Two Hundred and Fifty Cameras to cover the Superbowl 59 (LIX)

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  1. And Finally

Imagine covering an event with almost two hundred and fifty cameras.. What strikes me about this article is that although hundreds of cameras will be used there is no mention of how many of these cameras will be operated by human beings rather than automated, or locked off to get a specific shot of a specific moment.

They also don’t mention how it will be vision mixed. If you have 250 cameras to watch, that’s a lot of attention to keep an eye on all the shot values. I’d expect AI to help during live vision mixing.

During the Olympics they have a lot of cameras, and kilometres of cables and more but that’s for multiple events taking place at all times. They must have entire trucks or shipping containers dedicated to transporting the cameras, cables and more from event venue to event venue. Imagine the team of people setting all these cameras up for every event.

According to a quick search 165 cameras were used a year earlier so the leap is not as great as it sounds. The most amusing term is the “doink” camera. In European football these would be the goal post cameras. They also had “three sky cams, two fly cams and three drones. source

And Finally

In the digital era it is possible to have many more video feeds and sources at once, both for viewers and for broadcasters. This means that cameras can be used despite being niche, even in a live environment, such as the superbowl. It gives content creators far better coverage and choice, either from cameras at the end zones, or slow mo cameras for specific actions and moments.