A year before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races over to NBC Sports Group (the Peacock announced a 10-year deal with NASCAR last week), ESPN's stock-car-racing coverage is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the network expanded its use of Ultra Hi-Motion last weekend during the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and will continue to showcase the technology throughout the final 17 races of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series.
ESPN's live, flag-to-flag coverage of the Brickyard 400 included four Ikegami NAC Hi-Motion II cameras provided by Fletcher. Two were used in a robotic configuration; the first, numbered Camera 11 in the production plans, was mounted on the pit wall by the yard of bricks that comprises the venue's the start/finish line.
Camera 11 is on the pit wall at the yard of bricks, said Operations Producer Terry Cook, speaking prior to Sunday's race. Its coverage is to get cars coming into the pit, and then, since it's a robotic camera [and] we're down on the pit wall, we're right near the action; we can get the crews working on the cars, jacking them up, changing tires, and that kind of stuff.
The second camera, outfitted with an 86x long box lens and numbered Camera 32 in the complement, sat on the outside wall of turn one, to the driver's right.
Its coverage primarily will be to cover the start of the race or the restart of the race after a caution, and then it can also get some pit-stop action, he noted. It is low to the track surface [and] sits about 4 or 5 ft. off the track surface on the inside of the fence so it's not shooting through any obstacles.
ESPN debuted the high-speed cameras in a manned configuration during last year's coverage of the Sprint Cup Series. Working with Robovision, the network employed the two Hi-Motion II cameras in a robotic configuration for Brickyard 400, enabling it to get closer to the action while adhering to NASCAR's safety mandates (camera operators are not permitted on the racing side of the pit wall). The robotic cameras capture footage and store it in the camera head, which is then accessed and played back by an EVS replay server operator in the truck.
The third Hi-Motion II camera, manned by a camera operator and equipped with a 100x lens, was stationed in a high camera platform atop the grandstand, capturing turns one and two. The fourth, also manned and with a 100x lens, covered the short shoot between turns three and four from a high camera platform.
Looking Ahead
In this Sunday's race at Pocono Raceway and beyond, ESPN plans to carry two Ikegami NAC Hi-Motion II cameras in manned configuration. At Pocono, nicknamed the Tricky Triangle, one high-speed camera will be located on the tunnel turn - the straightaway from turn one to turn two - while the other will be stationed at turn two going into turn three.
As for future uses of the robotic configuration, the Brickyard 400 served as a testing ground, and, as the season progresses, ESPN may decide to return to the configuration. That decision, said Cook, will be determined on a track-by-track basis.
Rounding Out the Complement
In addition to the four Ikegami NAC Hi-Motion II cameras, ESPN deployed 68 cameras at Brickyard 400, including a Sony slow-motion unit in turn three and three small Iconix cameras. One Iconix, similar in size to lipstick cameras, was mounted in the wall in turn four; the other two were grass cams.
There's an in-ground vault in turn one in the grass and also one in turn three, and we put the electronics in that vault, run a cable out, and we'll have a camera right at the edge of the track getting that low perspective, Cook explained. Traditionally, we've only had one in turn one, but we added one in three this year.
Since 2007, ESPN has deployed NEP SS21 A, B, C, and D units for its NASCAR coverage. At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, approximately 130 staffers crewed the kickoff to ESPN's NASCAR schedule.
BSI Shifts Into High Gear
ESPN installed three cameras in eight cars for the Brickyard, using dual-path transmission powered by Broadcast Sports Inc.
We have driver cam, and then the other path we can switch from a rear bumper cam or roof cam, said Cook. We can shoot roof cam ahead of the car and then, [with] the driver cam, shoot the driver simultaneously.
As the Sprint Cup series progresses, ESPN may experiment with alternative locations for in-car cameras. Options include a foot cam, which would show the driver working the clutch; a brake cam, particularly in a shorter track like Bristol; or a suspension cam, tucked in the wheel well, showing the mechanics of the car.
ESPN will return its helicopter cam - introduced at the Brickyard 400 in 2011 - for marquee races in the Sprint Cup series. The helicopter, also powered by BSI, will provide aerial coverage from a low-front camera.
Batcam Grounded
One camera that is not returning is the Batcam. ESPN planned to use the aerial-camera system at the Brickyard 400 and again at Watkins Glen; however, NASCAR suspended the use of aerial camera systems pending the completion of the investigation into the system failure at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. During Fox Sports' telecast, the cable that moved the CAMCAT aerial camera snapped and fell, injuring 10 fans and damaging several cars, resulting in a 30-minute delay.
We have an excellent working relationship with NASCAR and totally understand their position, said Rich Feinberg, VP, motorsports, production, ESPN, in a statement. We look forward to beginning our NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule at Indianapolis and televising 17 great weeks of racing.
The Chase, NonStop
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup - the final 10 races of the Sprint Cup series that constitute NASCAR's playoffs - will begin on Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
A year before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races over to NBC Sports Group (the Peacock announced a 10-year deal with NASCAR last week), ESPN's stock-car-racing coverage is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the network expanded its use of Ultra Hi-Motion last weekend during the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and will continue to showcase the technology throughout the final 17 races of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series.
