Live From the Big East Tournament: Fox Sports Makes History With Railcam

The camera-on-a-track makes the leap from stadium to arena; four VR cameras give fans a new optiontra

Fox Sports’ coverage of the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament is making history at Madison Square Garden this week: it is the first time a railcam has been used for a college basketball game inside an arena.

Fox Sports’ Brad Cheney with the Fletcher-supplied railcam, which he says adds production values to the coverage of the Big East Tournament.

“It’s been a great partnership with the Big East and MSG to make this happen,” says Brad Cheney, Fox Sports, SVP of Field Operations. “And it took a good push to solve all of the engineering challenges of space and safety.”

The idea to try to fit a railcam into the tight confines of an arena began with seeing what it could do in the relatively unconfined space of AT&T Stadium in Dallas during the NCAA Final Four last year. The only previous (known) time a railcam was used inside an arena and running along courtside was for the 2001 NBA All-Star game

“We worked with different vendors,” Cheney notes, “and Dan Grainge, VP at Fletcher Group, and the team at Fletcher stepped up big time to make this happen.”

The court at MSG is situated a few inches off the floor, and that gave the technical team room to tuck the legs supporting the rail beneath the side of the court.

“Getting it closer to the court is great for us. We can put the camera up as high or low as we want,” adds Cheney. “The rail itself is a half inch above the floor, and the camera is about a foot above that on a sled with robotics.”

The track for the railcam is only a half inch above the floor.

The system runs baseline to baseline just in front of the press tables alongside the court opposite the team benches.

“We have always had a robotic camera,” Cheney points out, “but now it can move and get out of the way. So it is actually a bit safer and gives us more shots.”

The railcam is controlled by a robotics operator and a driver, who sit together in the MSG tunnel. The director can call for shots and moves, such as tracking alongside the players heading up and down the court, or also get some new looks for foul shots via little moves.

“It’s a natural for our Big East coverage,” Cheney adds. “We will look for other key events where we could use it, because it really does add [increased production value] to the show.”

The railcam is part of a 24-camera arsenal that Fox Sports is deploying to produce game coverage out of Game Creek Video’s Encore production unit, which is located in the compound area outside MSG.

“We have six 6X cameras, four Sony HDC-4300 cameras, and two Grass Valley Group LDX 86 cameras that are above the rim,” says Cheney. The Sony cameras are situated at the left and right slash positions and at tight midcourt, as well as in a handheld.

One of four VR cameras in use by LiveLike for the Big East Tournament

Fox Sports has tapped LiveLike to provide VR coverage of the action with four VR cameras around the floor. Two are located on each basket facing center court, and a third and a fourth camera are near midcourt.

“LiveLike is also cutting a show for us within the VR app, so users can either choose an angle or watch the cut show,” Cheney explains. “We also have a virtual scoreboard that has a lot more data integration.”

The LiveLike experience doesn’t offer the 360-degree video view that has been at the center of much of the VR buzz. Instead, LiveLike creates a virtual 360-degree environment where the front 180 degrees is a VR experience and the back 180 degrees are a virtual suite. For the Big East VR experience wide-angle cameras provide a video canvas that is still immersive (but without the need to turn around) and integrated into that environment along with statistics, the broadcast feed, and more.

“I think the wide angle is enough,” adds Cheney. “You get the feel of being in the arena, but you can also watch the cut show. And the great part is, you don’t need goggles.”

According to Mike Davies, SVP, technical and field operations, Fox Sports, the Big East VR production represents the most consecutive days of VR coverage outside of U.S. Open golf. “We look at this as a VR experience,”he says, “where viewers can dip in and dip out with their smartphones.”

Encore gives the team a lot of firepower and is home to both studio and game coverage, with a Grass Valley Korona video-production center on hand for the studio show. A Grass Valley Kayenne K-Frame production switcher is at the center of game coverage, along with 13 EVS replay servers. The production is also making use of UPS power to ensure that all goes well in the event of an issue with house power.