Live From Daytona 500: After Super Bowl LVII, Fox Sports Heads to Super Bowl of Racing With New Helmet Cam, Reinvigorated Onsite Crew

Live From Daytona 500: After Super Bowl LVII, Fox Sports Heads to Super Bowl of Racing With New Helmet Cam, Reinvigorated Onsite Crew Game Creek Video Cleatus handles its first Daytona 500 since 2021 By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Friday, February 17, 2023 - 1:56 pm

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Coming off last weekend's exhilarating Super Bowl LVII, Fox Sports has every right to be a bit exhausted from its all-out coverage of the Big Game. However, the broadcaster has returned to Daytona International Speedway for its 20th Daytona 500 with new technology in tow: a brand-new POV camera is integrated into a handful of helmets, and onsite operation of EVS XtraMotion is combined with a deep bag of super-slow-motion cameras. And the team is eager to deploy it all.

Game Creek Video Cleatus A and B units are handling production of the prerace studio show and the race.

[This show] comes down to our talent and our crew, says Mike Davies, SVP, technical and field operations, Fox Sports. If we didn't have the kind of culture that we have here, I think it would be a lot harder of a job to do.

In-Car Scenics: Racing Force Group's Helmet Camera Augments Driver POVs On any Fox Sports broadcast property, the production and operations teams put viewers at the heart of the moment. When it comes to motorsports and, more specifically, NASCAR, seeing what's going on inside a car going more than 200 mph can get anyone's heart racing. This can be accomplished by the numerous in-car cameras deployed for any given race, but, for the Daytona 500, the number is increased to ensure that every detail is covered. Whether it's cameras located in the front or rear bumpers, cameras installed near the dashboard for a peek at the driver, Roof Cams to give the perspective of the race from above the car, or the more intimate Visor Cam that puts fans at eye-level in the car, there's no shortage of vantage points during the famous 250 laps. For the 2023 edition, the broadcaster teamed up with NASCAR to take the idea of Visor Cam - previously, a POV camera clipped to the outside visor of the helmet - to the next level.

In came Racing Force Group, a company responsible for integrating technology into safety equipment, including Bell Helmets, and the developer of Formula 1's Driver's Eye POV camera angle used on broadcasts during the 2022 season. Leveraging experimentation and lab-tested results, the manufacturer will apply the same seamless integration to a handful of drivers on Sunday's starting grid.

This jib, located next to Fox Sports' studio set, is similar to the jib positioned between Turns 3 and 4.

As in years past, Broadcast Sports International (BSI) will be handling RF transmission from all in-car cameras, including the new Helmet Cams.

We used Visor Cam for years, says Davies, but we wanted more in terms of the shot that we were getting. We feel that it's better to have the camera integrated into the helmet itself.

Fox Sports is celebrating NASCAR's 75th-anniversary season with a new logo displayed on the Chevrolet building at Daytona International Speedway.

Slowing the Pace: EVS XtraMotion Joins Onsite Tech Along with up-close views in the cockpit, NASCAR wouldn't be the same without super-slow-motion replays of some of the fastest drivers in the world. Although Sunday's broadcast will have no shortage of super-slow-motion cameras - Fox Sports is deploying four (two Sony HDC-4800's at 16X and two Sony HDC-5500's at 6X) - ordinary cameras in the complement will receive the super-slow-motion treatment through EVS XtraMotion. Created as a cloud-based service, Fox Sports debuted the workflow at Super Bowl LIV in 2020 and deployed it last Sunday at Super Bowl LVII. Eager to see its effects for NASCAR this Sunday, Davies and company will deploy the technology from the onsite compound to reduce turnaround time for replays.

This on-prem solution allows the clips to be ready much faster, he explains. As long as we're playing them back in super-slow motion, you can start playing a clip five seconds after its being started to process. We like it for NASCAR because, if we can turn our in-car cameras into super-slow motion, we would have a compelling way to enhance those replays.

Although the super-slow-motion cameras and EVS XtraMotion will play a major role on the broadcast, the show will also deploy other notable equipment in an arsenal of nearly 70 cameras. Included are 15 Sony HDC-P31's, 11 Sony HDC-4300's, three DreamChip POVs (one positioned on the grass near the apex of Turns 1 and 2), a high-speed I-MOVIX camera from Fletcher at the finish line, live drones from Beverly Hills Aerials, and a roaming Sony A7iii in the garage and pit area for the cinematic Megalodon.

BSI's infield mobile unit will house the wireless handhelds, in-car cameras, and other RF equipment for this Sunday's Daytona 500.

In the Compound: Ops Team Recruits Game Creek Video Cleatus Mobile Unit On the NASCAR schedule, only one week separates the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum and the Daytona 500. Travel schedules, the host city of Fox Sports' coverage of the NFC Championship game, and the yearly rotation of Super Bowl broadcast rights are three factors that determine the truck onsite this weekend. In 2021, Game Creek Video Cleatus was chosen because that year's NFC finale was 140 miles away at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium. Last year, Game Creek Video's Encore was tapped when Cleatus went into the garage for tech upgrades. This year, Cleatus drove operations at the Clash in Los Angeles, and, with Encore parked at State Farm Stadium, Cleatus drove the more than 2,500 miles from Los Angeles to Daytona Beach during the week between races.

BSI also is operating from an onsite mobile unit in the

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/02/17/live-from-daytona-500-after-sup...
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