NFL Playoffs 2025: CBS Sports and Nickelodeon Go Beyond SpongeBob Universe, Boost AR Technology With Latest Slime-Filled Altcast AR graphics for Chargers-Texans are again driven by Silver Spoon Animation By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, January 10, 2025 - 4:04 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Nickelodeon and CBS Sports are set to produce their sixth slime-filled alternative NFL telecast: NFL Wild Card Game Live From Bikini Bottom. And Saturday's SpongeBob SquarePants-themed presentation of the Chargers-Texans matchup will serve as a tribute to just how far these AR-graphics-fueled broadcasts have come - both technologically and creatively - since the first Nickelodeon altcast of an NFL game, in 2021.
You always want to top what you did the last time around; that's for sure, says CBS Sports' Shawn Robbins, who will once again serve as coordinating producer of the game. Our primary goals this time around are to bring in more characters than ever before and to push the technology further than we ever have.
Watch the best moments from Saturday's broadcast by clicking on the image above.
More Characters, More Fun: Upping the Ante After Super Bowl LVIII CBS Sports and Nickelodeon's sixth family-friendly collaboration on an NFL game - the third NFL Wild Card game - follows Super Bowl LVIII Live From Bikini Bottom, which won a Sports Emmy Award and marked the first-ever altcast for a Super Bowl.
Upping the ante for this outing, the Nickelodeon broadcast will feature appearances by fan-favorite characters from Paramount's portfolio beyond the SpongeBob SquarePants universe: Transformers, Hey Arnold!, CatDog, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Loud House, The Tiny Chef Show, The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more.
We genuinely felt we hit a home run on the Super Bowl, says Robbins, but there is always room for improvement. We achieved our goals, got in everything we wanted to do, so we immediately started thinking about what we could do to give it a bigger feel. The SpongeBob universe is phenomenal, but there's a whole big world of Nickelodeon [IP] that we didn't touch on in the previous games. That's what we're bringing to this game. There will be some surprises and Nickelodeon characters you weren't expecting to see.
Silver Spoon Animation is once again at the center of the production, running eight Unreal 5.4 Engines from Pixotope (with redundant backups) to drive the augmented-reality-graphics operation. Three camera-tracking technologies are being deployed for the production: G3DVu, SMT, and Stype.
There is no better moment that show the power of augmented reality for sports TV than in situations like this, where it is actually part of the storytelling, says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. It isn't just there for eye candy; it's actually there to move the story ahead.
CBS Sports and Nickelodeon have also teamed up with SMT to create a new lineup of innovative, Nickified graphics, including:
Slime Zone: A touchdown celebration like no other, with virtual slime cannons filling the screen
Rope Line of Scrimmage: An imaginative twist on the traditional line of scrimmage
Best First Down Line Ever: A fun, gooey, animated line that adds excitement to every first down
CatDog Down and Distance: A playful graphic that adjusts length for varying yardages, inspired by the classic Nickelodeon duo
Red Zone Animations: Eye-catching visuals that highlight the action-packed moments inside the 20-yard line
SMT is also providing its SportsCG and QB Stat systems to power live game data and visual enhancements
Earlier this week, a Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of NRG Stadium in Houston to provide Silver Spoon with the 3D mesh model that will serve as the canvas for Saturday's presentation. Unlike at Super Bowl LVIII, for which the scan was done weeks in advance, the Lidar scan could not be performed until the playoff rankings became official following last week's regular-season finale.
For the Super Bowl, says Robbins, we knew the venue way in advance, and we had two weeks to prepare once we knew who the teams would be. But, for Wild Card, we find out not only the teams but also the venue, and we have less than a week to prepare since it's a Saturday game. The technical challenges have been a lot greater this week, especially since we've upped production. Yes, we did two Wild Card games in the past - New Orleans and Dallas - where we found out the week of the game, but, now that we've raised the bar in terms of the production, it's an even bigger lift.
In terms of the in-game AR-graphics workflow, the production team is using modified Xbox controllers to insert virtual elements on the field.
We've surrounded ourselves with the right people who know how to innovate, says Cohen. It's important to partner with the types of companies and vendors that can help elevate your overall product. When we started four years ago, the machines simply didn't have the processing power that they do today. We've come a long way in a rather short time.
Onsite in Houston: Side-by-Side Trucks, Real and Animated Announcers The Nickelodeon effort will be a side-by-side broadcast from separate trucks - Game Creek Video Peacock A and B units and Edit 1 truck - alongside the main CBS trucks (NEP Supershooter 4 units).
The Nickelodeon broadcast will have nine of its own manned cameras, as well as access to more than a dozen camera feeds from the main CBS broadcast.
Doing a regular game or a fully animated game is very different from meshing those worlds together, says Cohen. We are mixing regular-game coverage with the animated portion. That means you have to ensure normal NFL-game coverage in terms of s
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Genelec announces V2.1 for Aural ID binaural headphone monitoring application posted: 29/05/2026
Aural ID 2.1 enhances binaural monitoring for stereo and ...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
NFL Playoffs 2025: CBS Sports and Nickelodeon Go Beyond SpongeBob Universe, Boost AR Technology With Latest Slime-Filled Altcast AR graphics for Chargers-Texans are again driven by Silver Spoon Animation By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
