Fox Sports Kicks Off Super Programming Plans from Houston

The Super Bowl countdown has begun in earnest for Fox Sports as today marks the beginning of a pre-event programming run that will deliver more than 20 hours of programming each day to viewers across several Fox networks, including FS1, Fox News Channel, KRIV Houston, Fox Deportes, and more. But the start of programming signals the end of a multi-year effort that involved planning, site surveys, and, in recent weeks, hardcore construction.

Discovery Green in Houston will be the home for plenty of Fox Sports programming in advance of Super Bowl LI next Sunday.

The team has been on the ground for a couple of weeks now and faced cold, wind and inches of rain during construction, says Michael Davies, Fox Sports, SVP, technical and field operations. We are on the air now from Discovery Green with our weekly programs.

The Discovery Green area is already a beehive of activity, with a main studio, studio B, news stages, an affiliate gantry, and a green room and three production trucks. 36 HD cameras on hand to produce more than 20 hours of programming a day across various Fox entities. There are also 36 wireless microphones, 48 wireless intercom packs, 41 HD monitors, and 14 miles of tactical fiber cable (with 986 strands of single mode fiber).

FS1 alone will have 51 hours of studio programming (including pre- and post-game coverage), nearly 80% more than the last time Fox broadcast the Super Bowl in 2014.

And then there is NRG Stadium, site of the big game on Sunday night. There are 13 mobile units in the broadcast compound as well as 15 temporary structures, offering up a combined work space of more than 29,000 square feet. More than 34 miles of cable is also on hand and other highlights include 70 cameras, including two high-speed 4K cameras shooting at 240 fps, four Super Motion cameras shooting at 180 fps, two Super Motion cameras shooting at 360 fps, and the high-speed cameras shooting at 480 fps. There will also be one 8K camera and 24 pylon cameras (eight pylons with three cameras each).

Audio will be captured with 91 microphones (including NFL Films player mics) and then mixed on one of three audio mixing consoles in 5.1 Surround Sound.

And, of course, there is nothing being left to chance with respect to power as there are three megawatts of power generation, enough to power 3,000 homes.

One of the technical highlights promises to be the Be the Player enhancement. With the help of multiple cameras and massive computer processing courtesy of Intel the system will allow for viewers at home to see a POV from any player on the field without the need for a physical camera to be attached to the player.

And Fox Sports is also stepping up the use of augmented reality and next-generation stats. Seven enhanced augmented reality cameras will be used, including one on the Skycam, and Fox can now place a live first-down line on the field and flown around in real time. And RFIF transceivers in players' helmets will allow for meaningful stats to be delivered within shots from the Skycam.

We are on schedule with setup of the stadium, adds Davies. This is easily the biggest Super Bowl that we have done.

LINK:	http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/01/30/fox-sports-kicks-off-super-progr...
	See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines