NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four: CBS Sports, TNT Sports Lean In on Super-Slow-Motion Cameras, Expand Drone Flight Path as Four No. 1 Seeds Battle for Surpemacy

NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four: CBS Sports, TNT Sports Lean In on Super-Slow-Motion Cameras, Expand Drone Flight Path as Four No. 1 Seeds Battle for Surpemacy More than 50 cameras fill the Alamodome to cover the action By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Friday, April 4, 2025 - 3:41 pm

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The 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four and National Championship Game are back in San Antonio, and, with all four No. 1 seeds in play - Duke, Houston, Florida, and Auburn - the Alamodome is set to host an unforgettable weekend of college basketball.

For the millions of fans who tune in to CBS for exclusive coverage, the production and operations teams from both CBS Sports and TNT Sports are orchestrating an immense operation to bring the action to life with state-of-the-art technology and an unmatched level of coordination.

CBS Sports and TNT Sports are ready to produce the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four this weekend at the Alamodome in Atlanta. (Photos: Meredith Kolodney/CBS Sports)

Inside the Dome: A Camera Arsenal Like No Other The Alamodome will be blanketed with an array of more than 50 cameras to capture every dunk, steal, and buzzer-beater from every conceivable angle.

A four-point SkyCam will fly inside the Alamodome, sharing airspace with a live drone from Beverly Hills Aerials.

The exciting thing about this year's show is that we work together on this and take a lot of what we learned throughout the year on other sports properties, says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. We blend that with what we've done at the [previous] Final Four, form a strategy based on what tech has evolved over the last 12 months, and maximize what this particular venue allows. That has led us to increase our super-slow-motion capabilities this year.

Among the highlights of this production setup are a four-point SkyCam, a live drone from Beverly Hills Aerials, 20 super-slow-motion cameras (12 shooting in 6X super-slo-mo, one positioned in a low slash angle capturing in 8X SDF), Antelope cameras embedded in the base of each basket, two on-court cameras (Atlas and Steadicam will both shoot in shallow depth-of-field for cinematic shots), RailCam, and three 4K cameras mounted at the base of the centerhung videoboard (for unique top-down views).

Complementing the audio plan are thump mics installed in the floor to capture on-court sounds to bring viewers closer to the action.

This is such a popular event, notes Chris Brown, VP, production technology and operations, Warner Bros. Discovery. I think we've gotten to a place where we're able to cover it the way something of this magnitude should be covered.

Pioneering Officiating Technology: The Push-to-Talk System One of the more innovative additions this year is a push-to-talk system for referee reviews, an integration that CBS Sports and TNT Sports developed in partnership with NEP.

CBS and TNT worked with NEP to create a push-to-talk referee review position that overcame technical challenges of playing on a raised court.

There was no out-of-the-box solution for refs to walk over and be able to look at a monitor and push a button to speak to the house and the TV truck, says Cohen. We developed a robotic arm where it oscillates up and spins towards the court. It's those bells and whistles that we add to the show that make it fun.

This solution streamlines the review process by allowing referees to communicate seamlessly with both the in-venue audience and the television broadcast team while maintaining an optimal camera frame on the officials.

Enhancing Drone Coverage: A Growing Innovation Over the past two years, CBS Sports has refined its drone coverage in collaboration with CNN's drone division. Initially, drones were limited to vertical movements in a single stadium corner. Last year, flight paths expanded within the bowl. This year, the production is stepping up again by bringing in Beverly Hills Aerials to further enhance aerial cinematography.

You're going to see an expanded flight path this year, Cohen explains. There's a cadence that you have to develop between the drone and the SkyCam, of course, to make sure that they're in sync with what each other's responsibilities are and that they don't interfere with each other. We're excited to build upon the successes that we've had with the indoor drone. It's certainly the plan to keep on taking steps forward and build on what we've done in the last couple of years.

A New Era in NCAA Production Leadership This year marks a major transition in the production leadership of CBS Sports' NCAA coverage. Veteran director Mark Grant and first-time Final Four producer Ken Mack step into roles previously held by industry legends Bob Fishman and Mark Wolff.

RailCam returns for another year at the Final Four.

Change is exciting, says Cohen. Anyone who has to replace Wolff and Fish has enormous shoes to fill, but I think that the production folks did a great job of finding the right people to carry on the torch. From an ops and engineering standpoint, we appreciate the collaborative relationship with production.

This new leadership team is embracing the latest technological advancements while maintaining the high standard set by their predecessors.

It's our job to give them as many tools for the toolbox as possible, Cohen adds. How they use it within the show is dictated by the flow of the game and what happens on the court. I think that, with Ken and Mark Grant, we've got two seasoned, very experienced, highly capable individuals who are open and receptive to trying new technologies and ideas. That's exciting for us, and I think it's exciting for them.

The CBS game production team is bolstered by Technical Director Jam

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/04/04/ncaa-mens-basketball-final-four...
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