Fox Sports Loads World Series Lineup With High-Speed Cameras

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

To capture all the sights and sounds of the World Series, Fox Sports will be deploying up to 41 cameras and 121 microphones, including eight high-speed motion cameras.

This year’s MLB champsionship will be Fox’s 20thWorld Series. It begins Oct. 24.

“We will have eight Super Slow Motion and Hyper Motion Cameras, including the Fox Phantom Cameras, at either side of the plate to capture at-bats and close plays at a blistering 1,500 frames per second,” said Michael Davies, Fox Sports senior VP of field and technical operations. “Quite simply, it’s more Motion Cameras in play than at any other baseball game on any network this season.”

Fox Sports will also be burying 14 microphones underground on the playing field. Another 15 to 20 mics will be used for managers, coaches, umpires and players.

The broadcaster will also be working with SMT and MLB Advanced Media to provide views of the strike zone using radar technology to show pitch speed and location in real time.

For replay sequences Fox Sports is using MLBAM’s Pitchcast system. This system, which made its debut during the American League Divisional Series, shows pitch speed, location and ball trails, while splitting the data into different varieties. Whether it’s showing all first-pitch strikes, pitch sequences to a certain batter or other specific data, Fox Sports has the strike zone covered, the network said.

Some other stats from Fox’s World Series coverage follow.

Staff & Support

  • 140+ technicians
  • 36 support staff
  • 126+ man-hours over nine days

 Field Support

  • 384+ strands of fiber
  • 3+ miles of fiber optic cable
  • 3 edit bays
  • 64TB of shared storage
  • 2 Gbps of data connectivity
  • 12 transmission paths

Cameras and Lenses

  • 30 HD game cameras
  • 4 SSMo 6X (360fps)
  • 1 SSMo 16X (960fps)
  • 2 Xmo (2000fps)
  • 2 RF cameras
  • 1 RF stabilized camera (MOVI)
  • 1 aerial camera

Replay

  • 64 record channels
  • 32 playback channels
  • 2,000+ hours of recording capacity

Audio

  • Submix
  • All digital audio network throughout stadium
  • 12 RF player, announcer and umpire mics
  • 8 RF FX mics
  • 9 RF base mics
  • 78 field microphones
  • 14 RF infield microphones
Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.