Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

NFL Playoffs 2023: Fox Sports Details 1080p/HDR Production Efforts

13/01/2023

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.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/01/13/inside-fox-sports-efforts-to-de...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 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 Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

03/04/2026

Winning in the new media economy: Avid showcases AI-powered, connected intelligence to unlock media value at NAB Show 2026

Winning in the new media economy: Avid showcases AI-powered, connected intellige...

03/04/2026

NUGEN Audio CEO Dr. Paul Tapper to Lead Presentation About Dialog Intelligibility and Loudness at NAB 2026

NUGEN Audio CEO Dr. Paul Tapper to Lead Presentation About Dialog Intelligibilit...

03/04/2026

NAB Show 2026: PlayBox Neo Highlights Workflow, Security, and IP Advances

NAB Show 2026: PlayBox Neo Highlights Workflow, Security, and IP Advances Brie Clayton April 2, 2026 0 Comments PlayBox Neo will showcase the latest i...

03/04/2026

For Taku Hirano, Everything Is Connected

For Taku Hirano, Everything Is Connected From touring and composition to teaching and instrument design, the in-demand percussionist sees it all as one body o...

03/04/2026

Berklee Honors Humberto Ramirez with Master of Latin Music Award

Berklee Honors Humberto Ramirez with Master of Latin Music Award The alumnus and acclaimed trumpeter is honored for his influence as a performer, composer, an...

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...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Haivision Unveils Makito ONE Video Transport Platform

Haivision has announced the Makito ONE, a single-blade video encoding and decoding platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform combines dual-channel video encoding...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Telestream Introduces UP.Lens Cloud-Based Multiviewer and Monitoring Service

Telestream has introduced UP.Lens, a cloud-based multiviewer and monitoring serv...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: MRMC to Showcase Robotic Camera Technology and Mark 60th Anniversary

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5220, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), marking the company's 60th anniver...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Net Insight Introduces Programmable Trust Boundaries for Live Media Interconnection

Net Insight has introduced programmable Trust Boundaries, a feature integrated i...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Bitmovin Adds SGAI Support to Playback Products

Bitmovin has announced support for SGAI (Server-Guided Ad Insertion) in its playback products, using HLS interstitials. SGAI combines elements of client-side an...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Athletics Adds Riedel SimplyLive RiMotion R12 for Student-Run Productions

Riedel Communications' SimplyLive RiMotion R12 replay system is supporting B...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: LTN and Ateme Announce Integration of Video Processing with IP Transport

LTN, a managed IP video transport company, and Ateme, a video compression and de...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Channel Capacity on Terrestrial Broadcast Network with Harmonic

Harmonic has announced that TDF, a broadcast infrastructure operator in France, has deployed Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor and ProStream X Video S...

02/04/2026

United Rugby Championship Reports First-Year Results with Eluvio Streaming Platform

Eluvio and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced first-year results...

02/04/2026

Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports Announce ION as Broadcast Home of 2026 Teal Rising Cup

The Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports have announced that ION will broadcas...

02/04/2026

ESPN Announces Courtside Alt-Cast for Women's Final Four

ESPN will debut Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T, an alt-cast airing Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Sunday, A...

02/04/2026

PAMA and Shure Accept Applications for 6th Annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Scholarship

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are ...

02/04/2026

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, April 3 in Phoenix

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, ...

02/04/2026

DAZN Launches Playmakers Creator Program

DAZN has announced the launch of DAZN Playmakers, a global influencer program designed to build a network of sports content creators. The programme will give cr...

02/04/2026

NFL Network Unveils New Production Ops Leadership Structure as ESPN Takes Over

Tony Cole, Jessica Lee shift into new roles reporting to ESPN SVP/Content Operations Chris Calcinari....

02/04/2026

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

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

02/04/2026

Coming of Age: ESPN and NHL's Inside Out Classic Marks Another Step Forward for the Animated Alternative Broadcast

Real-time tracking, virtual production, and Pixar storytelling converge for Apri...

02/04/2026

Streaming Around the Moon: NASA+ Goes Live From Historic Artemis II Mission

NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first manned launch toward the moon sin...

02/04/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in April, From Bunnylovr to Omaha

(L-R) Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, and John Magaro appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courte...

02/04/2026

VEMIA Auction incoming

4 - 11 April 2026 VEMIA's latest gear auction is just around the corner, and there's already a wealth of sought-after instruments and studio gear li...

02/04/2026

Universal Audio's Voice Of God now native

Little Labs emulation now available to all The latest Universal Audio plug-in to become available outside of the company's DSP-powered UAD2 platform has...

02/04/2026

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever 2 April, 2026 Media releases Santo Cilauro, Ed Kavalee and a host of special guests retur...

02/04/2026

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return to Lead the National Conversation

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return t...

02/04/2026

L3Harris Powers First Crewed Mission Around the Moon in 50 Years

L3Harris has successfully powered the historic launch of the Artemis II mission, providing propulsion and avionics....

02/04/2026

Scripps Completes Sale of WRTV to Circle City Broadcasting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for I...

Already deployed extensively by NBC Sports, FOR-A Corporation will demonstrate GoVertical! AiDi, the real-time 9:16 autocropping feature of viztrick AiDi, durin...

02/04/2026

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems BATON Fi...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its B...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Broadcast Channel Lineup with Harmonic

Harmonic's Media Processing Solutions Maximize Bandwidth Efficiency for Terrestrial Broadcast Delivery Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that TDF, a...

02/04/2026

FOR-A's Software-Defined, AI-Powered Development Advances...

NBC Sports Deploys viztrick AiDi to Stream Live Events in 9:16 Mobile-First Formats with Auto Tracking, Development Signals Strategic Shift for FOR-A Long reco...

02/04/2026

Evergent showcases innovations in sports streaming and mo...

Evergent will showcase new innovations in subscriber lifecycle management and monetization at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas, April 18 22), including: New advances i...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Strengthens Student Run Productions...

Riedel Communications is proud to be part of Binghamton University, State University of New York, Athletics' milestone year, celebrating the university'...

02/04/2026

Techex and Encompass Launch Industry-Leading Cloud-Based...

Encompass Digital Media and Techex have today announced new, fully managed, cloud-native Master Control services designed to meet the growing operational demand...

02/04/2026

Winning in the new media economy - Avid debuts fully avai...

Avid today announced it will showcase new innovations designed to help media companies win in the new media economy at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas Co...

02/04/2026

PlayBox Neo reinforces MIMO Tech with new Playout capabil...

PlayBox Neo helps AIS PLAY kick-off premier football content direct to fans PlayBox Neo has provided MIMO Tech with a brand-new major installation to extend it...

02/04/2026

Globo transitions primary distribution to SRT over IP wit...

Globo has transitioned its primary content distribution to Secure Reliable Transport over a fully IP-based managed backbone using Synamedia's Quortex PowerV...

02/04/2026

Nexstar Says Pausing Tegna Merger Creates 'Impossible' Challenges

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

FCC Launches Efforts to Strengthen U.S. Drone Ecosystem

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

WAPA+ to Launch on Dish, DishLatino, Sling TV and Sling Freestream

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem The Danish singer recently performed for the queen of Denmark. April 1, 2026 By Editorial Staff Image by Junia Morrow Wh...

02/04/2026

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity Whether he's performing, composing, teaching, or developing instruments, the do-it-all percussionist sees ...