NFL Playoffs 2025: FOX Sports Puts New Tech Through Paces To Ensure Super Bowl LIX Broadcast Shines The broadcaster proves out gear and workflows during regular season and playoffs By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, January 17, 2025 - 10:10 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
FOX Sports is handling broadcast duties for Super Bowl LIX, set to be played at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9. After making regular-season and playoff games sparkle technologically, the broadcaster is fully prepared to make the Super Bowl LIX production all it can be.
Super Bowl years are always the busiest, says Ted Kenney, director, field and technical operations, FOX Sports. With more than 100 NFL games during the regular season, we can use many of those games to test new technology, whether it's a new camera, audio complement, software, or another component of the technical workflow. These real-world tests during regular-season games allow us to ensure the technology and workflows are fully operational. They also enable our onsite technicians to identify potential issues, address concerns, and make real-time adjustments effectively.
Topping the list of innovations getting a full work-through is the use of a Sony high-speed 4K camera on a second Skycam. The overall goal is to get a more tactical overview of the field. We can zoom in on certain areas of interest at 120 fps, explains Mike Davies, SVP, technical and field operations, FOX Sports. It's an analyst's dream and works great for both telestration and highlights. Thanks to Skycam and Sony for their support on this project.
FOX Sports Director, Remote Engineering, Matt Battaglia has found it exciting to partner with Sony, Hawk-Eye, and Skycam on the use (and debut) of the new Sony HDC-P50A 4K HFR box camera for the playoffs and eventually the Super Bowl.
The camera brings a multitude of options to the production that we couldn't provide in the past, he says. We have been testing this camera for the last couple weeks of the season and all through the playoffs on a High Skycam system. Its shoebox-like form factor allows us to put it on the Skycam, and the 4K resolution allows us to get a wider field of view. We process that through a Hawk-Eye server, perform a zoom extract at 1080p HDR for air, and can even do 120 fps, which is a big plus.
The Sony HDC-P50A camera mounted on a Skycam plays a big role in FOX Sports' coverage of this year's NFL Playoffs.
The project is also an example of why an innovation squarely focused on making a difference at the Super Bowl is most effective when the production team can use it on other games and learn how to get the most out of it. The production team is finding new ways to use the High Skycam every game, notes Battaglia. If you've been watching, I believe you've been seeing a lot of all-22-style telestration being done by our lead analyst over the High Skycam.
The FOX NFL A crew, which will be front and center for the Super Bowl, has been carrying extra tools and toys all season from the likes of EMG, which is providing RF video, and CP Communications, which handles wireless audio. As we get into the first round of the playoffs, he says, camera count jumps up slightly, and, when we get to the NFC Championship, we add upwards of eight cameras plus back-line pylon cameras and goal-post cameras provided by Cosm.
Game Creek Encore mobile unit is on playoff duty for the entire run and will be at the NFC Championship, for which Game Creek Video Prime One will be added to the mix to support the two-hour pregame studio show.
Although not all the crew members who have worked on FOX NFL games this season will be at the Super Bowl, each of them was integral to getting the production and technical efforts dialed in. I am both thankful and amazed by the talent FOX Sports brings together each week for our remote operations, Kenney says. Our crews are consistently prepared to handle any new challenge or request we present throughout the season. Their exceptional technical expertise enables us to innovate and remain at the forefront of cutting-edge technology year after year.
More from Sports Video Group
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...
24/06/2025
Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...
24/06/2025
Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...
24/06/2025
ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...
23/06/2025
Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...
23/06/2025
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...
23/06/2025
Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38
Print This Story
The ball i...
23/06/2025
New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...
23/06/2025
ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...
20/06/2025
Feeling Unlimited, Part 1: Athletes Unlimited Softball League Deploys Remote Pro...
20/06/2025
A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...
20/06/2025
Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...
20/06/2025
ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...
19/06/2025
SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...
18/06/2025
Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36
Print This Story
For years, att...
18/06/2025
Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...
18/06/2025
SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...
18/06/2025
SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...
17/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...
17/06/2025
Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...
17/06/2025
From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...
17/06/2025
Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...
17/06/2025
Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...
NFL Playoffs 2025: FOX Sports Puts New Tech Through Paces To Ensure Super Bowl LIX Broadcast Shines The broadcaster proves out gear and workflows during regular season and playoffs By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
