NFL Kickoff 2023: Fox Sports Expands Skycam Use for NFL Coverage; All Games in 1080p, A and B Games in HDR

The broadcaster’s Vault operation will continue to play a major role

It’s a new season for Fox Sports NFL coverage, and with each new season come new enhancements. Topping the list this year? All A and B games will be 1080p HDR while the remainder of the slate, for the first time ever, will be 1080p SDR.

Fox Sports this year is celebrating 30 years of NFL coverage.

“We moved some trucks around,” says Matt Battaglia, director, remote engineering, Fox Sports, “and, with NEP Supershooter 32 now being used by our sixth-game crew, all our games will be at least 1080p SDR.”

Fox Sports will rely on Game Creek Video Encore and Bravo for the A and B coverage in 1080p HDR. The 1080p SDR coverage for the other games will originate out of Mobile TV Group MTVG 46FLEX (the C game) and NEP Supershooter 9, Supershooter 6, and Supershooter 32 (the other three games, respectively).

In terms of production enhancements, Battaglia says the big change is additional Skycams. “We will have at least three games with Skycams every weekend, with the A and B games always having one and the third Skycam floating around. And we may also have weekends with four or five Skycams.”

According to Fox Sports Director, Field and Technical Operations, Ted Kenney, a follow truck from Event Ready will allow the third Skycam to rotate among the C games, and in-house Skycams at the Rams’, Chargers’, Vikings’, Browns’, Panthers’, Jets’, Ravens’, and Raiders’ stadiums will enable a Skycam feed for other games broadcast by Fox.

“The venues are ramping up Skycam installations as they look to improve the in-venue experience,” says Kenney. “A lot more venues are signing onto that, and that helps.”

Last year was a Super Bowl year for Fox Sports. This year, he says, the focus will be to drill down into what new technologies or camera angles the production team (and the viewer at home) wants.

“You don’t just add a camera to add a camera or technology just to add it,” he explains. “The most important aspect is to make sure it adds value to the audience at home as a whole as well as to the league so that officials can make the right call.”

The A game will max out at around 20 cameras for most games and jump to around 24 for the marquee matchups. The minimum for the other game is 16 cameras, but every game will have at least two super-slo-mo cameras.

“That is something we pride ourselves on,” notes Battaglia. “Look for at least two 6X super-slo-mo cameras, and then every camera is running at least 2X speed.”

The A show will also feature the C360 camera on the line-to-gain and pylons, while the B show will use a 3G Wireless system for line-to-gain. According to Battaglia, there is also a new RF partner for the A games: EMG.

Notes Kenney, “We spend a lot of time in the off-season working to make those pylon cameras look better and making sure everything is at a certain quality level.”

For the fourth year, the Vault at Fox Sports’ Pico facility will play a big role in NFL (and college-football) operations. According to Battaglia, the facility has received a bit of a facelift with new lighting, proof that a pandemic-born facility is now the norm.

“We have some broadcast assistants who, three years ago, started their careers in the Vault and now are moving out, like a graduation,” he points out. “They’re looking forward to it, but it’s such a different world.”

In this fourth year, the benefits of the Vault workflow are numerous, especially on the lower-tier games. With crews on those games substantially comprising local talent, the Vault offers more consistency and the same EVS or graphics operator week after week.

“The producers and directors love that, and the people in the department love it,” says Battaglia. “You aren’t having to teach new people new stuff; those games can often be the hardest to manage.”

Says Kenney, “People have been working behind the scenes to make the Vault better and come up with solutions to problems. And the combined experience of our production and technical teams, through many years of NFL coverage, makes us the best.”