Rogers Sportsnet yesterday introduced its new 11,000-square-foot Hockey Central Studio, the "largest, most innovative sports studio" in Canada, "providing fans with a sports entertainment playground," according to SPORTSNET.ca. The studio is "big and it's spectacular," containing nine separate sets, 52 monitors and 14 cameras. It features "a rotating main anchor desk with a 360° open environment allowing cameras to shoot from any angle," as well as an ultra-high-resolution monitor that "displays videos and graphics and leads into a giant video monitor wall." Jack Morton PDG, the company that "designed the sets for Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium" at both the '10 Vancouver and '12 London Games, created Sportsnet's new set over an eight-month period (SPORTSNET.ca, 9/29). In Canada, Rob Brodie wrote the ultra-high-resolution monitor -- nicknamed "Goliath" -- "dominates" the new studio, which will be unveiled to viewers on Oct. 8. Rogers President of Sportsnet & NHL Scott Moore said, "In some ways, studios and sets are a little bit like some nice wallpaper in your house. But in others, they set a tone as to what you’re going to do. When our commentators walked in here a couple of weeks ago, they went ‘oh my God, these guys are serious.’ We could have spent $5.2 billion on the rights and then found inexpensive ways of doing production. We’re not doing that. It’s important for us as a company and it’s important for viewers to know that the game is going to be covered well for the next 12 years. I think when people tune in for the first time, they’ll see ‘hey, they’re serious.'" Brodie noted the studio also boasts a "Puck Wall, which features one disc for all 30 teams." Place one of them "into a specially made cradle, and stats and info about that team pops up onto one of the 52 total screens in the studio." There also is an area with a floor "made of LED screens, which can be transformed into a faceoff circle or goalie’s crease for demonstrations." The studio also contains "three separate ‘regional’ sets, two of them stacked one on top of the other." Technology exists to "shoot three live broadcasts in the studio at the same time for three or more networks" (CANADA.com, 9/29).
