Live From Super Bowl LIV: Canon 8K Efforts Expand

In addition to three 8K lenses on Sony cameras, Canon has an 8K camera onsite

Canon Broadcast has a team of seven people on hand for the Super Bowl. The team not only is making sure nearly 55 HD and UHD lenses are operating at a top level but also has a role in the use of three Canon 8K lenses that are coupled with Sony UHC-8300 cameras to give the Fox Sports production team an even greater ability to extract up-close images.

From left: Canon’s Yosuke Kamada, Josh Stoner, Rich Eilers, and Kenji Namiki at Super Bowl LIV

“We were blessed to have Mike Davies from Fox and Sony request our lenses,” says Rich Eilers, national accounts sales director, Canon USA. “The lenses were going to have their formal introduction at NAB, but we decided to bring them here.”

Canon also has its own 8K camera onsite for the game. Coupled with a 150-degree Canon lens, the camera is located in the high-slash position and captures a panoramic view of the field.

Canon’s 8K camera with 150-degree lens is positioned for a panoramic shot.

“The package is unique in that the Canon lens and Canon camera each know what the other is doing,” says Eilers. “Then we have a processor that takes the 8K image and remove any distortion from the wide angle and it is then pumped over to the main production truck.”

The 8K complement includes two Canon SP51x15.5 box lenses and one 7×10.7 handheld lens being used to offer increased zoom functionality that can exceed that possible on the 4K cameras.

“Slo-mo requirements are growing as broadcasters want it from every possible angle, and lenses with super-high resolution give the best odds from a light-gathering standpoint,” says Eilers. “Systems like our 122X lens and 111X lens and even the rest of the UHD lenses here are also able to communicate the gain to the Sony cameras so that the full telephoto lens can be used without compromise.”