FOX NFL SUNDAY Heads to Naval Base San Diego; Helmetcam, Drone Set to Cover Gronk Taking a Leap into Pacific By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, November 8, 2024 - 5:07 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Fox Sports always goes out of its way to shine a spotlight on the U.S. military on the NFL Sunday ahead of Veterans Day and this year is no exception as FOX NFL SUNDAY is calling the Naval Base San Diego home beginning at 11 am EST. And after a week of preparation a team of 125 production professionals are set to do some fun and unique programming that has never been seen before.
This is my favorite show to work on and I always try to make it everyone else's favorite show as well, says Greg Pfeifer, Fox Sports, director, remote engineering. This year we have a couple of cool things like dropping Gronk [Rob Gronkowski] out of an MH-60 Seahawk helicopter and into the water about a half mile from the pier where our set is located. He'll be doing a simulation of how they disable a mine with a small charge.
The Fox NFL pregame show will broadcast live from Naval Base San Diego on Sunday morning beginning at 11 am EST.
Capturing that requires several cameras (including a hard camera with a 122x lens shooting from the pier). Other means of capturing his jump include a heavy-lift drone from Beverly Hills Aerials, a fixed wing plane flying at a higher altitude, and a helmetcam worn by Gronk.
We will also have two boats and one of the boats has a handheld camera operator and then the other boat has a frogman who will have an underwater camera, says Pfeifer. And then we have an ENG camera in the helicopter with Gronk and a helmetcam on Gronk, so we basically have six cameras for that shoot.
Beverly Hills Aerials provided a drone with a 42-pound payload for this weekend's Fox Sports Veterans Day tribute.
As for audio, military helicopters aren't known for their quiet ride so the production team has placed plenty of microphones in the chopper to capture Gronk getting ready and for his jump.
And AVS, who has been a great partner on this, came up with a waterproof system so he can wear the helmet camera, a microphone, and an IFB that will all be able to keep working after he jumps in the water, adds Pfeifer.
Other production highlights include a 75-foot Techno crane as well wireless cameras and hard cameras on the stage.
We also will have some cool POV cameras to show Gronk climbing up the side of the pier and those should be pretty awesome, adds Pfeifer.
Piers can sometimes be tricky to work on given that they can often have limited space and power. But the pier Sunday is a maintenance pier with plenty of power so Fox will rely on a mix of shore power that will feed a UPS. There are also two backup generators that can run the whole production, including the Game Creek Video Yogi truck which is at the center of the production.
Yogi came here straight from the World Series, says Pfeifer. We dropped steel on Sunday for the set and then the trucks were parked Monday morning. We were off and running from there.
Military facilities always have their own challenges to deal with as security is always an issue and this year the challenge was making sure the drone was cleared for use.
It took quite a bit of time to get that approved and there are a lot of anti-aircraft and ant-drone systems, he adds.
Currently in its 31st season, the show's cast features Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan, Jimmy Johnson, Jay Glazer and Gronk.
This is the time of year our entire network collectively looks forward to honoring and saluting our troops here at home and stationed across the world, says Eric Shanks, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Producer, FOX Sports. We can't wait to spotlight Naval Base San Diego as FOX NFL SUNDAY prepares to pay tribute to all those men and women who bravely sacrifice and defend the core values of our country.
Other programming highlights will include a visit to the world-Famous I-Bar, the Navy's iconic and exclusive bar, which was featured in the movie Top Gun: Maverick. The entire cast will train with Navy SEALs as part of their experience at the Naval Base
Today, we celebrate our nation's veterans for their service and stewardship of the next generation of warfighters, says Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. We honor our heroes and their families during the FOX Sports Veterans Day Show at Naval Base San Diego with a long, proud tradition as home to the U.S. Navy.
North America Stories
14/01/2026
Tech Focus: Audio Consoles, Part 2 - New Options for Virtual MixingA variety of solutions offer both technical and economic benefitsBy Dan Daley, Audio Editor
...
14/01/2026
Tech Focus: Audio Consoles, Part 1 - Key Component Evolves Toward the Totally Vi...
14/01/2026
SVG Summit 2025: Audio from Monday Workshops Now AvailableListen to sessions from Live Production Innovation, AI Production Tools, Cloud Production, Content Wor...
14/01/2026
The L3Harris large T7 robotic systems will provide U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines wi...
14/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
14/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
14/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
14/01/2026
January 14th, 2026
TRIBECA ANNOUNCES BEST NEW YORK SHORT AWARD FOR 25TH ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL
In Celebration of Its 25th Anniversary, Tribeca Introduces a N...
14/01/2026
Back to All News
State of Fear, The First Spin-Off of a Netflix Brazil Producti...
13/01/2026
NHL Situation Room 2.0: How Sony Hawk-Eye Powers Centralized Officiating, Player...
13/01/2026
NBC Sports Ices the Audio for the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championship...
13/01/2026
DMF and MXL in practice: Which vendors are adopting it, and how fast is the ecos...
13/01/2026
CES 2026: Five Important Sports-Tech BuzzwordsThe terms highlight innovations for sports production at the showBy Daniel Frankel, SVG Contributor
Tuesday, Jan...
13/01/2026
For TGL Season 2, Unity 6 Boosts Virtual-Graphic Quality; COSM 360 Cameras Impro...
13/01/2026
Resetting Expectations? The State of the Sports Industry with Devoncroft's J...
13/01/2026
Top Row L-R: Ana Katz, Natalia Almada, Bao Nguyen, Tatiana Maslany, A.V. Rockwell, Dr. Heather Berlin
Second Row L-R: Sophie Barthes, Azazel Jacobs, Janicza Br...
13/01/2026
DoW to invest $1B in planned independently traded Missile Solutions business...
13/01/2026
L3Harris Chairman and CEO Christopher Kubasik and Under Secretary of War for Acq...
13/01/2026
Singapore - January 13, 2026 - Nielsen today announced the appointment of Matty Lin to its Commercial Organization as APAC regional sales leader.
Based in Sing...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Nine-week performance series brings music, dance, theatre, and storytelling to downtown Durham, January - March 2026 (Durham, NC) The Chamber Orchestra of the T...
13/01/2026
Berklee Launches AIMS, an Artist-Centered Summit on Music and AI Hosted by the Berklee Emerging Artistic Technology Lab (BEATL), the event will focus on the i...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
13/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Confirms Production of The Dealer,' a High-Stakes...
13/01/2026
Back to All News
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis to Compose Original Score for Jo Nesb...
13/01/2026
NVIDIA and Lilly are putting together a blueprint for what is possible in the f...
13/01/2026
viztrick AiDi, Provided by Nippon TV and FOR-A, Powers Automatic 9:16 Cropping with Auto-Tracking and Intuitive Operation for Dynamic Streaming Content
Targ...
12/01/2026
Sports and Music Unite: A Look Back at the Operationally Ambitious FIFA Club Wor...
12/01/2026
Nielsen Panel Discussion Highlights World Cup Impact for FOX, Telemundo, MetLife...
12/01/2026
FIFA President Infantino Highlights How AI Will Impact 2026 FIFA World Cup and B...
12/01/2026
Baltimore Ravens' Jack Dana on Telling a Better Story With Media Management ...
12/01/2026
FOX Sports' Brad Cheney on Spectrum Debate's Impact on the Sports-Produc...
12/01/2026
Australia and New Zealand VP Alan Clements shares L3Harris' leadership insig...
12/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
12/01/2026
Berklee International Folk Festival Celebrates 40 Years Featuring Grammy-winning alumna Arooj Aftab, the milestone concert and weeklong festival marks four de...
12/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
12/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
12/01/2026
Back to All News
Kento Nakajima To Star in Netflix Manga Adaptation S&X', ...
12/01/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Celebrates Partnership and Progress at Fort Monmouth Closing Ceremony
Governor Phil Murphy, Netflix co-CEO, and Governor-elect Mikie ...
12/01/2026
Back to All News
WWE By the Numbers: Celebrating One Year on Netflix
From left to right: Rey Mysterio, Intercontinental Champion John Cena and Sheamus celebr...
10/01/2026
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festi...
10/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
FOX NFL SUNDAY Heads to Naval Base San Diego; Helmetcam, Drone Set to Cover Gronk Taking a Leap into Pacific By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
