The NBA on Thursday formally opened its new Replay Center in Secaucus, N.J., a key element of its move to a centralized instant replay system. The Replay Center, a converted storage space in the league’s facilities there, features 20 replay stations, 94 TV monitors, and a 10-gigabit data network that is 66 times larger than its predecessor and is connected to all 29 NBA arenas. The Replay Center was developed with the aid of Colorado-based bandwidth infrastructure outfit Zayo Group and was overseen by NBA Exec VP/Operations & Technology Steve Hellmuth and NBA Senior VP/Replay & Referee Operations Joe Borgia. The NBA earlier this year formalized plans for a centralized replay system after numerous years of study and development. “We have something that is really well configured for our sport, which is a flow sport, and is going to immediately give the referees multiple broadcast-quality angles at the plays in question,” Hellmuth said. The new Replay Center also will support several fan-facing elements of the new system, including a dedicated website for review calls at NBA.com/Replay, a regular distribution of selected calls on Twitter at @nbaofficial, and similar to other leagues, relaxed in-arena rules for showing disputed plays on video boards. Development costs for the new Replay Center were more than $15M. The league projects to review more than 31,500 hours of video at the center during the '14-15 season.
