Live From NCAA Men's Final Four: CBS Sports Debuts Live Camera Worn by Players at NABC College All-Star Game It's the first live implementation of body-camera technology developed by MindFly By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, April 8, 2024 - 2:18 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
One of the chief aspirations for live sports broadcasts is to get viewers as close to the action as possible. How much closer can one get than having the actual vantage point of a player in action?
CBS Sports took a swing at delivering a live view of a player via a body-camera system during Friday night's NABC College All-Star Game on Friday night, an event hosted as part of NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four festivities.
University of Akron basketball player Enrique Freeman is outfitted with MindFly's body-camera system prior to CBS Sports Network's live broadcast of the NABC College All-Star Game in Glendale, AZ, on Friday.
Developed by MindFly, the AI BodyCam solution has been deployed various times across Europe but only as a postproduction tool and only during prematch warmups and other non-game activities. This deployment marks the first time the company was able to trial out a version delivering a feed that could be taken live by a game director.
We know that this has been done on skills challenges; referees have worn it, said Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports, prior to the game, but a player's point of view when he is bringing the ball up the court, when he's taking free throws, when he's dunking the basketball, I think, could be a holy grail of camera point of view. What we're most excited about is experimenting with it not only as a replay tool, which is the obvious safe way to give yourself a unique perspective. We're going to go to it live. We're going to cut to this camera as a live camera and challenge [it] with things like video quality, latency, and image stabilization.
Let s take you closer to the action with Court Cam! pic.twitter.com/eLSM670gFr
CBS Sports College Basketball (@CBSSportsCBB) April 6, 2024
With a huge operational effort onsite in Glendale, AZ, for the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four and the National Championship Game, CBS Sports took the opportunity to first use the system on the College All-Star Game when two players - Eastern Kentucky University's Isaiah Cozart and University of Akron's Enrique Freeman - agreed to wear the camera during the game.
I think this is going to be an unbelievable camera angle that has never been tried and done before, said Cohen. It's going to open a lot of doors down the road for different sports around the country to try this vantage point.
Most critical to the success of the system were image quality (it delivers 1080p) and image stabilization, along with a safe, lightweight, unobtrusive vest that players can wear without its interfering with their play.
We spent more than a year making sure it was super-comfortable, super-wearable, and light and had a small footprint and great stabilization, said Bhaskar Mani, chief strategy officer, MindFly. I think that's the key difference between this and anything that has come before.
Eastern Kentucky University basketball player Isaiah Cozart was one of two players to wear MindFly's body-camera system during CBS Sports Network's live broadcast of the NABC College All-Star Game.
Cohen and his team met with MindFly execs a couple of years ago and began a relationship that led to this activation: We had good conversations about where this could go, but we challenged MindFly. As great as the concept in having a player-point-of-view camera inside the chest harness, what's most important about this system, quite frankly, is going to be - besides video quality and stabilization - that it has a live component.
To their credit, he continued, they respectfully took the feedback and came back this year. From there, we thought about a best application where it might be able to fit into one of our properties.
In a similar deployment two years ago, a player wore the MindFly system during a Euroleague basketball game. Those shots, however, were used only after the fact on the league's social channels. Additionally, MindFly has deployed its system a few times in European football, including for the English Premier League and Italy's top-flight Serie A. The company has also worked with Major League Soccer here in the U.S.
In this newest version of MindFly's BodyCam system, image stabilization is assisted through artificial intelligence. Our AI-based processing that we are performing on the video itself to achieve the stabilization is unique because we are capturing a larger field of view, explained Yehuda Elmaliach, co-founder /CTO, Mindfly. The ability to crop to the right place in real time, not for postproduction editing but for live is a major achievement. This is where we are focusing our efforts in terms of live AI-based processing.
As the technology continues to evolve, CBS Sports is seeking new places to deploy it. Bringing the viewers and the fans closer to the action has always been a goal, noted Cohen. How do you make the experience more intimate, [enabling] fans to go somewhere they've never been able to go before? Whether that's cameras embedded in pylons or on referees' hats or so on, the driving motivation has been the same: get us closer and closer to the action.
I think what we're going to see, which we're equally as excited about, he continued, is not just what we can do with it in this particular game but what doors it unlocks for other events.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
Live From NCAA Men's Final Four: CBS Sports Debuts Live Camera Worn by Players at NABC College All-Star Game It's the first live implementation of body-camera technology developed by MindFly By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
