NFL Playoffs 2022: Fox Sports Begins Postseason Push With 1080p HDR Production for NFC Wild Card Additional technologies will be introduced each round By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor
Thursday, January 13, 2022 - 2:04 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
After one of the more unpredictable NFL regular seasons in recent memory, the calendar has flipped to 2022, and the remaining 14 franchises will compete to play in Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13. Despite the surprise victories and shocking upsets seen over the past four months, Fox Sports' unrelenting commitment to technological ingenuity will most certainly continue throughout the postseason.
The best way to describe what our playoff coverage will look like is taking everything from Thursday Night Football, everything from A game on Sunday, and putting it into one package, says Kevin Callahan, VP, field operations and engineering, Fox Sports. We're working on some things behind the scenes to enhance the viewing experience.
Sunny Sunday in Tampa: Bucs-Eagles Wild-Card Matchup To Get UHD HDR Production Not wasting any time, Fox Sports will kick off its playoff slate with a full 1080p HDR production of the first NFC Wild Card Game of Sunday's doubleheader. The decision was influenced by Fox Sports' continued support of widespread 1080p HDR and 4K HDR presentations of some of sport's most high-profile games: last season's NFL Playoffs, the 2021 MLB All-Star Game in July, the 2021 MLB at Field of Dreams game in early August, the 2021 MLS All-Star Game in late August, MLB on 9/11 in September, to name a few. To accentuate the effort, the crew will be improving the camera complement normally deployed for its main NFL games and TNF, including two additional high-frame-rate cameras and a total of 12 pylon cameras with six in each end zone. The added technology will also provide views of each back line for coverage of all boundaries.
Game Creek Video's Encore (A,B, and C units), the main Thursday Night Football production unit, will be positioned outside Raymond James Stadium and drive the Wild Card production. Given its sheer size and capability of housing a large number of technologies, the crew will have additional EVS operators onsite and won't have to worry about using another truck to accommodate for the increase.
As the playoffs progress toward the NFC Championship on Sunday, Jan. 30, the broadcaster will upgrade its arsenal for enhanced angles. One Megalodon system will be deployed for the first two rounds, but the penultimate round will get a second. One rig will follow the action on the field, interactions on the sideline, and end-zone celebrations after touchdowns; the other will be responsible of capturing the energy of the venue.
That's going to be focused primarily on the atmosphere and will be up in the crowd for shots of the fans, says Callahan. We want to get [those scenes] in order to translate the game-day environment for the fans watching at home.
In addition, the Line to Gain 2.0 - a pylon camera developed with C360 and 3G Wireless - will be situated at the line of scrimmage.
Workflows in the Vault: Travel Delays Call for More Remote Operators As in the regular season, the Vault in Los Angeles will be a vital source for remote workflows used throughout the playoffs. The first game in Tampa, FL, for example, will rely on six EVS operators and one of three graphics operators located at the Vault. Although the offsite effort has been essential all season long, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the most recent Omicron surge have impacted workflows. More specifically, nationwide travel disruptions have made the Vault an even more valuable asset.
We've had some people who couldn't get to games, notes Callahan. We'd cover them by adding positions in the Vault. We've been COVID-safe within the mobile units in terms of social distancing, masks, and testing, and we haven't had to make significant changes. But we're always prepared to add [more health and safety restrictions] if we need to.
If flight cancellations and other forms of delay continue over the next month, the Vault will be the broadcaster's saving grace. As another logistical challenge, the nature of the playoffs generates countless permutations. Based on the NFC side of the bracket and the results of the first round, the production crew could be working in a wide variety of stadiums for the NFC Championship: the freezing temperatures of Green Bay, a cozier setting in Dallas, the warm climate of Los Angeles, in the Bay Area of San Francisco, subtropical Tampa. If the road leads to Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, it'll be a quick turnaround to get out of the compound and let NBC Sports set up its infrastructure for the final game of the NFL calendar.
It would be a very interesting scenario if it played out that way, adds Callahan. It has gotten very close a couple of times over the past 10 years.
Remaining Focused: Fox Sports To Maximize Playoff Coverage With an Eye Toward Super Bowl LVII 2021-22 can be considered an improvement over the 2020-21 campaign, but it was drastically different than from the years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel issues, game postponements, and rescheduling contests to weekdays, Fox Sports overcame its share of hurdles. Despite the obstacles, a lot of positives came out of all of these productions.
It wasn't the COVID-free season that everyone was hoping for, but everyone did a fantastic job bringing these games to air, Callahan says. At the start of the season, one of the key drivers [of our broadcasts] was highlighting, hearing, and making the fans back in the stands a part of the experience. I think we really did deliver on that.
These small victories have come together to create one large-scal
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
NFL Playoffs 2022: Fox Sports Begins Postseason Push With 1080p HDR Production for NFC Wild Card Additional technologies will be introduced each round By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor 
