San Francisco 49ers Tap SISU Cinematic Robotics for New-Look Media Day

Programmable robotic arm helps capture 80 players in one day

During this time of the year, clubs in the National Football League are gearing up for the fall schedule. The most important activity on their long to-do list is Media Day, which is one of the only times throughout the year when production crews can capture staged photos and videos of their players. It’s a time-consuming process, but the San Francisco 49ers’ crew is working a bit smarter with the assistance of SISU Cinematic Robotics (SISU) on one of its main sets.

“[Robotic cameras] not only elevate production value but also bring that wow factor that we want for our Media Day,” says Laura Johnson, senior director, game presentation and live events, San Francisco 49ers. “We want to have something that the players, [who represent] our brand and organization, find to be fun and unique.”

Reason for the Move: To Up the Media Day Ante

Always looking to improve on the previous year, Johnson and her team set their sights on designing and building a set with nods to the Bay Area and how the franchise is tied to its history. The physical environment that the players are staged in received a facelift, but there wasn’t much budget for increasing staff.

49ers quarterback Trey Lance in front of the SISU cinematic robotic at Media Day

“We wanted to see if we can build off [the set that we had last year] and have a second version of it,” says AJ Murray, senior manager, stadium and motion graphics, San Francisco 49ers. “With the way our budgets lined up, we didn’t have the money to replace any of the elements that we used last year, so we brought in some LEDs and punched everything up a little bit.”

Despite being the creative hub for material used for multiple outlets, Media Day can be a stressful time on team-based productions. For one thing, there’s the pressure of producing content on an entire football roster. And, with the new set in 2022, a better workflow was needed. Looking for the right solution, Murray did his research and found solutions at SISU Cinematic Robotics.

“We’ve been trying for a couple years and have spoken with a couple different companies to figure something out,” he explains. “I was googling around to see some other companies, stumbled upon this one, watched their reel, and hopped on a phone call.”

Murray’s call was with SISU Global Head, Strategic Accounts, Phil Ellingson, who helped finalize a six-month-long lease and was onsite for the 49ers’ Media Day. The device — a SISU robotic arm with a 49ers-owned ARRI AMIRA camera sporting a 16mm prime lens — can be programmed for any specific movement or path of movement. Supervised and controlled by a Los Angeles-based camera operator, the device offered a two-fold benefit on Media Day: repetition allowed players to move through the station in quick succession, and a station that would normally be operated by a staffer was freed up. The result was additional support at another Media Day station and 80 players handled on the main set in a single day.

Tight end Cameron Latu is captured with the robotic camera.

“We have a large group of athletes that needed to be coached [on what to do] in a very quick way since the time that we have with them is extremely limited,” says Johnson. “Taking the day before to block off our shots and knowing where our spots were going to be helped us be efficient or maximize our time.”

Inside 49ers’ Media Day: Suite in Levi’s Stadium Serves as Project’s Home

49ers Media Day represents a concerted effort by numerous internal departments. From marketing and production to digital and photography, it demonstrates the might of a team’s unified front. In a suite at Levi’s Stadium, the six-station rotation met the needs of the 49ers while also fulfilling the requests of broadcast partners Amazon Prime Video, NBC, and others. Logistically, it’s a chess game that forces the crew to move players from one station to another with fluidity. It’s a delicate dance enhanced by communication.

“We used two-way radios to communicate who’s at what station and keep track of what stations [the players] were going to next,” notes Johnson. “It was intense, and our shoot was done over three days, but we found a lot of success.”

Running back Christian McCaffrey on the 49ers’ main Media Day set.

For anyone working on the production side in the NFL, or any professional or collegiate sport, each Media Day offers lessons. Some internal ideas may make a difference, but the ones shared between cohorts at other clubs can resonate just as much.

“This was the second year when we decided to have two photo stations to provide bandwidth and be as seamless as possible,” says Johnson. “No one has found that perfect recipe yet, but what’s exciting about it is that we can talk to our peers. We talk about the brotherhood and sisterhood of the 32 [NFL teams] and how we work together. We’ll continue to strive to find ways to be more efficient and ways to maximize the content that we’re getting at this time of year.”

Creative Tool: Deploying the Device Throughout the Season

Although a setting like Media Day is one of the most efficient uses of the SISU robotic camera, it can be a creative tool in other environments as well. Prior to the start of the preseason and the regular season, Johnson, Murray, and company are working to devise new uses for it.

“We put a Google doc together and are up to 15 different scenarios where we’d love to use this,” says Murray. “[The robot] requires a lot of power, which limits us a little bit on some of those ideas, but we’ll work to see what options can come to life.”

The 49ers production team used two photography sets. Here running back Elijah Mitchell is on one of them.

Given the extended time with the equipment — the lease runs through the 2023 regular season — experimentation in real life can reap rewards.

“Our lease gives us the opportunity to brainstorm how we want to use it for different parts of the marketing department,” says Johnson. “We’ll definitely use everything we got from Media Day in the stadium, but, for content on our social-media and digital channels, that’s where it was important to get buy-in across the board. We made sure to have a shared vision for leveraging [the robot] for additional uses since it’s a multi-month agreement as opposed to bringing it in for a one-time shoot.”

Getting Up to Speed: A Learning Curve for the Crew

Putting in a day’s worth of preparation was key to having the new system run as smoothly as possible. In the future, giving everyone ample time to train and become proficient on the system will help develop more-engaging material.

“There are two ways to go about this: either bring in folks who know what they’re doing because we don’t have time to train, or take time to train everyone on our team,” says Johnson. “We’ll get our team members trained up with the interface. But it’s also seeing whether this is a piece of technology that we’d want beyond the six months that we have it.”

Getting the most out of the device depends on ownership’s commitment to what production is doing. For clubs that receive complete emotional and financial backing, the robot can make a difference in providing cinematic shots. In addition, the appropriate infrastructure in the venue is necessary to implementing the rig properly. The 49ers’ production team are confident that it has a conducive situation.

“Doing the research and figuring out [a plan] with your engineering team is critical to making this a success,” says Johnson. “It’s important to know what your needs are when bringing a new piece of technology onsite.”

The San Francisco 49ers host the New York Giants in their first home game of the 2023 NFL regular season on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video.