Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live From NCAA Men's Final Four: TNT Sports, CBS Sports Capitalize on Greater Freedom to Fly Live Drone Inside, Bring Back SkyCam to Supplement Massive Production

06/04/2024

Live From NCAA Men's Final Four: TNT Sports, CBS Sports Capitalize on Greater Freedom to Fly Live Drone Inside, Bring Back SkyCam to Supplement Massive Production Huge show features more than 75 cameras inside State Farm Stadium By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Saturday, April 6, 2024 - 4:56 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Aerial cameras have been all the rage in live sports production lately and at TNT Sports' and CBS Sports' massive production effort behind this weekend's NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ, that trend holds true.

Chris Brown, VP, Technology and Operations at TNT Sports and Jason Cohen, SVP, Remote Technical Operations at CBS Sports again helped lead a collaborative operations effort between their two networks at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.

After first introducing limited use of a live drove inside the stadium bowl at last year's Final Four, the broadcasters have been granted greater freedom to fly and take live shots from inside the stadium during game action.

I think there's a great opportunity to showcase the drone and show the value that it can bring to the production, says Chris Brown, VP, Technology and Operations at TNT Sports. I think we've made some good [progress] with the NCAA and with [State Farm Stadium] so we are definitely looking to lean more heavily into it, both on the studio and the game side. I think it's going to create some unique looks and a different way to present the game.

SkyCam returns to coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four. It wasn't used last year when the centerhung videoboard at NRG Stadium in Houston sat too low for the four-point system to be rigged safely.

On top of the drone, SkyCam also returns to the camera lineup. The system is commonly used by CBS Sports and TNT Sports at this event but it was absent last year in Houston due to a low-hanging centerhung videoboard at NRG Stadium.

Every year we at CBS and our friends at TNT Sports sit down and take a look at what added value the previous year and what we want to bring back or modify, says Jason Cohen, SVP, Remote Technical Operations at CBS Sports.

One example of a modification this year comes on the popular RailCam. Last year, the broadcasters introduced a double RailCam with two camera heads running along the same rig. After weighing their options, TNT and CBS have reverted back to a single camera on the RailCam.

Live Drones: Continuing to Build the Case The live drone being used here at the Men's Final Four comes from the Warner Bros. Discovery family. CNN AIR, the news network's internal drone division; a deployment at this event that first began last year.

A live drone from CNN AIR will fly during game coverage at the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.

In Houston, TNT Sports and CBS Sports were able to fly a drone inside the domed NRG Stadium, marking a first for the NCAA Tournament. However, the drone was limited to a very limited flight path that allowed it to basically rise and fall in a single vertical path in one corner of the bowl.

Now, the broadcasters have been granted permission by the NCAA and State Farm Stadium to fly much more freely throughout the stadium. The drone still cannot fly directly over court but the images the drone can deliver should be dramatically more dynamic than a year ago.

Drone integration in sports is a marathon, not a sprint, says Cohen. I think we're all trying to get to the same place, which is the holy grail of drone use being used as a live game coverage camera to get you to places that you can't ordinarily get to with your normal cameras. But you have to go about it smartly and safely and methodically.

Cohen and Brown called it a giant step forward and described that the hope was to fly the drone from outside to inside the building and even follow players onto the court. It's going to come in and out of the building, it's going to follow players onto the court, a giant step forward from where we were last year. And I think that's just the goal is to keep on,

The march forward is about comfortability, adds Brown. Not only are you trying to march forward safely, but in a way that makes all of the interested parties very comfortable and that we're stepping together. I feel like that's what we've done. Working that cadence between SkyCam flying on its four-point system and the drone with its flight paths is also crucial; making sure that the two shall never meet is probably the number one most important aspect of trying to figure all this out.

Camera Lineup Continues to Grow The aerials are just a piece of a camera arsenal that pushes north of 75 inside State Farm Stadium.

TNT Sports and CBS Sports have brought three jibs to its coverage of the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.

There's the aforementioned RailCam, as well as 17 super slow-mos, three large jibs, an on-court RF shooting in shallow depth of field, slow-mo robos above the backboards and 4K-capable, 4X robos above the rims, additional cameras shooting in 6X and slash cameras in two of the four corners of the court.

Game Creek Video's Encore multi-truck production facilities anchor the live game coverage. NEP Group's ST27 is making its debut at this event and handling transmission.

Talented Crews Grind Out a Busy Stretch

Not to be lost on the tremendous effort being done here in Glendale is the fact that both TNT Sports and CBS Sports are in the midst of quite busy stretches for their respective companies.

TNT Sports just began its MLB season and is continuing its NBA and NHL schedules all while renovations continue to occur at its Atlanta headquarters. This was a Super Bowl year for CBS Sports and The Masters begins Thursday.

RailCam returned as is trimm
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/04/06/live-from-ncaa-mens-final-four-...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

08/04/2026

SVG College Sports Media Awards 2026: Entry Deadline is Monday, April 13

The deadline to enter the 18th Annual SVG College Sports Media Awards in association with NACDA is rapidly approaching! Submit your entries to this year's c...

08/04/2026

SVG Campus Shot Callers: Trever Sheets, Senior Director, ACC Network, Virginia Tech

The Pittsburgh product helps lead more than 100 annual ESPN broadcasts as part o...

08/04/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Harmonic's Jean Macher on Turning Live Sports Content Into a Smarter Monetization Engine

Dynamic ad insertion, AI-based technologies, programmatic advertising are some o...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Ikegami USA To Launch Two New Viewfinders, Refine UHD Cameras

Ikegami USA will launch a refinement to the UHK-X700 and UHK-X750 3-CMOS -in. UHD cameras in the UNICAM XE series plus two new 7-in. viewfinders at NAB 2026 in...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: NAB Leadership Foundation to Host Technology Students Career Mixer

The NAB Leadership Foundation and NAB PILOT will host a career mixer for technology students at NAB Show 2026 on April 18, 5-6:30 p.m., North Hall, Room N225/22...

07/04/2026

Survey: AVoIP Adoption Accelerating, With Interoperability and Security as Key Drivers

Audinate Group Limited and Futuresource Consulting have published results from a...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Eluvio Announces Commercial Availability of Content Fabric Bucharest Release

Eluvio has announced the commercial availability of its Content Fabric Bucharest...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Eluvio Introduces Inline AI Video Intelligence and Updated EVIE

Eluvio has unveiled a new architecture for video AI and an updated Eluvio Video Intelligence Editor (EVIE) ahead of NAB Show 2026. Eluvio AI runs analysis and i...

07/04/2026

Professional Fighters League Partners With Sky New Zealand for Exclusive Broadcast Rights

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a deal with Sky New Zealand...

07/04/2026

NBA, Enjoy Basketball' To Produce Live Game Altcast, Enjoy the NBA Trivia Show as Part of New Multi-Platform Collab

The NBA and Enjoy Basketball, the digital media company co-founded by YouTube cr...

07/04/2026

Beyond Golf: PGA of America, Ko-Mar Productions Offer Clients a Customizable Production Studio

The 4,000-sq.-ft. space in Frisco, TX, has produced live and packaged programmin...

07/04/2026

A New POV: RefCam's Rise in the Bundesliga Signals a Potential New Era for Soccer Broadcasts

What began as a referee training tool is evolving into a powerful production ass...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Manifold Technologies to Join NEP Platform as Deployable Application

Manifold Technologies will announce at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C.1808) that its manifold CLOUD platform will be available as a deployable application within NEP Pl...

07/04/2026

Shaquille O'Neal and TNT Sports to Launch DUNKMAN Professional Dunk League in Summer 2026

Shaquille O'Neal, Authentic Brands Group, and TNT Sports, in partnership wit...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Telos Alliance Unveils Omnia XII Audio Processor

Telos Alliance will debut the Omnia XII, a new FM/HD/DAB audio processor, at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas. Built on a 2RU hardware platform, Omnia XII features a...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: AWS to Showcase AI and Cloud Media Technologies

Amazon Web Services (AWS) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W1701), with demonstrations, speaking sessions, and int...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Synamedia to Demonstrate AI by Quortex

Synamedia will demonstrate AI by Quortex at NAB Show 2026, a framework that applies AI capabilities to video workflows on demand rather than continuously. The s...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: TVNewsCheck Announces 2026 Women in Technology Award Honorees

TVNewsCheck will present its 15th annual Women in Technology Awards on Tuesday, April 21, at 5 p.m. PT at NAB Show, in the Media and Entertainment Theater (W146...

07/04/2026

NAB 2026: Akta to Showcase AI Video Platform

Akta will demonstrate its AI video platform at NAB Show 2026, highlighting new capabilities in media processing and vertical video formatting alongside its exis...

07/04/2026

ESPN Expands to Disney+ in Europe and Select Asia-Pacific Markets

ESPN and Disney have announced the launch of ESPN on Disney in Europe and select Asia-Pacific markets, bringing the offering to 53 countries and territories a...

06/04/2026

Fab Five' Reunion Drives TNT and CBS's Experimental Final Four Altcast Built on REMI Workflow

Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...

06/04/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Optikka CEO Daniel Evans on Scaling Sports Content with Programmatic Graphics

From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...

06/04/2026

Quickplay and TwelveLabs Join AWS Business Outcomes Xcelerator Program

Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...

06/04/2026

Grass Valley Launches Future Playmakers Program for Students in Sports Production and Media Technology

Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...

06/04/2026

SVG All-Stars: Raasean Robinson, Gerente de Posproduccin y Operaciones de Estudio, FOX Deportes

El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...

06/04/2026

SVG All-Stars: Raasean Robinson, Manager, Post Production and Studio Operations, FOX Deportes

The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...

06/04/2026

Behind The Mic: SiriusXM Shares 2026 Masters Broadcast Team; ESPN to Produce Over 140+ Hours of Masters Live Coverage

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

06/04/2026

NHL Opens Innovation Lab in Partnership with Verizon, New Jersey Devils

The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...

06/04/2026

ESPN+ To Stream Inaugural Rock League Curling Season

Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...

06/04/2026

ASG Appoints Andrea Cummis as VP of Systems Design and Engineering

Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...

06/04/2026

Source Media Group Launches Source Golf, a Creator-Driven YouTube Network Targeting Next-Gen Fans

Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...

06/04/2026

How the NHL's Innovation Lab Will Take Broadcast, Fan, and Team Tech to New Heights

With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...

04/04/2026

Don't Be Lame: Arizona Men's Basketball Social Team Aims To Catch the Attention of Wildcats Fans

The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...

04/04/2026

HDR Makes Its Men's Final Four Debut as CBS Sports and TNT Sports Collaborate on New Camera Tools and an IP-Powered Compound

1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...

04/04/2026

Fab Five Reunion Drives TNT and CBS's Experimental Final Four Altcast Built on REMI Workflow

Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...

03/04/2026

TNT Sports and CBS Sports To Reunite Michigan's Iconic Fab Five' for Special NCAA Men's Final Four Altcast on truTV and HBO Max

Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...

03/04/2026

NAB 2026: Avid To Showcase Content Core and AI Workflow Innovations

Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...

03/04/2026

MRMC Appoints Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer. The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...

03/04/2026

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON for File-Based QC

Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...

03/04/2026

Moldtelecom Deploys Ateme Technologies Across Full Streaming Workflow

Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics. Mol...

03/04/2026

NAB 2026: Grass Valley To Demonstrate Framelight X Content Management

Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...

03/04/2026

NAB 2026: Encompass Digital Media and Techex Launch Cloud-Based Master Control Service for Live Events

Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...

03/04/2026

Peacock Debuts Its New Vertical-Video Experience for Live NBA Games on Monday

Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...

03/04/2026

Illinois Creative Team Captures Men's Final Four Run With Trust, Timing, and a Few Water Guns

As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...

03/04/2026

Hook 'Em: University of Texas Athletics Produces Digital Content for a First-Person Experience

After last summer's Softball National Championship victory and last week'...

03/04/2026

Don't Be Lame: Arizona Men's Basketball Social Team Aims To Catch the Attention of Wildcat Fans

The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...

03/04/2026

During Packed Weekend, Van Wagner Covers In-Venue Shows for Championships Across Indianapolis

Eight games across four tournaments will be played in three venues; accommodatio...

03/04/2026

Ottawa Senators and Bell Media Extend Regional Broadcast Rights Agreement

The Ottawa Senators and Bell Media have announced a long-term rights extension for regional Ottawa Senators games on TSN and RDS. TSN Radio 1200 remains the exc...

03/04/2026

ESPN's Women's Final Four Playbook: Bigger Compound, Bigger Trucks, Biggest Production Yet

Massive production in Phoenix is run out of Game Creek Video Flagship mobile uni...

02/04/2026

HBO and NFL Films Announce Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks, Debuting August 11

HBO and NFL Films have announced Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Sea...