Basketball is a spacing game most viewers never see.
An NBA possession is decided by things the broadcast camera flattens: how the floor is spaced, who switches onto whom, the half-step that opens a shot. Analysts have always known it's there — but explaining it with a telestrator and a freeze frame only gets you so far, and it stops the show cold.
For its NBA coverage, NBC wanted to let analysts show the tactical story — fast enough to keep pace with a live studio, clear enough for a national audience that ranges from die-hards to first-time viewers.
A live AR court the analyst drives by touch.
Sandbox gives NBC's talent a fully rendered AR basketball court they operate by hand, live on air. They drop in tracking plays, pull up shot charts, isolate a single player, and replay a possession in three dimensions — moving bodies and redrawing the spacing to show what should have happened next.
Because the analyst manipulates the scene in real time rather than running pre-built clips, the graphic follows the conversation — a question from the desk gets answered by physically demonstrating it on the floor in front of the audience.
SANDBOX on NBC — live AR court
Player figures & labelsSandbox's first run in major US team sport.
NBA on NBC marks Sandbox's debut in major North American team sport — and the platform has become a recurring part of the show, used in pregame and in-game segments and called out by name on air by the talent. The same AR environment proven on the Tour de France now tells the story of a completely different sport, at a completely different tempo.
Sandbox on the NBA broadcast.
Play breakdown — scoring & rebound
Hosts driving the AR court, on air