Phil Kurz reports on Fox Sports technical upgrades
Contributor 6 hours ago
Phil Kurz reports on Fox Sports' technical upgrades
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Phil Kurz reports on Fox Sports' technical upgrades
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/conversions-to-play-critical-role-during-super-bowl-liv-coverage title=Share via Email class=share-email>
American Football fans are no strangers to conversions. There's the third down kind, the point after touchdown (PAT) type and even the two-point version.
But at Super Bowl LIV in Miami on Sunday at least three types of technical conversions will play a big part in the game, specifically for Fox Sports' production and distribution.
For starters, as it has done regularly since taking on 4K, Fox Sports will produce its coverage in 1080p 60 frames per second (fps) HD and up-convert to 4K UHD 2160p 60fps for 4K viewers, and it will down-convert to 720p for its broadcast audience.
Other important technical conversions include converting High Dynamic Range (HDR) acquired using the Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) standard to HDR10 for distribution and integrating SMPTE ST2110 with baseband sources converted to IP for production and then converting back to baseband for distribution.
Michael Davies, SVP, field and technical operations for Fox Sports, says it's a sign of the times as television production and distribution are in an accelerated state of flux. While Davies and his crews live with and understand firsthand the impact of these changes on production, viewers generally are insulated from the specifics.
So, Davies is not surprised to hear 4K viewers wonder why Fox Sports does not originate coverage of a marquee event like the Super Bowl in 4K.
We are always on our heels when we have to explain this, says Davies. It's a natural thing, of course, [to wonder] Why don't you just do it in 4K?' Well, there are a couple of reasons.
One is motion blur. There's more of it when shooting sports in 4K at 60fps than when the same scene is shot at 1080p, he says. So, in fact, if we were to do it in 4K, we would actually be delivering an inferior product not only, frankly, to the few people who will be watching in 4K UHD but also to the 100 million people [watching in high definition].
Shooting at 1080p also makes scaling for 4K viewers and the 720p audience better. We decided we are going to make everything 1080p. It scales up great to 4K, and it scales down fantastically to 720p, he says. So, we are going to concentrate on HDR and the colours.
Here too, signal conversion will be critical. On the production side of the broadcast equation - in cameras and other gear - HLG appears to be the more dominant standard, says Davies. Developed by Japan's national broadcaster NHK and the BBC, the HLG HDR standard is also compatible with standard dynamic range displays.
However, on the distribution side of the equation, Fox has chosen to convert to HDR10 because the broadcaster believes it is the more widely used HDR standard in television sets, he says. Davies is pleased with the quality of HDR conversion and says HDR will deliver what one Sony engineer in Japan described as the beautiful colours.
Fox Sports took advantage of the opportunity it had this season producing Thursday Night Football to gain experience with HDR, adds Davies.
Super Bowl LIV is also being played during a time in television when sports production technology and signal transport are transitioning from baseband video to IP packets conforming to the SMPTE ST2110 standard.
Our production of the Super Bowl will use a combination of baseband and 2110, says Davies. The [main production] truck has a core 2110 router, and we have another truck that is 2110. We are going to be slinging signals around using IP, yet at the end of the day, this is the Super Bowl, so it's going to be encoded baseband that makes it back home.
While Fox Sports has deployed two production units that, in the words of Davies, are SMPTE ST2110 from glass to glass, which makes them very flexible and scalable, there will be a mix of IP and baseband production technology used. When you come down to the Super Bowl, you'll see a whole litany of legacy and bleeding-edge technology, he says.
But I think that the larger the show, the more chances you are going to use each technology not only to its strengths, but to its reliability.
Another sign of the ongoing transformation of television production technology is the rise of 8K. While still in its early days, Fox Sports will deploy three Sony HDC-8300 8K cameras in Miami - the first time this model has been used to cover an NFL game, says Fox Sports. One will be used to shoot the game in 8K for posterity, and the other two will capture sideline and bench activity, says Davies.
We are going to focus on some areas that we might not have full-time coverage of, which is a little hard to do when you have 100 cameras, he says.
Davies hopes that by focusing on the sidelines with the 8K cameras, some gems that might otherwise go unnoticed will be captured and integrated into the show. He recalls one such instance during the World Series.
One of the best 8K replays that happened this year [2019] was at the World Series. It was of the guy who had two giant Bud Light cans in his hands and instead of dropping those beers took a foul ball in the gut, he says. We caught that with our 8K cameras, and we otherwise would have never seen it.
Fox Sports also will use eight 4K cameras, which will allow game action to be viewed in Super (slow) Motion and magnified without loss of HD resolution, the broadcaster says. The 4K cameras will be used at the high end zone, down the line and at the goal line. More than 20 1080p Super Motion cameras also are being deployed.
Similarly
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...
Phil Kurz reports on Fox Sports technical upgrades
