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
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
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 
