DuneVision & Professional Hoops Association: Livestream Sports Production
Corwin Leverich produces and directs the first Professional Hoops Association broadcast
Northwest Indiana is a big part of DuneVision’s identity, just as much as the Chicagoland area as a whole. When we received the opportunity to build the sports broadcast for a new professional league in Whiting, Indiana, we were thrilled. We had just completed the “DuneBox”, our livestream production flypack unit that includes a Blackmagic Production Studio 4k 1 ME, a set of JVC broadcast cameras, an X32 audio mixer, and VMix graphics. This was a perfect opportunity to get the flypack on the road and to shoot some good, professional basketball!
Lewis Shine’s league is perfect for television, and DuneVision’s goal was to show that to accelerate the growth of the league heading into its first full season in 2026.
A camera operator shoots the Professional Hoops Association game with a JVC HC-500U camera.
Challenges
DuneVision had a few challenges walking into this show. For one, we had no TV deal, no network, and no graphics package. The first two problems were solved pretty quickly; we were able to stream using the magical websites of YouTube and Facebook, giving the PHA maximum exposure to “The Region”.
As for the graphics package, we had dabbled on our previous shows on using NewBlue Titler Live for live, animated graphics, but for this show, we decided to try something new and possibly more flexible, VMix. We had experience using VMix as an encoder and a basic switcher, but the GT Titler software was new to us.
All of our graphics for the PHA are custom and made in-house using After Effects and VMix, with plans to bring in the power of 3D with Blender for next season.
Surprisingly, we were able to do a lot of things with VMix that are usually reserved for more expensive options, such as logic that determines the shot clock text color (red for under 10 seconds). It worked well for our needs on this show and improved quality without breaking the bank.
Production
The sports production had 11 crew members. We had 4 camera operators, 2 hard cameras covering the game from the stands and 2 handheld cameras under the baskets. Our control room was in a room next to the court, allowing for short cable runs. The show’s requirements allowed us to combine the Producer, Director, and Technical Director role into one crew position. A video engineer, an audio engineer, a graphics operator, and a replay operator also supported us. Finally, we had two announcers, a play-by-play and a color commentator.
All production members were local to Northwest Indiana.
The Future
DuneVision looks forward to the future of working with Lewis Shine and the Professional Hoops Association with the goal of helping it grow using the power of quality livestreaming and sports broadcast production.
If you’re looking for a video production company for your event, DuneVision’s production services are available, and our capabilities are always growing!
The DuneVision Crew
