NBC Sports Adds PylonCams, Line-to-Gain MarkerCams for NFC Divisional Playoff Matchup The Peacock will also have three onsite sets for pregame coverage By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, January 10, 2020 - 2:12 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
When it comes to live sports productions, it simply doesn't get much bigger than NBC Sports' weekly Sunday Night Football. However, the Peacock has once again upped the technological ante even further for the NFL Playoffs, adding four PylonCam systems and a pair of line-to-gain MarkerCams to its camera complement. In addition, NBC is rolling out three onsite sets at Levi's Stadium for its pregame coverage of the Vikings-49ers NFC Divisional Playoff matchup on Saturday, NBC's final game of the season.
We're excited to cap off the season with a big game like this, says Tim Dekime, VP, NFL operations, NBC Sports Group. And we all have a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that we pulled off these tremendous productions each week with very few issues.
PylonCams, MarkerCams Promise Closer Look at Key Plays
The PylonCams and MarkerCams (both provided by Admiral Video) debuted for NBC at its Week 17 SNF 49ers-Seahawks matchup and were also used for last weekend's Seahawks-Eagles NFC Wild Card Game. NBC first used PylonCam for Super Bowl LII in 2018. To record the PylonCams for replay, NBC has enabled ChannelMAX mode on an EVS XT3 replay to expand channel capacity.
Although NBC's opportunities to use these systems on close scoring and first-down plays have been few and far between, the NBC production team is hopeful that Saturday's game will offer more replay opportunities for the PylonCam and MarkerCam to shine.
Says Dekime, We hope that the opportunity arises to use [PylonCam and MarkerCam] more often this weekend.
NBC Sports will deploy a total of 53 cameras at Levi's Stadium, including two PylonCam systems (featuring three miniature cameras each) on the side of each goal line and MarkerCams on the near-side and far-side first-down markers. In addition, there are four Sony HDC-4800 4K 4X slo-mos (including one with a Canon 122X lens), 15 Sony HDC-4300's (one running in 4K, nine running in 6X slo-mo, and two in 4X slo-mo), two Sony HDC-P1R RF Steadicams (provided by BSI), and a Skycam cable-suspended aerial system.
Although NBC hopes the PylonCam and MarkerCam systems are able to provide a deeper look at close plays during the game, SNF Executive Producer Fred Gaudelli says his team's focus remains on documenting the story of the game rather than adding a cavalcade of high-tech toys.
Playoff games are more focused on properly documenting the why, where, when, and how a team is winning or losing, Gaudelli told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. Why is this player having a great day or a poor day? What is it about this strategy that has this team in front? Or what adjustments need to be made?
A Trio of Onsite Sets for Football Night in America
NBC's coverage will begin on Saturday with a special 90-minute edition of Football Night in America live from Levi's Stadium. The original plan was to deploy two sets for the pregame show, beginning with one at the main entrance gates and then shifting to an interior set inside the stadium as kickoff approached.
However, with the early kickoff time (1:35 p.m. PT), FNiA director Mike Sheehan was concerned that the crowd around the sent would be sparse. As a result, the operations team added a set in the parking lot, where FNiA will be kick off its pregame show at noon in hopes of highlighting early-arriving tailgaters.
The pregame show will then shift to a second set (the main remote studio used throughout the SNF season) inside on the concourse before finishing up at an on-field set in the final minutes prior to kickoff.
In addition to the challenge of moving on-air talent from set to set throughout the afternoon, NBC's ops team will have to significantly alter its lighting scheme to deal with the early kickoff.
One of the big challenges we have for this game is the early kickoff because, obviously, we normally have a primetime game [with SNF], says Keith Kice, technical manager, SNF, NBC Sports. Our kickoff is going to be at 1:35 in the afternoon, so it's a whole new obstacle to deal with as far as lighting talent on the field and lighting [announce] booths.
In addition to its flagship SNF-production unit - NEP ND1 (A, B, C, and D units) - NBC has rolled out NEP's ND5 A unit and ST-28 B unit to produce the FNiA show.
Our footprint is larger than it normally is, but we're in a great stadium in Santa Clara, says John Roch , senior technical manager, NEP. It's a new facility, and we can fit everything into the compound without any issues. Compound-wise, we're in very good shape.
Saturday's extended edition of FNiA will close out a season in which NBC moved its pregame set outside the stadium on a weekly basis in an effort to engage more with fans onsite and better incorporate branding for FNiA sponsor Applebee's.
Putting together a new exterior set was a challenge each week, but it has been flawless, says Dekime. We got some great crowds, and I know that the sponsorship group and Applebee's were extremely pleased with it. I think we delivered on everything our pregame producer and director wanted; it was a real success.
For Ops Team, With Great Ratings Comes Great Responsibility
With NBC's 14th season of SNF in the books, it is on pace to finish as primetime's No. 1 TV show in all key metrics for a ninth consecutive year - the most by any program in television history (since 1950). With more eyeballs watching than any other show on television, the SNF ops team is well aware that there is no room for error.
We continue to maintain our status as the number-one prim
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...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
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...
NBC Sports Adds PylonCams, Line-to-Gain MarkerCams for NFC Divisional Playoff Matchup The Peacock will also have three onsite sets for pregame coverage By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
