
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 ...
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...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...