NFL Playoffs 2023: Fox Sports Details 1080p/HDR Production Efforts For the first time NFL fans will be able to watch all Fox Sports NFL Playoff Games in 4K HDR By Ken Kerschbaumer
Friday, January 13, 2023 - 12:06 pm
Print This Story
This weekend Fox Sports will become the first ever to deliver multiple NFL playoff games to viewers in HDR and 4K (upconverted from 1080p), with the matchups between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants and Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers being the first two of five playoff games that viewers will be able to see in 4K.
All Fox Sports cameras will be operating in 1080p HDR mode throughout the NFL playoffs.
I think it's great and we've prepared ourselves by flipping our plant over to 1080p so we just need to turn on the HDR switch, says Matt Battaglia, Fox Sports, director of remote engineering. It isn't as complicated as it used to be. There is every flavor of HDR workflow out there and we've heard them all but I think what we've done at Fox has made it seamless for those of us on the remote side.
The playoff run, including the Super Bowl for Fox, is the culmination of months of work that Battaglia says began in the first pre-season broadcast last August.
We know what we're going to get into at the end of the season and we did a good job of building out the truck for the Super Bowl, he says.
Fox Sports Director, Field and Technical Operations, Ted Kenney
In fact, Fox Sports Director, Field and Technical Operations, Ted Kenney says that when Fox Sports had the TNF package that led to the A game truck getting a bump in capabilities meaning that much of the lifting has been a multi-year process.
But this weekend there will be some additional gear brought in for the B game (and the same for next week's B game) as the goal is to give both the A and B games an identical equipment complement.
Battaglia says that additional gear will be added for the NFC Championship Game but nothing like the past because the other playoff game productions will be close to NFC Championship level.
Both games this weekend will be at 42 cameras with aerials, Sky Cams, and line-to-game cameras as well as double carts on both sidelines, says Battaglia. That is the one thing the B crew is adding as well as the Xmo cameras will jump from two to six times speed and the directive is every camera on the field will be supermo. In fact, the B game is bringing in so many new cameras we have added another truck, Game Creek Video's Celtic so it can handle any overflow.
Celtic will be joining up with Game Creek Video's Bravo for the B shows while Game Creek Video's Encore unit will do that A show, the NFC Championship, and the Super Bowl.
The production team at the Vault in Pico will also be busy for the playoffs, with four EVS replay operators working there. A second Viz operator will work from the Vault for the playoffs before transitioning to being on site for the NFC Championship Game.
We've also been recording the pylon cameras back in Los Angeles so we use Haivision to get those signals from the compound back to the EVS server in Pico, says Battaglia.
The Leap to HDR
The Fox team has been operating cameras and EVS replay servers in 1080p HDR mode all season long for the Sunday A games even though distribution was in SDR.
With 1080p you have beautiful looking images to begin with and then you have HDR and get this rich color depth and dynamic range, adds Battaglia. And we know the LUT (Look Up Tables) are very good because all the different networks kind of use the same LUT and that makes it easier to do QC.
Battaglia says the cameras and replays will be native HDR while any file transfers coming in from Pico are coming in SDR and all of the graphics are in SDR.
All the HDR tone mapping is then done at the truck as the files are transferred in.
While the A-level playoff games are ready the B-level playoff games, meanwhile, will require camera CCUs and the EVS machines to be switched over to HDR as all season long the B games have operated in SDR mode.
The same workflow for the A game with respect to graphics and files will also be used in the B game, says Battaglia. So, they have a little bit more to do to get ready for the game.
All of the HDR conversion and tone mapping work takes place in the truck at the venue and Battaglia says that has been a very successful workflow.
That's the key as there are only one set of eyes on HDR for QC and you don't need to worry about five different places shipping different images around, he explains. There's one machine doing the LUT and it makes things a lot easier.
Also making things easier, according to Kenney, is that the equipment has also caught up to 1080p HDR.
When they hear HDR there's never any question, whether it's the Robo in the booth or whatever, he says.
FOX NFL Playoff games and the Super Bowl will be available in 4K through several FOX Sports distributors, including Altice Optimum, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Contour TV, DIRECTV, DISH Network, FuboTV, Verizon FIOS and YouTube TV.
In a typical year something like the NFL playoffs and a Super Bowl would cap a busy time of year but this year the Fox Sports production team will be doing the near impossible. First, all the planning as coincided with the World Cup preparation and execution last fall. But along with all the NFL planning the team is also gearing up for the NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles on Feb. 5 as well as the Daytona 500 set for Feb. 19.
Some of our largest events are happening week to week so we go from the NFC Championship right to the Clash, then to Arizona for the Super Bowl and then right off to Daytona the next morning, says Battaglia.
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
15/04/2024
(Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
15/04/2024
LONDONDERRY, N.H., April 15, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) received a $256 million order from the U.S. Army for continued production of the Enhanced N...
15/04/2024
Montreal, Canada - April 15, 2024 - Grass Valley, a pioneer in live production s...
15/04/2024
NEW YORK In a major step forward in the broadcast industry's move to ATSC 3.0, NBCUniversal announced that it is launching personalized broadcast experience...
15/04/2024
LAS VEGAS Ross Video has announced an agreement to acquire Bannister Lake Software (BL Soft), a 31-year old Cambridge, Ontario-based provider of data-driven bro...
15/04/2024
Panasonic has revealed some of its technology that will be used for the broadcast of this summer's Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris....
15/04/2024
Adobe Previews Breakthrough AI Innovations to Advance Professional Video Workflo...
15/04/2024
Zaxcom NAB Preview - Zaxcom's ZaxConvert Software is Now More Versatile & 10...
15/04/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton April 15, 2024
0 Comments
Advanced digital film camera in an incredibly versatile des...
15/04/2024
SmallHD's Free PageOS 6 Update Adds Powerful New Capabilities to All Current...
15/04/2024
SiliconCores patented Common Cathode driver chip delivers frame rates of 240 Hz and a refresh rate of 7680Hz, enabling slow motion, multi-camera view and multip...
15/04/2024
The UK-based virtual studio, sports and events graphics company has appointed Naphtali Cave into a newly created role to drive technical innovation and creativi...
15/04/2024
CBS's daytime panel talk show The Talk will end its run with a shortened 15th season, concluding the show in December, CBS confirmed Friday....
15/04/2024
Season four of Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog starts on Nat Geo Friday, A...
15/04/2024
In a notable leap forward for broadcasters planning to monetize their NextGen TV broadcasts, Sinclair has announced the launch of its Broadspan datacasting pl...
15/04/2024
Like a science fiction novel where artificial intelligence is involved in everything people do, the 2024 NAB Show is seeing artificial intelligence, and in part...
15/04/2024
Sustainability was one of the big topics at NAB Show last year, and this year the topic has matured within a media environment during technological and regulato...
15/04/2024
The cloud has offered significant on-demand availability for data storage without direct active management by the user. Increasingly, however, it isn't just...
15/04/2024
At first glance, it might seem a bit odd that the 2024 NAB Show is rolling out a new feature dubbed the Creator Lab....
15/04/2024
As the media and entertainment industry meets again in Las Vegas, NAB Show kicks off the beginning of its second century. Organizers describe an agenda suited t...
15/04/2024
Celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year, Ikegami USA will introduce four new additions to its range of broadcast-quality production equipment at the 2024 NAB...
15/04/2024
Digital Anarchy Debuts Major Update to its AI-Driven Digital Makeup and Skin Ret...
15/04/2024
Grass Valley Showcases Industry-Leading Innovations and Continued Growth Milesto...
15/04/2024
Hitachi Kokusai Demonstrates ST 2110 Studio Production Workflow
Brie Clayton April 14, 2024
0 Comments
To be shown at NAB Show 2024, new Interface Kit...
15/04/2024
Pebble Collaborates with NVIDIA to Bring PRIMA - Pebble's State-of-the-Art S...
15/04/2024
Need a summer job? Love baseball? Interested in finding out about a career in sports management, food service, hospitality and more? The Greenville Yard Gnomes ...
15/04/2024
1 minute read
Share
alt=Alternative descriptive text class=lazyload main main-lazyloaded responsive-image data-v-1a5ebb10>
Tone Hegland Bachke, Executi...
15/04/2024
SportsTechBuzz at NAB 2024: Monday's Latest From Vegas By SVG Staff
Monday, April 15, 2024 - 3:00 am
Print This Story
The NAB Show is in full swing, a...
15/04/2024
Live From NAB Show 2024: Vizrts Nicholas Jameson on the Democratization of High-...
15/04/2024
Live From NAB Show 2024: Sonys Hugo Gaggioni on the Power of Sharing and Connect...
15/04/2024
Live From NAB Show 2024: Lawos Andreas Hilmer Walks Through HOME Apps, Dishes La...
15/04/2024
Live From NAB Show 2024: AWS Julie Souza on the Maturation of Live Sports Produc...
15/04/2024
Live From NAB Show 2024: FUJINON Lenses Stosh Durbacz on the Debut of the Duvo H...
15/04/2024
Haivision's Makito video encoders and decoders and Haivision Pro 5G mobile v...
15/04/2024
We are delighted to launch the new 360 Live Mosaic application on the Agama Enterprise platform, our central umbrella system.
This capability allows for the ea...
15/04/2024
Die Antwoord's collaborators: what they're doing nowDie Antwoord is a controversial hip-hop group founded in 2008. As a duo, they've also collaborat...
15/04/2024
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Thandiswa hides her turmoil and goes through with ...
15/04/2024
AI promises to bring the full benefits of the digital revolution to billions acr...
15/04/2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
COMMIT (Command Materiel and IT), the Dutch mili...
14/04/2024
St. Louis, MO - April 14, 2024 - Studio Network Solutions (SNS) announced updates to the EVO Suite of software tools included with EVO shared storage today at N...
14/04/2024
alt= class=wp-image-12028 data-lazy-srcset=https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/NAB-Just-Announced-960x540-1.png 960w,......
14/04/2024
Montreal, Canada - April 14, 2024 - Grass Valley, a leading innovator in live pr...
14/04/2024
A Professional Windscreen Designed for Lavalier and Headset Microphones That Guarantees Highly Efficient Wind Protection and Unrivaled Acoustic Transparency
DP...
14/04/2024
ATLANTA Integrated circuit semiconductor producer Amlogic has selected Tolka Telecommunications as its technology partner in the development of NextGen TV recei...
14/04/2024
swXtch.io has launched a strategic partner program at 2024 NAB Show, aimed at building an intelligent cloud networking ecosystem for the broadcast, media and en...
14/04/2024
Shooting the sky for AppleTV epic Masters of the Air
Adrian Pennington April 14, 2024
0 Comments
Producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks required his...
NFL Playoffs 2023: Fox Sports Details 1080p/HDR Production Efforts For the first time NFL fans will be able to watch all Fox Sports NFL Playoff Games in 4K HDR By Ken Kerschbaumer 
