CBS and Nickelodeon will also team up for a sixth alternate broadcast
If you live by the motto that you’re only as good as your last game, then it will be awfully hard for CBS Sports to top Super Bowl LVII – the most watched program in American television history and one of the most dramatic Super Bowls ever. But that’s exactly what the production and operations teams will aim to do beginning this weekend as the 2024 NFL season kicks off.
“We’re definitely still riding the high of the greatest Super Bowl of all time and the most watched telecast of all time,” says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. “We want to take what we learned in terms of technology, workflows, and innovations, and keep that momentum going and apply it to the season coming up. I think we’ve done a really good job of transitioning a lot of those technology enhancements from the Super Bowl and Playoffs into this season where the production team feels they can elevate the telecast.”
One thing is for sure: CBS Sports production teams will have plenty of technological firepower at their disposal this season, including 4K zoom camera technology, AI-driven slo-mo replays, and a revamped RomoVision system.
“We are focused on creating the best technology toolbox possible,” says Cohen. “You don’t necessarily know when you’re going to reach into that toolbox and grab what you need, but you just need to know that that tool is there and you know how to use it.”
4K Zoom: Capturing More Key Moments Than Ever
CBS Sports will deploy Sony 4K zoom technology across all its A and B game productions this season. Each game will have Sony HDC-5500 4K cameras equipped with Son Hawkeye zoom technology systems on high end zones and down the goal lines to start the season. Then midway through the season, CBS will add two more down-the-lines HDC-5500’s on their top-tier games.
“We’re going to lean on a lot of what we built in the playoffs, taking our Sony 5500 cameras and utilizing the Hawkeye systems to create the 4K Zoom capability,” says Cohen. “When you take those six 4K Zoom cameras that we will have for the second half of the season and through the playoffs and you add them to our pylon cam systems that use the Antelope Nucleus 4K camera system, now you basically have 10 cameras on our top games that have 4K Zoom capabilities.
“Being able to zoom in with great resolution and see those game defining plays is paramount on our minds,” adds Steve Karasik, SVP, remote production, CBS Sports. “It always comes down to a foot on the line. Is the player out of bounds or inbounds? Was there a fumble? Was the knee on the ground? And with these 4K zoom instant replays, we’re able to capture those images at a level we never could before. So these cameras to our producers and directors are incredibly valuable.”
XtraMotion: AI-Driven Super-Slo-Mo Tech Brings Top-Level Tools to More Games
In addition to the 4K Zoom on all A and B games, other games will be equipped with EVS’s XtraMotion AI-based service that allows production teams to transform any live content into super slow-motion.
“Being able to extrapolate video feeds by adding frames to create more super-mo is something that we see as a game changer,” says Cohen. “We are giving all of the games across the board more opportunities to add super-slo-mo to further create those game defining moments with precision.”
Cohen says that other vendors will also be utilized AI-driven slo-mo technology for CBS this season and that his team is “exploring some future EVS AI products that are in development now and that are probably going to come out later this football season.”
“The C level games obviously don’t have as many cameras and equipment as the other games, but often times, those games end up having 100% of the country at 7:30 at night,” adds Karasik. “So giving those crews additional tools [like XtraMotion] that are more economically affordable but provide those top-of-the-line tools is really helpful.”
RomoVision Goes Big: Bringing the Augmented Analysis Tool to the All 22 Angle
The third technology headline for CBS Sports will be a reimagined version of RomoVision, the enhanced game analysis/telestration tool used by lead analyst Tony Romo.
“You’re going to see RomoVision used as more of a first replay, dirty-feed, all-22 tool,” says Cohen. “We’re going to bring the technology to where we think Tony likes to really analyze the game coverage. We know the All-22 [overhead angle] gives you a tremendous perspective of every player on the field running their routes, so we’re going to take RomoVision Second Spectrum technology to the that all 22 angle as much as possible.
“When we roll the All-22 as a first replay, [Romo] will have the ability – if he chooses – to have a mocked up dirty version of that camera angle with all the players running their routes and all of the skill players in action,” adds Cohen. “We’re excited about reinventing RomoVision, which obviously was a really fun innovation that won some awards and generated some publicity. Now it’s time to take it to a new level.
Karasik adds: “We want to give Tony the tools to help him tell the story of the game to the audience. No one’s better at breaking down a game and immediately seeing things off the snap than Tony. This will enable Tony to, with better clarity, explain what’s going on. With the All 22 angle, if Tony decides he wants to highlight the edge rusher or an offensive lineman or Tyreek Hill, whoever it might be, instantly we can do that and show it from an angle that’ll make it easier to dissect why a play happened.”
The Slime is Back: CBS and Nickelodeon Set to Team Up Once Again
CBS Sports will once again partner with Nickelodeon for special Slime-filled NFL Wild Card alternate broadcast for kids and families. Details of this season’s NFL Wild Card Game on Nickelodeon, which will once again air alongside CBS Sports’ traditional coverage on CBS and Paramount+, will be announced at a later date. This season’s NFL Wild Card telecast on Nickelodeon will mark CBS Sports’ and Nickelodeon’s sixth family-friendly collaboration on an NFL game – and third NFL Wild Card game. It follows up Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom, the historic Sports Emmy Award-winning alternate telecast of the Super Bowl, which was the first of its kind.
“I think we’ve proven that we are very comfortable and skilled in producing this kind of alternate telecast,” says Cohen. “To be able to do it on a level of the first ever true Super Bowl simulcast certainly signifies that we can handle it at any game, any level, any city, any environment.
“We have a tremendous working relationship at this point now with the Nickelodeon team,” adds Cohen. “We plan to continue to push the envelope and keep on applying what we’ve learned and what new technology is in the marketplace to keep on advancing the show. We’re truly challenged with our partners at Nickelodeon to keep on trying to innovate, which is so much fun.”
