Massive Effort Gets Nashville's Bridgestone Arena Quickly Back in Operation After Flood Broadcast infrastructure faces a year's worth of restoration after water-main break By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Friday, December 9, 2022 - 10:31 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Black Friday lived up to its moniker this year for the NHL's Nashville Predators. About 5 a.m. on Nov. 25, an estimated 2 million-plus gallons of water poured into the production and event levels of the team's Bridgestone Arena home, the result of a water-main break. The disaster inundated the venue's broadcast-control room and TOC spaces, damaging broadcast and live AV systems and equipment.
One of the main points of water intrusion was directly above the DiGiCo S31 console used to mix broadcast audio and live sound. Water sat 3 ft. deep in some spots and caused some melt damage to the ice.
The arena had already experienced the effects of a 100-year catastrophic flood in Nashville: a 19-in. rainfall over two days in May 2010 brought the Cumberland River literally inside.
My chief engineer, Stephen Hart, was on his way in when [the main] broke, recalls Jacob Lutz, director, technical operations, Nashville Predators. He called me to say we had 3-6 ft. of standing water in the control room and operations center. I knew we were in trouble.
The day after Thanksgiving became a mad scramble to save what broadcast- and event-production components could be salvaged and immediately returned to use and to find substitutes and alternatives for everything that couldn't be saved at a venue that Pollstar described as the busiest arena in the world. Fortunately, Nashville's experience with dealing efficiently with disasters from floods to tornados and the fact that it takes the Tennessee state motto - The Volunteer State - seriously gave the Preds more than a fighting chance.
Nashville Predators' Jacob Lutz: My chief engineer called me to say we had 3-6 ft. of standing water in the control room and operations center. I knew we were in trouble after that.
An exhaustive and collaborative effort by arena staff, more than 30 public-works agencies, and vendors and other private companies brought 300 people to the arena within hours of the break. As a result, only two games, against Colorado and Columbus on that Friday and Saturday, respectively, were postponed, and the crew was ready for the Tuesday, Nov. 29 match with the Anaheim Ducks.
It would have been easy to shut the building down for 20, 30, 40, 50 days, Nashville Predators CEO Sean Henry told the Tennessean. Relocate the games; work a deal with another city; temporarily cancel or postpone concerts. But we sat together on Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday and said, How do we host all those events?' because it's an important thing that we do.
Much of the immediate restoration work was brute force. For instance, more than 1,000 box fans were brought into the building to vent the moisture, along with temporary duct work put into place. Meanwhile, Lutz's teams had begun to protect what it could from additional water damage, such as sourcing tarps and covering the Forecast workstations that make up many of the work surfaces in the control room and TOC.
It's a hockey arena. We don't have a lot of tarps and things lying around, says Lutz. We're just grabbing whatever we could grasp. We're going with the mindset that we need to save everything we can because this tech center is probably going down.
Virtual Cavalry Arrives Remotely It may have been Thanksgiving in the U.S. but not in Canada, where Evertz, one of the Predators' main technology vendors, is located. According to Lutz, Evertz assembled a reaction team that remoted in within 45 minutes, assessing damage to routers and other platforms and confirming data backups, the latter especially important as the broadcast teams transitioned to external mobile units for production, enabling the team to quickly upload router and other settings.
It was important for us, he says, to have companies like Evertz, Ross, Anthony James Partners, our integrator CTI [the last two having designed and built, respectively, the venue's control rooms], and others able to pick up the phone at that moment and help us out, to be able to get in remotely while the equipment was on because we didn't have any time to waste. Good backup practices, he notes, helped immeasurably in getting production back on track as quickly as it did.
The situation was not completely dire. The venue still had a working video system, and the backup systems for OES scoreboard management and shot clock were undamaged.
With the control room and TOC out of commission, production migrated to a production truck. Live Mobile Group (LMG) sent over locally based TNDV Elevation to handle the first two games post flood. Elevation served as the production-control room for the facility and served as the distribution point for feeds, per NHL requirements.
Thanks to the work of arena staff, public agencies, and vendors, Nashville's Bridgestone Arena postponed only two events after a water-main break flooded the production-control room and TOC.
The venue's Ross Xpression graphics system was ported over to TNDV Elevation, and the show files were loaded into Elevation's onboard platforms. Working directly with Ross and Anthony James Partners, the Predators were able to get the existing Ross Tessera LED system operable for the first game. Although the system was unstable, having a team of engineers on standby and onsite, with multiple redundant backups in place throughout the entire signal flow, allowed the use of all LEDs for clock, score, and in-bowl advertising.
It was a good short-term fix. By Tuesday evening, the crew was ready to produce a game.
We didn't ha
Most recent headlines
17/02/2025
TVBEurope talks to the team who brought a piece of broadcasting history back to life on BBC Wales last night
By Jenny Priestley
Published: February 14, 2025 ...
17/02/2025
Eligible studios will receive the relief directly from their local authorities, with no need to submit a claim
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: February 17, 20...
17/02/2025
As DEI initiatives come under pressure in the USA, supporters of Rise, which promotes diversity in the media and entertainment sector, discuss the continuing im...
17/02/2025
EIB Global loan will partially fund SES's continued O3b mPOWER medium earth orbit (MEO) fleet expansion enabling additional capacity worldwide. O3b mPOWER s...
15/02/2025
At Nielsen, Business Resource Groups (BRGs) play a critical role in nurturing a ...
15/02/2025
Innovation to empower creativity: Explore the latest in Lightroom
Rob Christensen February 15, 2025
0 Comments
Whether you want to remove distracting ...
15/02/2025
Wisycom, a worldwide leader in RF technology and provider of wireless solutions, announces a new distribution agreement with EQUAPHON. An Argentinian profession...
15/02/2025
DPA Microphones, the leading manufacturer of high-quality microphone solutions, is pleased to welcome Nicholas Nick Mariano and Vincent Vince Divine to the ...
15/02/2025
Tuxera, a leading provider of quality-assured file systems and networking solutions, will showcase how Tuxera Fusion SMB enables unprecedented performance for m...
15/02/2025
Bitmovin's latest Video Developer Report indicates an increasing role of AI, the slow adoption of next-generation codecs, and continuing challenges when it ...
15/02/2025
When Michelin Enterprises set out to promote its prestigious Hotel Guide in the new Sleepless in the Kitchen , campaign, veteran German/Slovenian gaffer Robert...
15/02/2025
Formula E, the world's first all-electric racing series, revolutionizing motorsport with cutting-edge technology and a commitment to sustainability has sele...
15/02/2025
Agile Content, a global leader in TV and video technology solutions, announces its rebranding to AgileTV.
The transition to AgileTV stems from a commitment to ...
15/02/2025
Hiltron Communications will promote the latest additions to its range of satellite communication products, systems and supporting services at GovSatCom 2025. Th...
15/02/2025
Following the success of the original Airglow Booklight, DoPchoice debuts a new addition to their inflatable line the Float. This lightweight, inflatable, round...
15/02/2025
LAS VEGAS Marshall Electronics has announced that it will debut its newest camera controller, the RCP Plus, at the 2025 NAB Show at Booth N2649 between April 5 ...
15/02/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has named Blake Sebo as the next general manager of KTUU and KYES, Gray's NBC and CBS affiliates in Anchorage, Alaska....
15/02/2025
KOKKEDAL, Denmark DPA Microphones will feature its new CORE+ technology for distortion-free microphone sound at the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, in Las Vegas....
15/02/2025
SWANSEA, U.K. QuickLink will launch StudioPro-NDI and StudioPro-3, two new models of its QuickLine StudioPro video production platform, at the 2025 NAB Show, Ap...
15/02/2025
Live From 2025 NBA All-Star Game Weekend: After 25 Years, Turner Sports All-In F...
15/02/2025
NASCAR Driver Cam on Max Embraces Cloud-Based Workflow for 2025 Season Chris Brown of WBD Sports says Mobii will play key part in delivering signals from the tr...
14/02/2025
Last month, we officially launched the Spotify Partner Program, a powerful new m...
14/02/2025
From an island off the coast of Lutruwita to the global stage in France SBS & ...
14/02/2025
The future of electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) land systems is evolving so that ...
14/02/2025
Here are 5 reasons why you should attend ISE 2025
Discover more about Calrec: Learn more about Calrec's legacy of innovation in broadcast audio solutions ...
14/02/2025
World Radio Day: On the same wavelength
By Graham Murray, International Sales Manager at Calrec
To mark World Radio Day, Calrec's International Sales Ma...
14/02/2025
DALLAS and TYSONS, Va. Tegna has concluded a broadcast rights agreement that makes Tegna's KFAA in Dallas the exclusive local television partner of the Dall...
14/02/2025
Amazon's Prime Video has released a new app for Apple TV that the streamer said delivers an improved streaming experiences with faster scrolling, improved s...
14/02/2025
CLEVELAND Telos Alliance announced a software update for its Axia Quasar XR and SR line of audio-over-IP (AoIP) mixing consoles and will show the offering at th...
14/02/2025
Puget Systems Returns to HPA Tech Retreat 2025 with New Analysis Tools for Puge...
14/02/2025
Glass Animals: Tour of Earth Uses Blackmagic Live Production Workflow
Brie Clayton February 14, 2025
0 Comments
80six deploys Blackmagic URSA Broadcas...
14/02/2025
A dispute between Paramount and Youtube TV that would have pulled CBS stations and Paramount's cable channels from the streaming service has been temporaril...
14/02/2025
Colourist Deidre (Dee) McClelland details how she helped shape the distinct look and feel of whimsical Oscar-nominated stop-motion film, Memoir of a Snail
By C...
14/02/2025
BitFire said it intends to introduce forward-looking services that simplify the launch of live production workflows, and enhance real-time collaboration
By Jen...
14/02/2025
The claim by the liquidators is the latest twist in the ongoing saga of the companys collapse at the end of 2021
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: February 14, ...
14/02/2025
A carriage dispute between YouTube TV and Paramount could come to a head today (Feb. 13), with the virtual pay TV provider threatening to pull all of the progra...
14/02/2025
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. LG Electronics USA has opened a new in-house, state-of-the-art virtual production studio at its 360,000-square-foot North American headqu...
14/02/2025
NEW YORK In a bid to help local broadcasters find new ways of monetizing their content, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and TVB have relea...
14/02/2025
WASHINGTON Three Democratic U.S. Senators have sent a stern letter blasting FCC Chair Brendan Carr for the weaponization of the agency for attacking broadcast...
14/02/2025
Years after launching the streaming service Apple TV+ in November of 2019, Apple has finally released a version of its steaming app for Android devices....
14/02/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. Red Digital Cinema will make its V-RAPTOR [X] and KOMODO-X camera systems available with Nikon's premier Z Mount, providing filmmaker...
14/02/2025
DAYTONA, Fla. The Fox Sports production of this year's Daytona 500 will see the addition of a few new tech elements and the continued unfolding of the broad...
14/02/2025
Watch Bryson Battles Blind Audition on The Voice Get a Four-Chair Turn Michael Bubl said the Boston Conservatory at Berklee musical theater senior might have...
14/02/2025
2025 Daytona 500: FOX Sports Looks To Ride Super Bowl LIX Momentum Into NASCAR S...
14/02/2025
14 Feb 2025
VEON's Kyivstar and the Come Back Alive Foundation Raise USD 2....
14/02/2025
Max Renews THE PITT, Starring Noah Wyle, For A Second Season
Max
Warner Bros. Television Group
The Pitt
New Episodes Of The Medical Drama From John...
14/02/2025
This year, Technicolor proudly celebrates 110 years of shaping the magic of cinema pioneering color, visual effects, and innovation that bring unforgettable l...
14/02/2025
NBA All-Star: More Games, More Teams, More Music, More Sound From the Court Turner Sports' team will deploy familiar tech to capture all the audio By Dan D...
14/02/2025
LIV Golf Continues To Innovate With Drones, Data-Driven Graphics, and All-Access...
Massive Effort Gets Nashville's Bridgestone Arena Quickly Back in Operation After Flood Broadcast infrastructure faces a year's worth of restoration after water-main break By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
