FOX Sports' Wave of UFL Tech Innovation Crescendos With Championship Game This Weekend The production team's mantra is to put cameras, mics almost anywhere' By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, June 14, 2024 - 10:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Over the past 11 weeks, FOX Sports has embarked on an odyssey of technical innovation during its inaugural United Football League campaign, building on two seasons of USFL spring football. Those efforts - deploying live drones, Helmet Cams, Ref Hat Cams, Skycams, all-access audio, and much more - culminate this weekend with the UFL Championship game in St. Louis.
The great part about our partnership with the UFL - and with the USFL before that - is that we have the ability to put cameras and microphones almost anywhere we want as long as we don't interfere with play in any way, shape, or form, says Brad Cheney, VP, field operations and engineering, FOX Sports. When you have the drone, Skycam, Helmet and Ref Hat Cams, the level of audio access, and those other pieces of technology, it allows our production team to pick and choose their angles and get looks that are truly impactful to the viewer at home.
In the Middle of the Action: Fox Transitions From HRP to Onsite Model After producing all regular-season games as Home Run Productions (HRPs) remotely from its L.A. broadcast center, FOX Sports' team is fully onsite for the semifinal and championship games. Game Creek Video Gridiron (A and B units) are on hand in the compound.
Live drone captures UFL Arlington Renegades action at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, TX.
We have the largest [remote productions] today with UFL, says Cheney, but, when you start expanding the show beyond our [regular-season level], it becomes much more of a challenge to pull it off remotely. In creating a show as large as this, it does make sense to bring everyone together.
Bulking Up: FOX Continues To Push Technology for Title Game This Sunday's 1080p HDR production will be equipped with live in-game drones from Beverly Hills Aerials, ActionStreamer Helmet Cams, C360 PylonCam goal-line and line-to-gain systems, Skycam wired aerial systems, Referee Hat Cams from CP Communications, and an adapted RF Megalodon camera (not configured for shallow depth of field) for full on-field capture between plays. Inside-the-game audio will also continue, with 12 players miked for each game, along with access to all coach and referee communications.
We had big shows for the regular season, Cheney notes, but we have certainly ramped it up for the playoffs. We are aiming for all the available angles we can get on the field, with all the microphones and audio capabilities that we've had all season. We've worked well with the UFL technology group all season, especially when it comes to dialing in the coach and player comms.
He credits A1 Mike Del Tufo and his audio team for crafting the soundscape of the UFL this season and CP Communications for providing the tools and technology to make it all happen. In addition to miked players and coaches, Cheney says, parabolic-mic operators have also played a key role in capturing audio from the line of scrimmage without hindering team personnel.
It's not just access to mics on players; it's access on the sidelines, he explains. Being able to traverse the sideline up and down, while staying out of the coaches' way, and working with the teams has been spectacular. The goal is to allow the viewer at home to hear what football sounds like if you're right on the sidelines, and this team has done a phenomenal job of delivering that consistently week after week.
Beyond the UFL: Will We See This Tech on NFL and College Football? The UFL season comes to an end this season, but these production technologies are likely to live on in other FOX Sports properties. Although nothing is definite, Cheney says, the unique camera angles and all-access audio could be seen at some point in the future on FOX's NFL and college-football coverage.
An operator pilots a live drone during a UFL game.
I think we've proven over the last three years, starting with the USFL and now with the UFL, that we are capable of deploying technologies that are well outside the box of traditional football coverage, he says. Now that you've seen the consistency of the technology - whether it's the audio or the images - I think that could open up new opportunities for the NFL, college football, and other sports.
[With the UFL] it's not just the broadcast side, he continues. It's all the things that the UFL is doing behind the scenes: giving the coaches ways to communicate better and [enabling] players on the sidelines to see video faster. That all comes back to what we and ESPN are doing to produce a show. It gives them the ability to see all those angles and have all that access. It all provides [teams] with better tools to call and execute plays on the field.
The Promise of Spring: For UFL, the Future Looks Bright It has been a long, arduous road for spring pro football over the past decade, but the UFL looks to be the most promising league to date, according to early returns.
A UFL official sports a Ref Cam to pick up on-field angles and sounds.
UFL regular-season viewership was well above spring-football efforts in recent years, with regular-season games across FOX, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and FS1 averaging 816,000 viewers this season. Not only did the league beat 2023 numbers for the USFL (601,000 viewers) and XFL (622,000 viewers), but it also bested the USFL's performance in 2022, when it was the only spring league (715,000 viewers).
The increase in eyeballs provides a sense of validation for the production team -led by director Mitch Riggin and producer Mark Teitelman - and the operations team
North America Stories
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
07/05/2026
Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision
Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...
07/05/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...
07/05/2026
Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...
07/05/2026
Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...
07/05/2026
Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...
07/05/2026
Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...
07/05/2026
At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects
Graham Quince May 6, 2026
0 Comments
The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...
07/05/2026
Back to All News
Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix Present the Trailer of ...
07/05/2026
Less typing, more tanking.
Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...
06/05/2026
Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...
06/05/2026
A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...
06/05/2026
Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...
06/05/2026
The streamer aims to provide a fully integrated Spanish language experience with...
06/05/2026
Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/05/2026
Riedel Communications today announced the expansion of its leadership structure as part of a strategic initiative to strengthen both its operational management ...
06/05/2026
For nearly three decades, Veteran Production Sound Mixer and Five-time Emmy Award Winner Dirk Sciarrotta has helped define the sonic identity of the long-runnin...
FOX Sports' Wave of UFL Tech Innovation Crescendos With Championship Game This Weekend The production team's mantra is to put cameras, mics almost anywhere' By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
