Indy 500: NBC Sports Preps Powerful Onsite Production for First Full-Capacity Crowd Since 2019 The broadcast will deploy a total of 75 cameras, five mobile units By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor
Friday, May 27, 2022 - 10:52 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Indianapolis 500 is one of the few sports events that have must-see activities surrounding the main attraction happening on the 2.5-mile track. COVID dampened the energy of the event, but the enthusiasm will be back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) this Sunday. And NBC Sports will be present to chronicle it all with 75 broadcast cameras, five mobile units, onsite studio shows, and more than 250 production personnel.
We're excited about the return of other events, like Carb Day and the pit-stop competition, says Rene Hatlelid, producer, NBC Sports, but having all of the fans back will be incredibly important. It was odd not having fans at the track two years ago, but I love that all of this is back. I couldn't be more up for the challenge.
Front-Row Tech: 75-Camera Show Led by Drones, Shallow Depth-of Field, Several Jibs To cover some of the fastest cars on the planet, NBC Sports will leverage a steep set of broadcast technologies. Where last year's race featured 103 cameras, this year's complement will decline to 75, but the equipment is still extremely high-quality. Two drones from Beverly Hills Aerials - which has become a major player in coverage of motorsports in the U.S. - will be hovering above the track: a heavy-lift drone, providing steadier shots at a slower speed; an FPV racing version, capable of nearly 100 mph for striking views of IMS's massive footprint. The FPV racing drone will be used on the front stretch of the track during pre-race festivities and throughout the course of the race.
A shot from Jimmie Johnson's onboard camera during qualifying on May 22
Continuing to take the sports-video-production landscape by storm, a Canon shallow-depth-of-field camera will provide a cinematic look at areas like the paddock, team garages, pit row before the race, and other stationary settings. It will be joined by a standard Steadicam and six RF handhelds roaming the premises. BSI will once again handle all of these RF needs, along with 15 onboard cameras installed on cars within Sunday's grid.
Further from the infield and the asphalt, the network will deploy a handful of heavy-duty jib cameras for coverage of each turn and to capture the crowd atmosphere. A Technocrane, which can be extended to 8-30 ft., will cover the front stretch during both pre-race and the actual race. A Stradacrane, which can reach nearly 100 ft., will sweep over the Snake Pit, the infield concert location, which can fit approximately 35,000 fans.
Seven high-frame-rate cameras round out the arsenal. The cameras are complemented by super-slow-motion replay supplied by EVS. All of this technology is more than fitting for an event of this magnitude, and, for Hatlelid and her team to do their jobs efficiently, it's up to the technical and operations crews to cast a wide technological net.
A hard hit for Dalton Kellett in #Indy500 practice.
His crash is the first major one throughout all of the practice and qualifying sessions so far. pic.twitter.com/Cfuw0rPCoo
#Indy500 on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 23, 2022
It's called The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, notes Matt Hogencamp, technical manager, NBC Sports, and that's not only because of what happens on the track. Our production team comes to us with ideas, and we figure out how we can make those happen. Trying to highlight this large-scale event is a really exciting challenge.
Onsite Workflows: IMS Productions, BSI Park Mobile Units in the Compound The NBC Sports crew will work from five mobile units in the television compound outside Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IMS Productions HD-5 will handle the primary production of the race, HD-3 the pre-race studio show, and B1 and other trucks ancillary distribution and support. Five office trailers will house other essential personnel, and BSI will have two trucks onsite for the RF infrastructure.
Jibs will play a large role on Sunday, including a Technocrane and a Stradacrane.
Although the Indy 500 is the most famous race on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule, there have been five other races since the start of the season in St. Petersburg, FL, on Feb. 27. With a calendar that takes NBC Sports to different locations around the country, Hogencamp gives a nod to the team at IMS Productions - including President Kevin Sublette; Director, Broadcast Operations, Ken Ferguson; and Technical Manager Ken Fitzgerald - for providing a foundation for the network.
The team at IMS Productions deserves a lot of credit for helping us create and capture this sport for 17 weeks out of the year, Hogencamp says. These toys allow us to show this exciting experience to the folks watching at home and, hopefully, get them to come out in person someday.
Setting the Scene: Studio Programming Resides Near the Yard of Bricks Alongside the main race production, NBC Sports will have a full cast of on-air talent to cover the festivities. Prior to the waving of the green flag, Senior Producer John Barnes will produce onsite studio shows featuring host Mike Tirico and studio analyst and former IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, who became the first woman to lead laps and earn a top-five finish in the Indianapolis 500, in 2005. Motorsports analyst and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. will contribute to pre-race coverage alongside motorsports reporter Rutledge Wood. Within the versatile and flexible Peacock Pit Box on pit road in front of the famed Yard of Bricks, the quartet will preview the day's race and allow viewers to see shots of spectators at different locations, including the Pagoda and the Snake
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...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
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...
Indy 500: NBC Sports Preps Powerful Onsite Production for First Full-Capacity Crowd Since 2019 The broadcast will deploy a total of 75 cameras, five mobile units By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor 
