New to NBA coverage, the viewer experience offers several angles in addition to the main game feed
After teasing the feature prior to the 2025-26 NBA season tipoff, NBC Sports will officially debut Courtside Live on Peacock at today’s NBA All-Star Game. One of the alternative angles featured in Courtside Live, which promises to “bring fans inside the arena” via special curated video feeds, will be from a pair of mini 4K cameras strategically placed on each side of the scorer’s table.
“We’ve positioned an ultra-wide 4K camera right on the scorer’s table,” notes NBC Sports Director Pierre Moossa. “The goal is to give you that experience of sitting courtside. You might not be able to get a courtside seat, but now you can get that experience by watching on your phone. We’ll also have that camera available for the traditional broadcast.”
In addition to the courtside camera, the new viewing experience (available on the Peacock app via both TV and mobile) will offer different feeds: Star Spotlight highlights a star player on the court, while Bench Cam A and Bench Cam B stay focused on the court and provides a “front row seat” for the viewer.
The Courtside Live Camera
NBC Sports has worked with NEP Specialty Capture (formerly Fletcher) to deploy a specialized 4K Antelope Nucleus camera on each side of the scorer table. This Courtside Live perspective will place viewers directly at scorer’s-table level.
The compact Nucleus camera captures 4K high-frame-rate imagery for both continuous live output and replay. Its small form factor allows flexible placement: from low-home positions in baseball to stanchion mounts in basketball (where it has been deployed at Intuit Dome this weekend). The 4K source enables operators to extract 1080p replays from any portion of the frame, creating precisely framed shots.
For Courtside Live, a custom solution developed by NEP Specialty Capture positions viewers at the exact height and angle of courtside seats. A Nucleus camera in a padded housing on the scorer’s table is mounted on a robotic turntable that rotates the entire structure as play moves between ends of the court. The live camera provides a full wide shot of half court, delivering the immersive perspective NBC and Peacock envision for fans.
Today’s first deployment of the camera is a result of months of testing and collaboration by the league, NBC Sports, and NEP Specialty Capture. Tests began at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, and, since then, the unit has transformed through a variety of iterations.
NBC is using these two Nucleus systems on each side of the scorer’s table for Bench Cam A and Bench Cam B feeds, while a dedicated iso camera is providing the All-Star Spotlight feed. In order to present these feeds in 9×16 for mobile users, NBC is using the AiDi AI-based 9×16 real-time cropping solution provided by Nippon TV and FOR-A. AiDi delivers Automatic 9:16 cropping with auto-tracking using highly intuitive operation, which allows NBC to easily reformat its 16×9 live coverage for 9×16 mobile viewers.
New Perspectives for All Kinds of Fans
Soon after landing the NBA rights, John Jelley, SVP, product and user experience, Peacock/global streaming, NBCUniversal and his team began brainstorming with Moossa and Sam Flood, executive producer/president, production, NBC Sports, on a way to create new perspectives on the game that would appeal to both casual and avid fans.
“In these discussions,” says Jelley, “we realized there was an opportunity to offer users compelling angles of the game that were sometimes used in broadcast that we could make available all the time for Peacock users — whether that was a live shot of a single player or the player benches.”
In addition, Hot Highlights will curate moments from the game and beyond, showcasing not only key plays but the culture of the league, from tunnel looks to interviews to celebrity fans in the stands.
“Alongside those live angles,” says Jelley, “we also wanted to bring into the mix highlights of the game so far, player arrivals, reactions from celebrities, and other clips that celebrate the culture around the league and the sport — all while also presenting the main production. Once we established these angles, we tested out with consumers what would resonate most and found the combination of broadcast and alternative angles that was most compelling.”
This weekend’s launch comes on the heels of the debut of Rinkside Live during NBC’s Olympics coverage. Similar to Courtside Live, the Rinkside Live experience provides live behind-the-scenes footage of athletes for selected figure-skating events and hockey games. Video options include Coaching Cam (a view of the skaters’ coaching area), Training Room (fitness cam capturing athlete preparation) for figure skating, and Bench Cam for hockey.
“We’ve already seen great reactions from fans to the Rinkside Live experience we’re presenting for the Olympics,” says Jolley. “This has opened up a new perspective: seeing reactions in real time — whether it’s the coaches, training room, or kiss-and-cry area — whilst watching the main production. We’re confident we’ll see a similar great reaction from NBA fans excited for angles that they wouldn’t have seen before, whether it’s on the Peacock mobile app or on Multiview on TV.”
The Future of Courtside Live
After debuting today at the NBA All-Star Game, Courtside Live will be available for selected NBA games throughout the rest of the season.
“I’m extremely proud of our collaboration working with the production and technical teams,” says Jelley, “building out a curated view of these angles as well as individual streams and clips that work seamlessly in parallel with the main broadcast. It’s a technical feat as well as an innovative user experience, and I’m thrilled we can give Peacock customers a fresh new way to watch the NBA.”