
Indy 500: NBC Sports Is Back in Full Force at The Speedway, Adds Peacock-Exclusive Pre-Race Show 120+ cameras will cover the 107th edition of the iconic race By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, May 26, 2023 - 11:58 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
NBC Sports is pulling out all the stops at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for its coverage of the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. More than 120 cameras will be deployed to cover the race itself on NBC, and an exclusive two-hour pre-race show will stream on Peacock at 9 a.m. and a 1 -hour pre-race show simulcast on NBC at 11 a.m.
The race itself is obviously one of a kind, says NBC Sports producer Rene Hatelid, who will be at the front bench for the third consecutive year. But it's all the pomp and circumstance leading up to the start that makes this different from any other race of the year. The bagpipers walking out, the jet flyovers - the entire scene is just amazing. We want our pictures to make everybody watching wish they were there in person. We've been planning with the track as far back as November of last year to make sure we have everything covered for all the pre-race ceremonies. It's going to be a very special day.
Pre-Race Coverage: Peacock Spreads Its Wings in Lead-Up to the Green Flag In all, NBC Sports Group will deliver seven hours of live race-day programming from IMS as part of more than 60 hours of total IndyCar coverage during May. NBC and Peacock have been covering all practice, qualifying, and warm-up sessions since May 16, and Peacock will provide exclusive coverage of Carb Day, the Indy 500 Parade, and Victory Celebration during race weekend. It all culminates this Sunday with The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in front of 300,000 fans in the stands and millions more watching at home on NBC and Peacock.
The additional 9:00-11:00 a.m. programming on Peacock will allow NBC Sports to showcase the Peacock Pit Box (which is outfitted with two robotic cameras and a mini jib), the Snake Pit, and the overall build-up of excitement leading into the event. Host Mike Tirico and studio analyst and former IndyCar driver Danica Patrick will be on hand at the Peacock Pit Box, and motorsports analyst Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR analyst Steve Letarte will be reporting from Snake Pit and throughout IMS.
We pride ourselves on moving all our [on-air talent] around throughout the event and finding interesting new locations to go live from, says Hatelid. If you were to show up at any point in time, we want to make sure we're exactly where the action is at that moment. We'll have Danica and Mike bringing in a rolling group of guests in the Pit Box and Junior and Steve moving all around. We're just making sure we are where the action is happening.
120+ Cameras: In-Car Cams, Drones, Specialty Jibs, and More In terms of cameras, the Indy 500 is always among the biggest - if not the biggest - live production on the annual sports calendar. This year's complement of 120+ cameras scattered across IMS includes 60 in-car cameras across 15 cars, both a heavy lift and a small drone from Beverly Hills Aerial, two Steadicams, an 80-ft. StradaCrane jib, a TechnoCrane, two standard jibs, eight roving RF handhelds, eight super-slo-mo cameras (including an ultra-high-speed start/finish line-cam from Fletcher), and 10 panning robos from IMS Productions (IMSP).
The two drones were a big hit last year, notes Hatelid. We're excited to have them back again. Nearly half the field has onboard cameras this year, which is pretty impressive. But it all comes down to the way that our director Sean Owens uses them, and the pictures he's able to create are amazing.
As it does every year, NBC Sports is working closely with IMS Productions, sharing production resources and facilities. IMSP trucks HD-5, B1, C1, Ops 1, Net Ops, and TX- 4 will be in the compound. NBC also has Lyon 18 serving its pre-race coverage and in-race EVS and Spotter needs. Two BSI units provide RF support in the compound, along with BSI Blue in the infield. Four office trailers are on hand for production support, and all power is provided by Cat Entertainment Services' 500-kW twin-pack generators as well as a 100-kW tow pack.
The Speedway has also been an amazing partner, says NBC Sports Tech Manager Matt Hogencamp, [and] the most vital partner with NBC for this event is IMSP.
He describes IMSP President Kevin Sublette; Director, Broadcast Operations, Ken Ferguson, and Technical Managers Wright Hugus and Alex Milton as the dream team. They do IndyCar week in and week out at an amazing level. Their sense of teamwork and dedication to a quality production is unmatched. Their engineering team, lead by [Director, Engineering,] Jason King and [Supervising Engineer/EIC] Steve Dixon, is the definition of professionalism.
In the booth, play-by-play caller Leigh Diffey and analyst Townsend Bell will be calling their fifth consecutive Indy 500 and commentator James Hinchcliffe his second. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, Dave Burns, and Dillon Welch will serve as pit reporters, and Tirico, Patrick, Earnhardt Jr., and Letarte will contribute to the broadcast throughout the race.
Everyone put their heart and soul into these past couple of weeks leading up to the race, says Hatelid. The team that we have put together is hands down the best in the business in my opinion. It's an honor and a privilege to work with them. I know how much they care, and we all look forward to what happens on Sunday because it truly is The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audina...
12/03/2026
Techex, a global expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, announces the appointment of Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas, further strength...
12/03/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manag...
12/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Interra Systems will showcase its latest advancements in a...
12/03/2026
The 15th National Games of China concluded after a two-week celebration of athletic excellence and regional collaboration. Held from Nov. 9-21 across Guangdong,...
12/03/2026
Live-production academic program Butler Sports Live produced a total of 40 fall-...
12/03/2026
The University of Nebraska's HuskerVision has completed the second phase of ...
12/03/2026
Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a...
12/03/2026
The broadcaster expands its campus-production model as the university handles tw...
12/03/2026
Disney has announced the addition of March Madness - the NCAA Division I Men...
12/03/2026
Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball MLB doubleheader series returns for its f...
12/03/2026
The senior from New Jersey is making his mark in South Bend, both on the mic and behind it...
12/03/2026
After a relatively quiet January, the month of February was jammed packed with l...
12/03/2026
Long-time production partner Echo Entertainment is producing the broadcast, while Cosm played a vital role in the collaboration...
12/03/2026
By Jessica Herndon
We love kicking off each year by introducing the world to po...
12/03/2026
Samrat Chakrabarti, George Basil, Kiran Deol, Katie McCuen and Vishal Vijayakumar attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Didn't Die at the Lib...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle&...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Johannesburg, 11 March 2026 - The 19th Annual South African Film and Television ...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 11, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Shield AI have successfully demonstrated a first-of-its-kind integration combining L3Har...
12/03/2026
The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into modern, converged all-domain systems is enabling true Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Oper...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 12, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announ...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Cost pressures, switching intent and demand for savings and credit products are ...
12/03/2026
For the first time, Nielsen breaks out demographic information about FAST and AV...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Appear's high-performance, ultra-low latency encoding platform augments LTN's fully managed global IP network and orchestration platform
LTN, a leader ...