{"id":1771,"date":"2023-07-31T15:23:44","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T19:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/?post_type=inductees&p=1771"},"modified":"2024-01-10T16:47:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T21:47:00","slug":"steve-hellmuth","status":"publish","type":"inductees","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/inductees\/steve-hellmuth\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Hellmuth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Firsts are always an important part of a Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame resume and\u00a0Steve Hellmuth<\/strong>, the recently retired NBA EVP of Operations and Technology and former chairman of the SVG Advisory Board, oversaw his share of firsts.\u00a0Under his guidance, the NBA became the first league to develop an advanced statistical system that drove a wide variety of services including becoming the first league to deliver live scores and statistics to the Web. In addition, the NBA was the first league to develop a centralized instant replay system, the first league to develop a digital archive, and the first league to tackle new technologies like live streaming, 3D, VR, and volumetric capture in a meaningful way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner,<\/strong>\u00a0says Hellmuth seamlessly guided the NBA through countless advancements in technology over the past three decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis vision as an experienced and innovative technologist helped transform the broadcast operations of our league and revolutionize the way our content is distributed and consumed around the world,\u201d says Silver. \u201cSteve has no doubt left an indelible mark on the NBA and the broader sports media industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating with a B.A. in Art History from Princeton University, Hellmuth came up a few credits shy of earning a Masters degree in Cinema Studies from New York University\u2019s Film School. While a student, he spent his time working on independent, experimental films and helping to run a catering business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was going to go into the entertainment side. My girlfriend at the time was babysitting for someone in charge of the NBC Olympic production managers, and he suggested I apply\u201d, says Hellmuth. \u201cI applied, got the job, and my career trajectory changed and began.\u201d<\/p>\n

That first job was as an NBC Sports production administrator, working on the Olympic Profiles of athletes competing in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The profiles were to be broadcast in SECAM (Sequential Color with Memory), the broadcasting standard at the time for the Soviet Union, so Hellmuth got a crash course in transferring films and editing in SECAM, as well as a whirlwind tour of the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n

Hellmuth travelled through Germany several times doing profiles of athletes, through Czechoslovakia and Poland, and back and forth across the U.S. His job duties included handling film magazines, driving the van, arranging flights, and handling catering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was required to do double duty as the production manager and a technician on the shoots, and often I was responsible for booking the athletes as well\u201d, he says. \u201cMy main mentor was the late\u00a0Barry Winik<\/strong>\u00a0of WW Films, one of the best film sports directors of photography ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellmuth also worked closely with\u00a0Peter Diamond<\/strong>. Peter was charge of Olympic research and produced a number of Profiles. Peter remained at NBC and rose to become the NBC Olympics, EVP, Programming.<\/p>\n

A Little Bit of Everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From the Olympic-profile unit, Hellmuth transitioned into a position as unit manager and production manager at NBC Sports, where he worked from 1979 to 1987.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did tennis, college basketball, baseball, everything that came my way,\u201d he says. \u201cI really enjoyed it and became very competent in budgeting, operations, and remote management across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellmuth\u2019s main mentor at NBC Sports was the great\u00a0Ted Nathanson<\/strong>, a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. The two worked together on NFL games and the NFL studio show for four years, culminating in Super Bowl XX.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Hellmuth kept his production credits fresh by producing the opening for the 1986 World Series for Mike Weisman.<\/p>\n

In his capacity as lead NFL Production Manager, Hellmuth, also oversaw the production and operations of the NBC NFL Studio show in Studio 6A, shared with The David Letterman Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with the great NBC scenic designers and lighting directors taught me volumes,\u201d he says. \u201cThe iconic studios at NBC were filled with talented engineers, camera operators and technicians well versed in live.\u201d<\/p>\n

After marrying his wife, Theresa, Hellmuth accepted an offer to become general manager of Potomac Television, a startup company that produced Washington news for TV stations across the country and provided news releases to Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI helped build the company,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had the CNN contract for news crews in Washington and created a video news-release channel to local television stations.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Jump Shots<\/strong><\/h3>\n

However, when the NBA called looking for a director of operations for NBA Entertainment, Hellmuth thought that might be more challenging. He joined the basketball league in 1990 and moved up the ladder from running the postproduction outfit to overseeing all broadcast operations and the launch of Inside Stuff.<\/p>\n

Hellmuth was also at the NBA when there was a famous lawsuit between the league and Motorola and STATS, Inc. which involved Motorola sending out NBA scores to pagers with around a three-minute delay. Hellmuth had undertook a project to create a near real-time interface for statistics to the NBC Sports Chyrons for graphics and saw an opportunity to combine the issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked\u00a0NBA Commissioner David Stern<\/strong>\u00a0if I could head a development of statistics that would be so fast and accurate that Motorola and STATS, Inc. would no longer have a viable product and we could also interface it to Chyron,\u201d says Hellmuth. \u201cHe gave me firm backing to proceed, and I worked with Rallis Pappas at IDS.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an important, and game changing initiative for the entire industry, as the statistical system could be used to drive everything from on-air graphics to indexing of the media asset management system.<\/p>\n

Later Hellmuth would oversee a project that made the NBA the first league ever to have live stats on the Web.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the other data services hang off the backbone of statistics as stats are the language of sports,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then we replaced the clock system courtside with a universal Swiss timing system so we could get all the timestamps relative to clock and score. Combine all of this with the NBA private HSAN network and it set the NBA up for downstream success\u2026the digital editors, the innovations in the app, and the logging. It literally set the stage for the NBA to establish itself as the leader in digital sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hellmuth also produced one of his favorite events:\u00a0Larry Bird<\/strong>\u00a0Night. At Bird\u2019s request it was a continuous show in the Boston Garden without commercial breaks presented as theater in the round on the raised parquet floor of the Boston Garden.<\/p>\n

On to the Diamond<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In 1998, Major League Baseball wooed Hellmuth away from the NBA to serve as senior vice president of MLB Productions, and he continued to flex his production muscles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was responsible for putting MLB Productions back on its own two feet and relaunching This Week in Baseball\u201d back on the Fox Network,\u201d he says. \u201cI put my production hat back on over there, and I got a chance to produce the on-field ceremony of the All-Century Team at Fenway Park, with\u00a0Ted Williams<\/strong>.\u00a0Michael Weisman\u00a0<\/strong>was put in charge for Fox, and he and I teamed up to make the event work for TV. Mike and Fox deservedly received an Emmy.\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

A New Basketball Challenge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After three years, Hellmuth transitioned back to the NBA, where he was put in charge of information technology, broadcast operations, engineering, and internet services. He also has oversight of the construction of facilities for broadcast standards, having developed the arena-construction guidelines for camera positions, lighting, and audio that define the theater for NBA basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cStern and Silver understood well that a great telecast begins control of the venue: bright and lively acoustical profile so the fans can project their support on the field of play, great camera locations and superior lighting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Hellmuth designed the LED lights framing the backboard that end every period and overtime for Replay Review and created the clear shot clocks over the basket stanchions.<\/p>\n

\u201cStern and Silver set me to the task after a couple of tough calls at the end of the 2001-2002 season to design a system that would assist the referees and allow for video review at courtside,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThe lights went into every backboard, and for a few years, the broadcasters assisted the referees providing video for end of game or period scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n

The design and building of the NBA Replay Center was the completion of that system. Debuting in 2014, along with the debut of a new 10 gig private network between arenas and the NBA, Hellmuth went on the journey to design the system with longtime NBA Referee and Head of Official\u00a0Joe Borgia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, with 14 camera angles delivered from every venue, the network fueled the rise of the NBA App and the NBA presence in social media,\u201d adds Hellmuth.<\/p>\n

Hellmuth\u2019s career is a testament to having leadership that fostered innovation, and co-workers at NBA, and MLB that stepped up and made it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve was one of the earliest and most impactful technology enthusiasts at the NBA,\u201d says\u00a0Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban<\/strong>. \u201cHe helped move the NBA into the 21st\u00a0century at a time many did not understand what he was trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1772,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[61],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees\/1771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductees"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductees"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}