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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
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...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
02/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Med Tech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might thin...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
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 
