NFL Playoffs 2026: FOX Sports Kicks Off Postseason Slate With Two-Game Wild Card Coverage

NFL Playoffs 2026: FOX Sports Kicks Off Postseason Slate With Two-Game Wild Card CoverageBroadcasts will feature cutting-edge tech, new production trucks, specialty camerasBy Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor

Friday, January 9, 2026 - 3:01 pm

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Everything FOX Sports has produced and accomplished during the 2025 NFL regular season comes into focus this weekend as the broadcaster begins its playoff coverage with two Wild Card games, complete with cutting-edge technology, a new fleet of production trucks, and additional specialty cameras to complement its broadcasts.

The Fox Sports A' game crew in Ovation's B unit getting ready for an NFL on FOX game earlier this season.

Tomorrow, the Carolina Panthers host the Los Angeles Rams; on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers travel to the Philadelphia Eagles. Both matchups are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.

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These are the most important games for everyone at FOX - from the crews on the sidelines and in the trucks to the teams in the studio supporting them, says Mike Davies, EVP, field and technical operations, FOX Sports. With the way we work today, it's hard to tell where the field ends and the facility begins, and that's because it's one connected team pulling in the same direction. Every tool has to earn its place, and we use technology only when it helps our people do their best work and tell the story of the game.

FOX will deploy Game Creek Video Ovation A, B, and C mobile units for the broadcasts, marking the first playoffs for the units after an inaugural regular season. This new fleet of production trucks is the biggest change for the postseason, says David Zulauf, technical producer, NFL A Show, FOX Sports, noting, Ovation is all ST 2110 with cutting-edge tech. This year, he adds, the broadcaster also switched from RTS to Riedel in the trucks and noticed a huge leap in sound and functionality.

The broadcaster will use the new EVS 4K cutout on some of its cameras and will add a second SkyCam system for the Wild Card round, which means there's both a high and a low system for pilots to fly. Zulauf credits Davies with the idea to ingest the high SkyCam feed and feed it to two replay operators.

One of them can replay a cool Madden style' all-22 look where [analyst] Tom Brady can turn around and diagram to the audience, Zulauf explains. The other will be capturing in 4K for any sort of cutout or zoom we want to show. It's all exciting stuff. With all the new tech - and please forgive the clich - we have the ability to show the viewers something really cool but also somehow still traditional because of the people we have operating it. On this show, we have the best crew in television, and I think, [given] cutting-edge tech, it can give the audience something awesome.

On Sunday, about 185 people will be onsite in Philadelphia, with a smaller crew at FOX's Pico facility in Los Angeles. For the postseason, the broadcaster will continue to use The Vault at Pico for some of the EVS machines and operators.

We also send iso feeds of nearly everything back to L.A. for a variety of reasons, says Zulauf. We have comms trunked back to the studio and our executives. L.A. is really an extension of our mobile units now.

Total camera count for the Wild Card games specifically is between 45 and 50. That includes 15 hard cameras, almost all Sony HDC-5500's with 122X Canon lenses, per Zulauf. Five handhelds will have various lensing, including a Sony P-50A on the Steadicam. An RF Megalodon camera, which provides cinema-like scenes and imaging, will operate in two configurations. Multiple line-to-gain pylon cameras and end-zone pylons will be deployed, along with the two SkyCams, for low and high perspectives.

Graphics-wise, notes Zac Fields, SVP, graphic technology and integration, FOX Sports, we have used AR on the SkyCam all season. That will continue. The studio show is in L.A. until the Conference Championship and will be taking advantage of both of our stages. This allows us to do larger-scale demos on Stage B while the primary show is on our stage A.

As for a bigger role for enhancements in on-air graphics and AR/virtual graphics, Zulauf says FOX is always trying to keep up with the times in this department.

From our bug to our 1st-and-10 lines, we don't try to be in your face, he adds. We maintain a certain level of transparency in our overlays and lines. Even our down-and-distance [display] can seem a touch muted until you realize that is what we are trying to do. We will continue to try to put quality AR on-air on our SkyCam, with scoreboards and statistical leaders. A producer and editor, Zulauf notes, will be working throughout the games on Next Gen packages to air.

For the Wild Card and Divisional games, FOX will deploy nearly 40 microphones, including one on each goalpost, four as part of hallway/locker-room coverage, four enhanced-audio mics, five talent RF mics, six parabs, six crowd mics, and 10 camera mics. For the NFC Championship, the total microphone count will increase slightly, according to Zulauf.

During NFL Postseason coverage, FOX will boost overall production levels each week. For example, during next week's games, it will add 4K goal-line robotic cameras with EVS cutout machines. The second SkyCam system will be incorporated into all three postseason rounds.

For the NFC Conference Championship game, additional down-the-sidelines robos with 4K EVS cutout machines will be deployed, along with a camera to the near-side Chapman cart, providing doubles on each sideline. The studio show, which won't be onsite for the first two weekends, will have an on-field set for pre/postgame and halftime shows, with an additional Steadicam.

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LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/01/09/nfl-playoffs-2026-fox-sports-ki...
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