each game, located under each basket on the floor. The Handheld Cameras are generally following the player with the ball and the shot to the rim.
  • Handheld Camera ISOs can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 02_MELTS collection within the individual month collection. These Handheld Camera ISO’s are found in the NBA_FLATTENED-MELTS sub-collection.
  • All Non-Prime Sports NBA Handheld ISO’s get time-based NBA statistical metadata applied to them, so every event from the game is recorded as a sub-event and filterable.
• Flattened Melts from RSN (Regional Sports Network games) - After a game is completed, we set up an additional feed on the HSAN game path to record any available postgame content. Occasionally (about 33% of the time) the team will play out a linear melt down that path. Since we are rolling on all post game feeds, we will clip off any melts that are fed down the path using Telestream GLIM. Those flattened melts are available in Iconik in either the GLIM collection within the root of the Ingest collection or they can be found in the NBA Content Collection in the Flattened Melts collection organized by month. Since these flattened melts are not associated back to the original timecode, they do not have any play-level metadata on them. 
  • We are indexing all RSN flattened melts in Twelvelabs for semantic search.
  • RSN Flattened Melts can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 02_MELTS collection within the individual month collection. These flattened melts are found in the NBA_FLATTENED-MELTS sub-collection organized by month.
• Melts - Melts are also referred to Alt-Z clips and are the individual camera angles from the broadcast truck EVS that get archived. There are multiple melt clips per play, depending on the number of cameras used at the game and what angles the EVS operator chooses to archive. Currently, Melts are only available for National Games, (ESPN, NBC) so we do not have access to melts for any RSN distributed games except for what we can record live through HSAN. For all nationally broadcast games (ESPN, NBC) we will receive melts within 24-hours of the game being played, so those will be available in the Iconik NBA Content Collection within that timeframe. For games played on the weekend, we will ingest those melts into Iconik on Monday’s, since there is limited Media Management staffing on the weekends. 
  • Alt-Z individual file melt clips from ESPN and NBC can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 02_MELTS collection within the individual month collection. These Alt-Z individual files are found in a collection labeled for that specific game.
  • All melts are integrated into the NBA’s API, so we are ingesting all the play-level metadata on these clips to allow for searchability in Iconik. 
  • For National melts, we are passing the full metadata payload to a large language model (Claude) to create AI Play Summaries of each clip. That metadata maps back to an AI Summary field in Iconik and is searchable. 
  • We are indexing all of the Prime melts in Twelvelabs for semantic search. 

• Phantom Cam - The NBA shoots an average of 3-4 games per week with a Phantom Cam. This footage closely resembles NFL Films Ground footage with a cinematic aesthetic. We will add all Phantom Cam footage into the Iconik NBA Content Collection, typically 1 day after the game is played. 
  • All Phantom Cam clips come with an associated .xml file that contains metadata about the clip. That .xml sidecar file is ingested into Iconik and the metadata is mapped to specific metadata fields to enhance searchability of the media. 
  • We are indexing all of the Phantom Cam footage in Twelvelabs for semantic search. 
  • Phantom Cam clips from the NBA can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the 03_NBA PHANTOM collection within the individual month collection. These files are found in a collection labeled for that specific game.
  • The NBA provides a tracking document of all pervious and upcoming Phantom Cam shoots, that schedule can be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1trsRXpun4p8hqMe-mfPVHv-SVd3UXbQIxQ-e_kyxZeE/edit?gid=115592751#gid=115592751
• Ad Hoc Historical Requests - For any historical footage requests (content prior to the 2024-25 NBA Season) we are utilizing the #pvls-footage-request Slack channel. There is a form directly integrated into this channel that you can fill out and submit your request. Once submitted, the PVLS media management team will input that request into a shared Google sheet managed by the NBA. The NBA footage team will review the request and process it. The PVLS Media Management team will update you when the footage is received and available in Iconik. 
  • It is important to search in Iconik first before requesting NBA Historical Footage, as we have received a lot of this footage already and we may have what you are looking for in Iconik. The best place to look in Iconik is within the NBA Content Collection, where there are 2 collections that contain historical footage. The CAREER PLAYER FOOTAGE collection contains numerous sun-collections labeled by player, so you can find significant player selects in this location. 
  • Additionally, the HISTORICAL FOOTAGE collection contains footage of key moments from the history of the league, player milestones and historically significant plays. This is a great resource to look at before requesting footage from the NBA.
  • NBA Historical Footage clips from the NBA can be located in Iconik within the NBA Content Collection, inside the CAREER-PLAYER-FOOTAGE collection. These files are organized in sub-collections labeled per player.

Primary contact information for NBA Historical Footage Requests:

• General Footage Requests Footage@nba.com
• Nik Dunn NDunn@nba.com
• Ryan Cain RCain@nba.com

Do not email the NBA directly for any footage requests, this information is being provided here solely for reference. Utilize the Slack request form for all NBA footage requests.