NBC’s 25th Kentucky Derby Production Features Two Live Drones, RED Cine-Broadcast Cams, Four Nucleus Ultra-Slo-Mos, and 5G iPhone Gimbals

Over the years, coverage has grown way beyond a single horse race

In the 25 years that NBC Sports Group has been broadcasting the Kentucky Derby, its coverage has gone from a 90-minute broadcast on a single broadcast network to a multi-day extravaganza of racing and pageantry that includes 12-plus hours of live programming — and 17 total races — across NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.

It’s a monumental endeavor that requires months of planning and coordination, a crew of hundreds onsite and at NBC Sports Group’s Stamford, CT, studios, and an attention to detail that is second to none.

Mike Tirico (left) will anchor Saturday’s Derby coverage along with analysts Randy Moss (center) and Jerry Baily.

“The Kentucky Derby is a can’t-miss event every spring,” says Ken Goss, EVP, remote and studio operations, NBC Sports. “I’m proud to work with talented and tireless technical and operations teams to provide the infrastructure and backbone for production and the announcers to present a best-in-class show every year.”

The Churchill Downs Lab: A Test Bed for Production-Tech Innovation

It’s not just about the volume of coverage, however. NBC’s efforts on the technology side at Churchill Downs have grown by leaps and bounds as well.

This year’s Run for the Roses broadcast will feature a wealth of new cutting-edge cameras and production tools, including two live drones (one for racing, one for pageantry), RED Digital Cinema’s new 4K 60p “cine-broadcast” camera system on the red carpet, four 1080p HFR HDR Nucleus cameras (up from two last year) on the finish line for both dirt and grass tracks, iPhone cameras capturing immediate live reactions from owners/trainers, and a Proton Cam with micro pan/tilt head in the New Starting Gate Pavilion area by the touchscreen area.

This year’s 68-camera complement includes a variety of new tools as well as some NBC Sports Derby staples.

The team is also outfitting a Canon EOS C80 6K full-frame cinema camera on a wireless RF gimbal setup and deploying a Sony PDT-FP1 portable data transmitter for C2C use.

In addition, immersive-experience–tech provider Cosm will be at the Derby for the first time, placing cameras around the track to provide views of all the action to fans at Cosm locations. An SRT feed offering a live look-in during the races will be sent from the Cosm LA dome to be integrated into NBC’s broadcast.

“This year’s Derby is particularly exciting for many of our teams at NBC Sports because of its unique intersection between sports and entertainment,” says Kamal Bhangle, director, live event workflow and remote engineering, NBC Sports. “Like during our Olympic broadcasts, we’re able to debut several new technologies and workflow efficiencies. Our goal is to evaluate [their] performance at Churchill Downs and determine how they might benefit our other properties across our portfolio and make a big, ambitious Derby show even bigger.”

RED Camera Brings a Whole New Look to Red Carpet and Beyond

NBC will be using a new RED cine-broadcast HFR camera running in 4X super-slo-mo to capture fashion, the red carpet, and scenes from around Churchill Downs. It marks one of the first integrations of RED Digital Cinema’s all-new advanced cine-broadcast solution, which supports live broadcasting of up to two channels of 4K 60p (HDR/SDR) via 12G-SDI and IP broadcasting compliant with SMPTE ST 2110 (TR-08) and up to a 4K 60p JPEG-XS feed.

“The RED camera is primarily something we will use on the red carpet to cover fashion and flavor of the day,” says Schanzer. “What’s special about it is, it’s a first-time use case where the RED camera footage — which we traditionally use in a postproduction way, where it gets filmed, exported, dropped into our edit system for postproduction bumpers that we build — will go directly into EVS for our use in the truck so we can turn it around in real time as part of our live coverage.”

The system features a robust LEMO SMPTE 311M/304M hybrid fiber optical cable connector linked to a rack-mountable 2RU full-rack or 4RU half-rack base station. The module further expands workflows with advanced slow motion, AI/ML enhancements, and real-time 8K 120-fps R3D streaming through the RED Connect license-enabled feature.

One of the most interesting features, which debuted at NAB 2025, is the integration with the EVS XT-VIA live-production server. This allows broadcasters to enhance their workflows with up to 4X super-slow-motion at 4K and 1080p, while simultaneously delivering two baseband channels through the RED cine-broadcast module. This capability is powered by RED’s license-enabled RED Connect feature, which enables IP live streaming of R3D cameras and unlocks advanced workflows.

NBC will also be testing the system’s camera-to-cloud capabilities, such as those with AWS and RED Phantom Track functionality, which captures final pixel and green screen simultaneously from a single V-RAPTOR XL [X] or V-RAPTOR [X] camera and allows productions to distinctly monitor or broadcast each track independently.

Double the Drones, Double the Fun

For the first time, Beverly Hills Aerials will send up two live drones, one providing race coverage and the other capturing the pageantry between races. Traditionally, NBC has used a heavy-lift drone on Derby Day primarily to cover the races with a bit of pageantry mixed in. However, this year, the heavy drone will be used exclusively to cover the racing, and a new lightweight, more agile hummingbird drone will cover the spectacle around the grounds.

“It will allow us to fly closer to fans and maybe over some fans, maybe through the Twin Spires, creating some more-dynamic shots than we’ve been able to do with our drone in the past,” says NBC Sports Senior Producer, Horse Racing and College Football Studio, Lindsay Schanzer. “We’re really excited about that opportunity, given what a character this event, Churchill Downs, the venue itself is, not to mention all the fans dressed up to the nines. That will give us the ability to show what they’re doing.”

Nucleus Cams, iPhones: New Looks for Viewers on the Finish Line, in the Crowd

NEP Specialty Capture has rolled out four 1080p HDR HFR Nucleus cameras — up from the two used in the camera’s Derby debut last year — to provide a unique super-slo-mo look at photo finishes. This year, there will be two Nucleus cameras on each finish line (on both dirt and grass tracks), up from one on each finish line for last year’s debut.

Introducing the Nucleus camera last year turned out to be perfect timing: it clearly captured the three-way photo finish, won by Mystik Dan, before the official photo was even shown on-air.

“It became the defining look to adjudicate that finish and determine as quickly as we could that Mystik Dan would be the winner,” says Schanzer. “This year, we have doubled down on that. We have four Nucleus cameras, two that will be on the wire exactly like that, on both the dirt and the turf track, and two others on the opposite side that will create more of an artsy look.”

Multiple iPhones outfitted on gimbals will be used as POV cameras to capture immediate live reactions from the horses’ owners and trainers. The feeds will be transmitted through an AT&T private 5G network, and NBC will deploy the LiveU app and two LiveU LU800 multicam live-transmission field units to deliver these iso feeds to the production team in the truck.

On the Set: On-Air Talent Take Fans Around Churchill Downs

NBC has erected numerous locations and vantage points to showcase the races and pageantry at Churchill Downs.

The main announce position is located at Turn 1, where Mike Tirico will anchor Saturday’s coverage along with analysts Jerry Baily and Randy Moss. NBC’s third-floor position in the Paddock is back in its second year; the second floor, near the Jockey Walk, is the site of fashion updates by Rebecca Lowe and Dylan Dreyer. Lighting Design Group lit all of NBC Sports’ sets on-site at Churchill Downs.

NBC Sports’ Premier League Live, Premier League Mornings, and Goal Zone are live onsite from a set on the first floor of the Paddock on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday across NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.

This year’s most notable change is a new location in the Starting Gate Pavillion for NBC’s betting-analysis segments featuring handicappers Eddie Olczyk and Matt Bernier and NBC Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki.

In addition, NBC Sports’ Premier League Live, Premier League Mornings, and Goal Zone are live onsite from a set on the first floor of the Paddock on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday across NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.

Host/reporter Ahmed Fareed and reporters Britney Eurton, Donna Brothers, Kenny Rice, and Nick Luck will deliver live reports from throughout the grounds. And, of course, race caller Larry Collmus — the only member of the announce team to work all 25 of NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby presentations — is back to call the racing action.

In the Compound and On the Track

NEP ND-2 mobile unit is on hand at the Churchill Downs production compound, and NEP Specialty Capture (encompassing the teams formerly known as BSI, Fletcher, and AVS) is handling all RF elements (both video and audio) and providing all robos and specialty cameras. NEP Rentals (né Bexel) is providing audio rentals; Sunbelt Rentals is powering the compound.

In addition to the unique new tools noted, this year’s 68-camera complement includes NBC Sports Derby staples: a SkyCam (featuring new pick points to provide extended coverage of the paddock), a Bat Cam flying alongside the horses as they race down the backstretch, an ultra-high-speed Phantom camera for super-slo-mo replays and reactions, multiple jockey cameras and a camera on the outrider, and a POV camera focused on Collmus.

NBC’s complement includes one Sony HDC-4800 (running in 4K at 4X slo-mo), eight HDC-P50’s (including three RF wireless systems), more than two dozen HDC-5500’s (running at various frame rates), six Sony RF HD HDC-3500 handhelds, and two PXW-FX9 cinema cameras.

Canon is providing a full arsenal of lenses — including 50-1000, 25-250, and 15-120 lenses to support many of the new-technology deployments — and Fujinon will supply a specialty 4K DUVO 25-1000 long lens.

On the audio side, NBC’s Derby production relies heavily on Dante infrastructure, with more than 55 microphones, IFB devices, and communication units in the field and upwards of 180 Dante devices in total. Throughout the production, more than 25 high-powered RF microphones will capture the sound of announcers and horses. Across the entire production, five Calrec audio consoles are integrated with each other, along with two Calrec RP1 units to help facilitate integration from the remote-production facility in Stamford.

All earlier races, including today’s Kentucky Oaks action, is being produced remotely from a control room in Stamford, deploying NBC’s custom Newbert and TX Kit for connectivity. All positions are located in Stamford, eliminating the need for another mobile unit onsite.

In addition to establishing a private 5G cellular network at the venue, AT&T is serving NBC’s transmission/connectivity needs. They include six JPEG-XS outbound and six JPEG-XS returns, as well as 28 paths out and 12 returns through Appear frames via NBC’s Golf TX Kit for the Stamford production of earlier races. In all, NBC’s transmission scheme comprises 52 fiber/encoded paths and two satellite uplinks.

The operations team is being led once again by Tim DeKime, VP, sports operations, NBC Sports; Keith Kice, senior director, technical operations, NBC Sports. Technical Managers John Roche, Laura Cronin, Andrew Lawing, Jake McGraw, and Jess Fogarty and Senior Director, Engineering and Tech Project Management, Andre Vawdrey play key roles in the operation.

Schanzer will be at the front bench for the main NBC broadcast on Saturday alongside director Kaare Numme. Saturday’s early-race coverage will be produced by Billy Matthews and directed by Jared Sumner in Stamford.

With a new extension that will keep the Derby on NBC platforms through 2032, this weekend’s production will be the start of a new chapter for the broadcaster, one that Schanzer can’t wait to get started on.

NBC Sports Technical and Operations leaders at Churchill Downs: (from left) Laura Cronin, Andrew Lawing, John Roche, Tim DeKime, Keith Kice, Jake McGrath, and Jess Fogarty

“We’ve been onsite since Monday [and are] really looking forward to Derby 151,” she says. “Every year, the Derby brings something special and unexpected. We’re looking forward to bringing that to all of you. We’re honored to put on NBC’s 25th broadcast of the Kentucky Derby. It’s an event we look forward to every year.”

NBC Sports’ Derby Day coverage features 10 races across 7½ hours — five hours on NBC and Peacock on Saturday (2:30 p.m. ET), which follows the opening 2½ hours beginning at noon on USA Network and Peacock. Live coverage from Churchill Downs starts with five hours of Kentucky Oaks Day today beginning at 1 p.m. on USA Network and Peacock.