College Football Kickoff: ESPN's Improved Line To Gain Pylon Cam, Marker Cam Systems Ready For Primetime (In the NFL, Too!)
30/08/2019
Friday, August 30, 2019 - 10:54 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
The dawn of a new football season brings with it another wave of innovation from the team at ESPN. The big addition to this year's technology lineup will be the introduction of new and improved versions of the network's Line To Gain Pylon Cams and Marker Cam (which is a camera embedded inside the top of a first down stick).
Version 2.0 of ESPN's Marker Cam features improved camera optics from speciality camera developer C360. The unique angle offers a closer look at the action with a shot right down the line to gain for a first down. It will be utilized on the featured primetime college football game on ABC, in addition to NFL games on Monday Night Football.
Seen on some previous College Football Playoff Semifinals and last season's National Championship Game, both the Line To Gain Pylon and Marker Cams have gotten major facelifts this offseason elevating them from their role as purely a unique camera angle to a more effective and usable tool at the production team's disposal.
Version 2.0 of both of these systems - which will appear each week on the featured Saturday Night college football game on ABC - contains completely new camera interiors and operating optics from specialty camera developer C360, in addition to bolstered RF capabilities from 3G Wireless (making them free of cabling and easy to move around). Both provide clear and unique views directly down either the line of scrimmage, the first down yard to gain, or even the goal line (depending on where it's set up) and offer far more flexibility on the replay front.
These cameras are improved in really dramatic ways, says ESPN senior coordinating producer Ed Placey, who also assumed the role of Content Innovation Lead earlier this year. We have full pan, zoom, tilt optics from the pylons that, to this point, had been unheard of. It took managing the size and other moving parts but this allows you to follow the action, do isos on receivers, and, also, its an internal replay system, which they had [available in the past] but it was really a last resort as a backup. Now its front and center with an immediate rewind and reframe to the action that plays right to air while you are managing the optics live. It's a bit unprecedented, honestly.
WATCH: Click here to see sample footage from the Line To Gain Pylon Cam and Marker Cam.
When this system is in use, ESPN will also continue to deploy its goal-line pylon cams meaning that there could be anywhere from 6-10 pylon camera units on a marquee game (Placey gets a good laugh out of this fact). Plus, ESPN is keeping a couple of original versions of this system in rotation, using v1.0s on the featured Saturday primetime games that air on both ESPN and the SEC Network.
In a separate major development, ESPN also gained full approval from the NFL earlier this week to use the new versions of both the Line To Gain Pylon Cams and Marker Cam every week on Monday Night Football. ESPN has been hoping to prove out the value and effectiveness of these systems to the NFL over the past couple of years and those efforts have finally born fruit. A couple of test deployments on a pair of preseason games this month helped seal the deal.
Back to college football, this weekend's coverage of Week 1 is fully loaded. In fact, when combining with last weekend's Week 0 (which garnered more attention this year thanks to a College GameDay production at Walt Disney World and a marquee opening matchup between Miami and Florida in Orlando), ESPN will be producing 35 combined collegiate (and high school) telecasts over seven platforms. It will total up to about 200 hours of football programming across the ESPN linear family by the time Monday night is all said and done. With that, ESPN crews will have deployed 27 different mobile production units from seven different truck vendors to 27 college/high school fields and eight NFL stadiums.
The Yard To Gain Pylon Cams are wireless and can be easily moved around the field thanks to RF support from 3G Wireless.
The sheer volume that we are offering fans this first weekend is extraordinary, says John LaChance, Director, Remote Production Operations for ESPN. To see and hear all those collective numbers to kick-off the college football season is both impressive and a bit humbling. It's certainly a large group effort touching every aspect and group within our department and it's a partnership with our production colleagues. For one, I'm very proud of our college football team and the combined effort of all involved.
On an infrastructure note, proprietary and third party fiber infrastructure will be used to support nearly half of those games while the remaining shows will be supported by delivery over IP and traditional satellite uplink trucks.
All in all, more than 1,000 remote technicians, vendors, and utilities, along with more than 60 remote-operations-management personnel, will be involved in what promises to be a frenetic opening week across college football.
LINK: | https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/08/30/college-football-preview-espns-... |
See more stories from svg |
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
30/04/2024
Gray Television Using NextGen TV to Roll Out Advanced Features Like HDR
LOUISVILLE, Ky. In another sign that broadcasters are finally using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer viewers new features instead of simply simulcasting existing ...
30/04/2024
Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame To Honor Blaise Labbe
OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame will induct Blaise Labbe, a group news director for Sinclair Broadcast Group, May 2 at the 54th Anniversary I...
30/04/2024
Cox Media Group, Dish Ink New Multi-Year Agreement
ATLANTA and ENGLEWOOD, Colo. Cox Media Group and Dish have ended a dispute over retransmission fees that lasted nearly a year and a half with a new multi-year ...
30/04/2024
TelevisaUnivision Taps LTN for IP-Based Distribution
Video transport solution provider LTN has announced that it is working with TelevisaUnivision to help the Spanish-language media giant migrate to IP-based video...
30/04/2024
NBC KXAS and Telemundo KXTX Used Clear-Com Solutions for Eclipse Coverage
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has released details about how it played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 by NBC K...
30/04/2024
Scripps Appoints Seth Walters To Steer CTV Sales Strategy
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company is adding Seth Walters to its sales leadership team as head of CTV sales, effective April 29....
30/04/2024
Durham Bulls Saturday Game, First Sellout of 2024 Season
The force was strong at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Saturday night, April 27, 2024, as the night netted the ballpark's first official sellout crowd of...
30/04/2024
NewFront Life Is a Cabaret for LGBTQ+ Network Revry
Revry, a network celebrating queer culture. said its second annual NewFront presentation will be a cabaret-type spectacle showcasing the spirit of the LGBTQ+ co...
30/04/2024
FETV Viewers Say Howdy' as Wyatt Earp' Joins Lineup
Family Entertainment Television (FETV) said that the Western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp will be joining the network's afternoon lineup startin...
30/04/2024
Bob Bakish Departing Paramount, According to Reports
Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount Global, will depart the company as Paramount explores a merger, according to numerous published reports. The reports ...
30/04/2024
Thales reports its order intake and sales for the first quarter of 2024
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Order intake: 5.0 billion, up 47% ( 46% on an organic basis1 ) Sales: 4.4 billion, up 9.8% ( 7.9% on an organic basis) All f...
29/04/2024
Filming begins and further cast confirmed in Mark Gatiss drama Bookish for Alibi
(L-R) Mark Gatiss and Polly Walker on set Monday 29 April 2024 Further casting is now confirmed for Bookish (6x70), a brand-new drama created by Emmy Award-wi...
29/04/2024
She Speaks Sudan': Thomson launches programme to empower women journalists and civil society actors in exile
A groundbreaking initiative offering training and mentoring to 30 women journali...
29/04/2024
Meet the 2024 Sundance Institute Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Lab Fellows
Even though we've been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement r...
29/04/2024
The AN/PRC-158: A Resilient Communications Bridge Between Air and Ground
L3Harris is delivering manpack radios to U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks as part of the Air-to-Ground Networking Radio program, providing seamless, resilient communica...
29/04/2024
CS President Sam Mehta: Resilient Communications are Critical to Realizing JADC2
He writes in Defense One: Despite the near-universal acknowledgement throughout the U.S. government and defense industrial base of the criticality of resilient ...
29/04/2024
Clear-Com Enhances The Kennedy Center with Seamless Communication Solutions
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/04/2024
Optimising audio loudness & normalisation across the Media Supply Chain
Codemill aims to revolutionize media workflow efficiency at this years NAB Show by introducing Just-In-Time (JIT) playback technology in Accurate.Video Validate...
29/04/2024
TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New Video Streaming Service
April 29, 2024 -- TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New...
29/04/2024
LG Adds Allen Media Group's Local Now FAST Channel in 223 Markets
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group (AMG) has partnered with LG Electronics to bring 223 Local Now FAST channels to LG's free streaming service, LG Channels, avai...
29/04/2024
Ross Video Unveils Raiden Weather Graphics System
OTTAWA Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization ...
29/04/2024
Melanie Georgieva Joins Panalux as Long Form Sales Direct...
Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's end-to-end service offerings for...
29/04/2024
Cobalt Iron Earns Patent on Analytics-Based Dynamic Autho...
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its technology for dynamic autho...
29/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 202...
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that Rally Access Workstation, a fully managed solution for editing in...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports selects QuickLink Remote Commentary soluti...
Premier Sports, a premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality remote commenta...
29/04/2024
Glookast picks Jigsaw24 Media as exclusive UK channel par...
Glookast has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the only UK channel partner to represent their portfolio of ingest and workflow optimisation products. The agreement, sign...
29/04/2024
Clear-Coms Eclipse HX and Agent-IC Technology Illuminate...
Clear-Com played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Leveraging its cutting-edge Eclipse HX Digital Matrix i...
29/04/2024
PlayBox Neo to Promote Latest Smart Media Playout Innovat...
PlayBox Neo will promote its complete range of television channel management, graphic branding and playout solutions to EMEA region media content owners and bro...
29/04/2024
RuPaul Game Show Lingo' Returns to CBS May 24
Lingo, RuPaul's word-twisting game show, returns for season two on CBS Friday, May 24. Two episodes air that night, and stream on Paramount Plus, too....
29/04/2024
ESPN, Amazon Prime Video Reportedly Close To New Deals With the NBA
ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are reportedly close to scoring television rights to the National Basketball Association, according to published reports....
29/04/2024
Judge Judy,' Hot Bench' Renewed for 2 More Years
Judge Judy and Hot Bench, CBS Media Ventures' genre-leading court shows, have been renewed through the 2025-26 TV season in more than 95% of the country, Gr...
29/04/2024
Irish Sports Broadcaster Premier Sports Taps QuickLink for Remote Commentary
Premier Sports, an Irish-based premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality re...
29/04/2024
BAFTA Television Craft Awards winners announced
The awards celebrate the craft of behind-the-scenes TV talent and the best programmes of 2023 By Matthew Corrigan Published: April 29, 2024 The awards cel...
29/04/2024
Watch: How Milk VFX helped create 259 shots for Netflix's Scoop
The team at Milk had to create and deliver the VFX and environment work for the royal residences featured in the drama from scratch By Jenny Priestley Publis...
29/04/2024
What's going on at Paramount Global?
CEO Bob Bakish is expected to leave the company as early as today, with a new leadership committee likely to run the company on an interim basis By Jenny Pries...
29/04/2024
Meet the director of media and entertainment and strategic products
Albena Ivanova, director, media and entertainment and strategic products at CHAOS talks to TVBEurope about her route into the industry By TVBEurope Staff Pub...
29/04/2024
Anna Valley brand name acquired by AV company Grand Technix
The acquisition gives Grand Technix the opportunity to expand its footprint in the audio visual and broadcast technology sectors By Jenny Priestley Published...
29/04/2024
Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light First Light Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting Becomes First Company Inducted into NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
29/04/2024
Tonight on House of Zwide: Zanele tells a surprised Zola that Faith fully supports her dropping charges against him
Tonight on House of Zwide: Zanele tells a surprised Zola that Faith fully suppor...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Scandal: Nhlamulo's request has Mdala reeling
Tonight on Scandal: A line is crossed and a mother starts to lose focusDon't miss Friday, 26 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Scandal! o...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Evelyn puts measures in place to protect her son
Tonight on Skeem Saam: Evelyn puts measures in place to protect her sonDon't miss Monday, 29 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Skeem Saam...
29/04/2024
Uninterrupted and Tribeca Enterprises Partner for Second-Annual Uninterrupted Film Festival Powered by Tribeca Festival July 9-10 in Los Angeles
April 29th, 2024 UNINTERRUPTED AND TRIBECA ENTERPRISES PARTNER FOR SECOND-ANNUA...
29/04/2024
Rebrand and Refresh: SailGP Talks Bringing its Graphics Operations Inhouse for a Bright New Look to Keep Viewers Illuminated
Rebrand and refresh: SailGP talks bringing its graphics operations inhouse for a...
29/04/2024
Reflecting on a Storied Career: Sean McManus Looks Back While Keeping an Eye on the Future
Reflecting on a Storied Career: Sean McManus Looks Back While Keeping an Eye on ...
29/04/2024
Drones Take Flight Inside MSG: How Sky Candy Studios is Upping the Excitement for Knicks, Rangers Playoff Series
Drones Take Flight Inside MSG: How Sky Candy Studios is Upping the Excitement fo...
29/04/2024
Netflix Announces a Diverse Lineup of Polish Titles to Debut in 2024 With Established Creators Returning With New Series and Films
Back to All News Netflix Announces a Diverse Lineup of Polish Titles to Debut i...