Donning Thursday Night Football Mantle, Fox Sports Flexes Tech Muscles Specialty cameras (including dual SkyCams), high-end audio, NYC-based pregame show highlight top-flight effort By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - 2:52 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
After a year with NBC and another with CBS, the NFL's Thursday Night Football package finally has a long-term home: Fox Sports kicks off a five-year, $3.3 billion deal on Thursday. And, as one would expect, the network is prepared to bring its broadcasting-technology A game.
Its top on-air talent and production crew will work the whole Thursday Night Football schedule, including the folks at the front bench in Game Creek Video's Encore mobile production unit: producer Richie Zyontz and director Rich Russo. It's also a group that has had a couple of practice swings, if you will, including broadcasting last Thursday's New York Jets-Cleveland Browns game for NFL Network.
We feel like we've gotten off to a really strong start on Thursdays, says John Entz, president, production/executive producer, Fox Sports. This NFL game crew is taking Fox into the next phase of our existence, and we couldn't be prouder.
It's also a crew that has handled numerous big games, including NFC Championship games and multiple Super Bowls. Even so, there's a special feel to this TNF effort.
I think it has a little bit of a different feel, says Thursday Night Football lead play-by-play man Joe Buck. First of all, when you're the only game in town - the only time that [we] have really felt that before is when we're doing a championship game, a playoff game, or a Super Bowl; now we've got that feeling every week - and you need to be ready.
[On Sunday,] a lot of the time [we] would have to talk is taken up by game breaks, he continues. While we're on, something big could happen in our game [when] we've got a game break loaded up, and we're going to tell you what happened in another location and in another stadium. That's not there [on Thursday night], so it gives you a little more room to play with, and I think you can play with that room in a lot of different ways. You can do straight football, or you can have a little fun with it. And I think we've come up with a pretty good balance of football and fun. All of this gives us a little bit more room to breathe.
Under the Hood: Deploying the Latest Tech
Fox's take on Thursday Night Football will be loaded with high-end production enhancements. On the camera front, the game broadcast will boast 45 total units, including a whopping eight super-slow-motion cameras. According to Fox Sports, all field-level cameras will be super-slow-motion devices, with one Sony HDC-4800 shooting in 4K and as many as six HDC-4300's shooting in frame rates ranging from 3X to 6X and even 8X, depending on their locations in the stadium. Building on an experiment during last season's NFC Championship Game in Philly, one of those Sony 4800's will reside on the sidelines with the goal of shooting NFL Films-type shots for a more cinematic feel to replays within the game broadcast.
A key feature of this year's TNF package will be the use of two SkyCams above the action at the same time. The Fox operations team took some time in the offseason to practice with the dual-SkyCam model, experimenting with and practicing new moves and roles for each camera. Although only one SkyCam will be used this Thursday for the Minnesota Vikings-Los Angeles Rams game (the L.A. Coliseum is not suited to the dual-SkyCam layout), the approach promises a new look at NFL football from the air. Fox will use augmented-reality graphics on SkyCam shots as well.
When Intel True View is available, Fox will have access, delivering the sweeping 360-degree replays that viewers have become accustomed to on major football events in recent years. TNF games will also have PylonCams. The latest edition features three lenses built into the pylons at the end of each goal line, adding 12 viewing angles for potential playback.
It also wouldn't be a Fox production without a strong focus on the audio experience. The whole show will be produced in 5.1 surround, and the network will mike key players on both sides of the ball. To take fans inside the sidelines action throughout the game, Fox is also bolstering its immensely talented audio team with NFL Films technicians.
On the nitty-gritty side, there are more than 25 paths of transmission to and from each game site. Important camera feeds will be fed directly to Fox Sports' studios in Los Angeles via IP transmission.
Fox also unveiled today the official location for the special Thursday Night Football Pregame Show: Fox News Channel headquarters in New York City. The show will be housed in the network's new Studio F, which includes an outdoor plaza, Fox Square, and offers spectacular views of Midtown Manhattan. The set has eight cameras, interactive monitors, and AI/virtual-set graphics.
It's just a football game, says Michael Davies, SVP, field operations, Fox Sports, but, being in that primetime spot, having your schedule mapped out for the season, working with the NFL Network, and opening our New York studios, it's a big show. We don't think we're going overboard on it, but, at the same time, we're putting in all of the tools and all of the talent that will make Thursday Night Football better than ever.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Donning Thursday Night Football Mantle, Fox Sports Flexes Tech Muscles Specialty cameras (including dual SkyCams), high-end audio, NYC-based pregame show highlight top-flight effort By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
