Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL Kickoff 2025: FOX Sports Launches Groundbreaking New LED-Fueled XR/AR Stage

08/09/2025

NFL Kickoff 2025: FOX Sports Launches Groundbreaking New LED-Fueled XR/AR StageThe revamp of Stage B follows in the footsteps of FOX's Stage A, which launched in 2022By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.

Friday, September 5, 2025 - 1:26 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

FOX Sports continues to blaze the trail in XR technology and virtual production this week with the relaunch of Stage B at its L.A. headquarters. Home to FOX NFL Kickoff on Sunday mornings and Colin Cowherd's The Herd on weekdays, the rebuilt studio is a sprawling LED medium composed of more than 54 million LED lights.

The revamp of Stage B follows in the footsteps of FOX's LED-fueled Stage A, which launched in 2022 and serves as the home to the network's flagship NFL on FOX pregame show. Previously a practical set, Stage B's LED volume is more than twice the size of Stage A. The photorealistic environment enables FOX Sports to transform the set backdrop to mimic the visuals of any NFL stadium and a variety of other locales, affording infinite opportunities for storytelling and analysis.

I think with our experience and expertise on both the creative side and the technical side all coming together, we've made a lot of strides and we were ready to take the next step, says Zac Fields, FOX Sports SVP/Graphic Tech & Innovation. We're to the point where, day in and day out, we are comfortable with the workflow and can adapt to last minute requests. So we felt that we were in a really good position to move to doing a larger fully LED-based set for Stage B.

The set launched earlier this week with The Herd and will make its FOX NFL Kickoff debut on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. Stage B will also serve as home to FOX's MLB Postseason coverage during the Divisional Series this fall and is expected to play a role in other marquee FOX Sports properties like college football and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Inside Stage B: A Fully LED-Based Feast for the Eyes Stage B originally debuted in 2013 with the launch of FS1 and had yet to undergo a significant makeover since, so it was definitely time for an upgrade, according to Fields. FOX enlisted Architecture Van Brandenburg out of New Zealand (who they worked with on their Basilica of Soccer' virtual studio last year) to design the virtual environment for FOX NFL Kickoff, while Jack Morton designed The Herd's on-air look in partnership with ROTU Entertainment.

As opposed to Stage A, which is composed of roughly 1/3 LED medium and 2/3 practical set, Stage B is entirely LED-based. The ROE Visual LED medium is just under 20ft tall and is composed of 42-ft-wide left and right walls, a 72ft-wide back wall, and a full LED floor. The LED Walls have 35,312,650 total pixels and the LED Floor has 12,730,368, for a total of 48,043,018 pixels. In terms of power, the LED Walls are pulling 415A while and the LED Floor is pulling 438A power-wise.

One thing that we realized in using our LED volume on Stage is A was that we wanted to have more space to move around, says Fields. If you're doing entire shows in that LED medium rather than just segments, you really need a larger space so you can have some relationship shots and movement where talent can get up from the desk and walk to another area of the set. So that's partially why we opted to just do the whole thing as LED rather than a hybrid like stage A.

The facility is equipped with ten broadcast studio cameras including eight robos, a Techno Jib, and a SteadiCam - all enabled with stYpe camera tracking technology for AR graphics.

Behind the Scenes: A Full Battery of Technical Infrastructure Powering It All In order to power Pixotope's Unreal Engine-based system that feeds content to the XR LED walls, FOX is running 24 high-powered real-time render workstations featuring Megapixel processors. An additional eight high powered real-time render workstations are on hand to drive the AR camera composition being done with Pixotope's Unreal Engine-based system.

FOX is also leveraging the same Ghost Frame technology it used on Stage A to provide four different tracked/rendered camera perspectives - a feature that has been a hit with production leaders and viewers alike.

The scale of this project is just massive, so it takes a lot of technical firepower behind the scenes to make it run, says Fields. And we had to do some creative engineering with scaling to get to this point.

In terms of UI, FOX Sports is using Erizos Studio software to control the various components of the XR stage - including both Unreal elements and Vizrt insert graphics. Inside Studio B, The Herd continues to run on Ross Video's Overdrive production automation system as it did prior to the studio relaunch.

The LED walls, the AR, and all this other technology is integrated directly into Overdrive and driven by the automation system, which I find pretty impressive to say the least, says Fields. Despite this technology being very advanced, our team has been able to take all the different components and graphics elements and automate the entire show. The producer can script out their AR and what the set is going to look like on very easily. I would say the most underrated part of this project has been putting an automated show on air with this much technical firepower.

Building on a Legacy of Innovation: FOX Stays on the Bleeding Edge of XR This marks just the latest chapter in FOX's virtual-studio journey, which dates back to the opening of its revolutionary NASCAR Race Hub virtual studio in Charlotte, NC, in 2019. Since then, the network has continued to undertake groundbreaking studio projects, including not only Studio A for NFL on FOX but also a AR-powered 2022 FIFA World Cup set in Doha and 360-degree immersive XR for the 2024 EUROs and Copa America.

I'm very grateful that
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/09/05/nfl-kickoff-2025-fox-sports-lau...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

23/06/2026

Case Study: YES Networks IP Transition Expands Production Possibilities and Redefines Workflows

When we began planning our transition from an SDI-based infrastructure to a new ...

23/06/2026

Imagine Communications Appoints Greg Garmon as SVP, Americas Video Sales

Imagine Communications has announced the appointment of Greg Garmon as Senior Vice President, Americas Video Sales. Garmon will oversee account growth and busin...

23/06/2026

Snap Promotes Emma Wakely to Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, Americas

Snap has promoted Emma Wakely to Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, Americas, succeeding Anmol Malhotra, who has been elevated to Global Head of Content and...

23/06/2026

YES Network and Gotham Sports App to Air MI New York Major League Cricket Matches

YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air MI New York's Major League Cr...

23/06/2026

HAND Issues Persistent Digital IDs to 2026 NBA Draft Class

The Universal Talent Identifier (HAND) has issued HAND IDs to 34 top projected prospects in the 2026 NBA Draft class, including AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, and...

23/06/2026

World Boxing Launches World Boxing TV Streaming Platform

World Boxing has announced the launch of World Boxing TV, a subscription-based streaming platform built on the Joymo platform, offering live events, on-demand c...

23/06/2026

FloRacing to Stream 32 Off-Road Motorcycle Racing Events Including AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship

FloSports will stream 32 off-road motorcycle racing events on FloRacing, includi...

23/06/2026

SES Adds 14 Regional Channels and New Set-Top Boxes to ASTRA TV in Spain

SES has announced the expansion of its ASTRA TV platform in Spain with the addition of 14 regional channels in HD and UHD quality and the launch of new hybrid s...

23/06/2026

Appear Supports Rede Legislativas Contribution Workflow for Brazils TV 3.0 Trials

Appear ASA has announced its role in Rede Legislativa de R dio e TV's contri...

23/06/2026

PBS Selects LTN for Nationwide IP Video Network Across 330 Member Stations

LTN has announced that PBS has selected it as its IP video partner to modernize content distribution and contribution across more than 330 public television sta...

23/06/2026

Ease Live Powers Interactive Experience on Rally.TV for WRC

Ease Live has announced that its graphics overlay platform is powering an interactive fan experience on Rally.TV, the official streaming platform of the FIA Wor...

23/06/2026

Chyron LIVE Adds Haivision StreamHub Integration, SCTE-35 Ad Insertion, and Switcher Updates

Chyron has announced updates to Chyron LIVE, its cloud-native live production pl...

23/06/2026

ESPN Announces ESPN Fan House, Fan Engagement Hub Powered by Flowcode

ESPN has announced ESPN Fan House, a fan engagement hub powered by Flowcode, launching in August ahead of the 2026 college football season. Publicis Sports will...

23/06/2026

Sennheiser Relocates Americas Regional Hub to Nashville

The city's solid position in broadcast, entertainment, and sports attracted the major microphone manufacturer Sennheiser Group is moving its Americas Regio...

22/06/2026

Behind the Mic: SportsCenters Lisa Cohn to Retire This June From ESPN as Longest-Tenured Anchor

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

22/06/2026

Cosm Appoints David Ho as Chief Legal Officer

Cosm has announced the appointment of David Ho as Chief Legal Officer, a newly created executive role reporting to President and CEO Jeb Terry. Ho will oversee ...

22/06/2026

Warner Bros. Discovery and AWS Announce AI-Powered Advertising Technology Platform

Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced the developm...

22/06/2026

Daktronics Completes Audio Control System Upgrade at Petco Park for San Diego Padres

Daktronics has completed an audio control system upgrade at Petco Park in San Di...

22/06/2026

Accelerate Media Names John Willi President, Launches Accelerate Sports Network

Accelerate Media has named John Willi as President and announced the launch of the Accelerate Sports Network (ASN), a prep sports media and streaming platform c...

22/06/2026

AWSN to Air 3XBA Womens Basketball Tournament Live June 26-27

All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) and 3XBA (3 3 Basketball Association) have announced live television coverage of the annual 3XBA tournament on Friday, Jun...

22/06/2026

OWL AI Appoints Jay Prasad as Chief Executive Officer

OWL AI has announced the appointment of Jay Prasad as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Prasad succeeds Josh Gwyther, who has served...

22/06/2026

CP Communications Provides RF Support for Inside the NBA at 2026 NBA Finals

CP Communications delivered RF video and audio support for TNT's Inside the NBA at the 2026 NBA Finals, providing main show coverage in San Antonio and ea...

22/06/2026

Polymarket and GRID Partner to Integrate Esports Data and Streaming into Trading Platform

Polymarket has announced a partnership with GRID, an official esports data platf...

22/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Metinteractive's Rachel Mele, Ken Cyr on Building Technology Backbones for Sports Venues

As sports venues continue to evolve into more video-centric, fan-engagement-driv...

22/06/2026

SVG All-Stars: Corbin Perkins, Chief Engineer, Victory+

As the regional sports production scene shifts toward streaming, this Texan helps lead the engineering behind Victory+'s growing live platform...

21/06/2026

FIFAs Oscar Sanchez on World Cup Effort: Were Feeling Good and Where We Want to Be

To call the 2026 FIFA World Cup a big undertaking would be a big understatement....

19/06/2026

NBC Sports U.S. Open Coverage Fires Up 92 Cameras, Bunker cams

Split compound eases operational challenges at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club...

19/06/2026

ESPN's Men's College World Series Production Adds Onsite Studio, POVORA CapCams, Expanded Drone Coverage for Finale in Omaha

North Carolina, Oklahoma meet in the best-of-three Finals as ESPN leans into spe...

18/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Is Most Watched Since Jordan Bulls Era; FIFA World Cup Opens Big

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics Debuts Healthcare Visual Reasoning Integration with LayerJot

PTZOptics has unveiled new Visual Reasoning demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 (Boo...

18/06/2026

IBC 2026: Announces New Future Tech Ignite Initiative, Expanded Exhibitor Participation

IBC2026 will take place at the RAI Amsterdam from September 11-14, bringing toge...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026 Holds Inaugural Media Day with Product Announcements from 19 Exhibitors

InfoComm 2026 held its first-ever Media Day on June 17, providing journalists an...

18/06/2026

Info Comm 2026: FOR-A America Announces TAA-Compliant LED Display Package

FOR-A America has announced a Trade Agreements Act (TAA)-compliant LED display solution combining Alfalite's Litepix LED displays and Brompton Technology...

18/06/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 20: Cleveland Browns Kyle Millen - Run of Shows & Rock n Roll

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level have one major thing in common: the intensity and attention to detail ramps up dur...

18/06/2026

International Federation of American Football, TMRW Sports Partner on Global Growth of Flag Football

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and TMRW Sports have an...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for KONA and Corvid PCIe I/O Cards

AJA Video Systems has unveiled Io Xpand, a Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion ...

18/06/2026

ESPN Marks 30th Anniversary of WNBA's Inaugural Game With Liberty-Sparks Broadcast

ESPN has announced its coverage plans for the 30th anniversary of the WNBA's...

18/06/2026

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff Heads to London for Union Jack Classic From Wembley Stadium

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff will broadcast live from Wembley Stadium in Lon...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Show Opens With Microsoft Keynote, Media Day, and New Industry Initiatives

InfoComm 2026 opened on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, bringing t...

18/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Akta's Matt Smith on Building AI Into the Foundation of the Video Workflow

As media companies look to deliver more live, VOD, and snackable sports content ...

17/06/2026

EVS Achieves EcoVadis Gold Medal, Ranking in Top 5% of Companies Globally

EVS has announced it has received the EcoVadis Gold Medal for sustainability performance, ranking among the top 5% of companies globally in the Technology/Mid-S...

17/06/2026

Chyron Releases Weather 2.4 with Updated DataFlow Module

Chyron has released Weather 2.4, an update to its weather suite for broadcasters and meteorologists. The release focuses on enhancements to the DataFlow module,...

17/06/2026

VSiN Launches Best Bets TV, a 24/7 FAST Channel

VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, has announced the launch of Best Bets TV, a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel. The 24/7 channel is currently avail...

17/06/2026

Snapchat and Team Whistle Launch World Cup Creator Program Across Miami, New York, and Los Angeles

DAZN's Team Whistle and Snap Inc. have announced a creator program centered ...

17/06/2026

LiveU Supporting Broadcast and Public Safety Operations for Summer of Soccer

LiveU is providing video transmission technology for broadcasters, production companies, and public safety agencies across North America's busy Summer of So...

17/06/2026

NATAS Announces Two New Board Members and COO Promotion

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has announced that Laurens Grant and Jacob Ullman have joined its Board of Directors. Chief of Staf...

17/06/2026

Akta Brings AI-First Cloud Video Workflows to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Akta, the AI-First SaaS video platform for modern broadcast and streaming operations, today announced that its video platform is now generally available on Orac...

17/06/2026

SVG Students to Watch: Nicholas Stafford, Texas Southern University

This recent graduate from Houston found inspiration in technical directing and now eyes a future career in sports production...

17/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Audio-Technica Brings New Wireless, Networked Audio, and Certified Conferencing Solutions

Audio-Technica (booth C7959) arrives at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas with a slate ...

17/06/2026

SNS Positions AI Suite as On-Premise Answer to Video Indexing and Search Demands

SNS has published a guide addressing growing demand for AI-powered video indexing, transcription, facial recognition, and searchable metadata across media libra...