In the madness of the two week preparation for the broadcasting of Super Bowl 51, Fox Sports has been scrambling to put together a broadcast that will, in all likelihood, be the most technologically advanced television sports broadcast ever attempted. The broadcast will take place at Fox Sports’ main hub, Discovery Green, as well as at NRG Stadium in Houston on February 5, 2017.
Fox Sports, which has never shied away from a technology advancement of any kind, is going to have both 4K and 8K cameras on hand as well as augmented reality with POV players and views from inside the players helmets and next gen graphics which Fox hopes will allow television viewers to feel closer to the action.
Michael Davies, Senior VP of Field and Technical Operations for Fox Sports, said that, “With the NFL and most other sports, we’re used to seeing replays and on-field action being broadcast from the outside in. But the ambition has always been to get those perspectives from the inside out. With ‘Be the Player’ and some other enhancements we’re utilizing this year, such as pylon cameras, we’ll be able to bring the audience down to the field and offer the viewpoint of a player at the critical decision-making moment.”
While the new cameras inside of the helmets feature will be new, there won’t actually be any recording from the helmet. Instead there will be a 360 degree action capture from 38 UHD cameras strategically placed around the stadium. There will be 70 cameras placed around the stadium to record the action as well as 13 mobile production units and 91 microphones.
Here is the complete technology inventory Fox Sports will employ at the game:
Located at NRG Stadium in Houston:
- 70 total FOX Sports cameras for Super Bowl LI, including:
- 2 high-speed (4X) 4K high-resolution cameras
- 4 normal-speed 4K cameras
- 4 3X (180FPS) Super Motion cameras
- 2 6X (360 FPS) Super Motion cameras
- 3 8X (480 FPS) cameras
- 24 pylon cameras (8 pylons x 3 cameras)
- 1 8K camera
Located at D iscovery Green
- 36 HD cameras, including:
- 3 wireless cameras
- 2 jibs
- 3 robotic cameras
- 36 wireless microphones
- 48 wireless intercom packs
- 41 HD monitors
- 14 miles of tactical fiber cable
- 986 strands of single mode fiber
With regard to the POV Be The Player technology, most of those instant replays will happen after a commercial break because it takes a couple of minutes to put together a 15 or 30 second clip because each clip eats about one terabyte of data. Davies also said that, for the clips, “We also need to make sure the clips fit with the story line. We want to make sure that we have the right shot and that it can be seamlessly woven into the broadcast.”
Another new innovation will be the use of the robot camera that hovers above the field on a cable along with augmented reality cameras so that the fans at the stadium will actually be able to see the first down line just as television viewers have been able to. There will even be RFID sensors inside of the player’s shoulder pads so that data can be read concerning speed, distance and acceleration.
While the game will not be broadcast in 4K, there will be several 4K as well as 8K cameras recording the action. Because of their faster frames rates, even the slow motion replays broadcast in regular HD will be extremely sharp and defined with little or no blur at all. For Davies, using the high speed frame rate cameras will bring the added perceived drama that Fox Sports always seems to be searching for:
“The ability to capture a quarterback’s reaction to an evolving situation on the field, or the grimace of a sideline coach after a call, can heighten the emotional impact of the game for viewers,” Davies explained. “It’s always best to start with the highest-quality source material you can get.”
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