WASHINGTON—IndyCar and Fox Sports will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding this weekend by presenting the Freedom 250 Grand Prix from the National Mall and surrounding streets.

(Race coverage begins Sunday, Aug. 23, at 1 p.m. ET on Fox and FS1. Pre-race coverage starts at 11:30 a.m. ET.)

While the broadcaster is devoting a bevy of broadcast and production tech to covering the race, the real highlight is the nation’s capital, historic architecture and storied landmarks as drivers run the circuit past the U.S. Capitol, down Pennsylvania Ave. and along the National Mall. Some 250,000 race fans are also expected to attend, adding to the spectacle.

“All credit to making this race happen goes to the president of Penske and to our CEO,” said Michael Davies, executive vice president, field and technical management and operations for Fox Sports. “This was their vision. They wanted to do this to have IndyCar contribute to the celebrations for the 250th, and that's how we're going to treat it.”

The backdrop for the race played heavily into coverage planning efforts. “Of course, there’s a competition afoot, but we really made an effort to have each shot show off the iconic nature of where we are,” he said.

OWL Cam and Washington Monument
Among the 90 cameras the broadcaster will use to cover the race is a newly designed specialty camera dubbed OWL Cam, mounted to a 4D gimbal for four-axis stabilized shots and suspended about 12 to 13 feet over Pennsylvania Avenue.

Fox Sports constructed a special arched truss over the street with a track for OWL Cam to follow. As the race’s main straightaway, Pennsylvania Avenue will see drivers reach speeds of around 180 miles per hour as they pass beneath the camera.

“The camera itself is going to be able to crawl from one side of the arch to the other,” Davies said. “But more importantly, its 4D gimbal will allow the camera to pan and swivel as the cars go underneath.”

Conceived in a Washington bar and drawn on the back of a beer coaster, OWL Cam will give the broadcaster a view of the Capitol as it looks down the straightaway, he said. Fox Sports worked with JitaCam (Jib in the air Cam) to bring the camera concept to fruition.

JitaCam started with an inverse jib widely used to fly over crowds at combat sports and other events. As the broadcaster’s “go-to people for specialty cameras,” in Davies words, the company souped up the setup to meet Fox Sports’ vision, adding the gimbal and the ability to crawl. “They basically pieced it together with different things that they own and rented to make it a reality,” he said.

Five hundred feet above the race, on the observation deck of the Washington Monument, Fox Sports is positioning a camera and operator to capture the massive crowd expected to attend.

“Interestingly enough, there’s a piece of fiber up there that we found out about from one of our video guys who does pool work,” Davies said. “It doesn’t get more iconic than that, looking all the way down the National Mall to see 250,000 people."

Drones and Beyond
Once again, Fox Sports will work with drone partner Beverly Hills Aerials to capture race action with the help of drones. As would be expected, flying a drone in the nation’s capital, especially when heightened security is always a concern, required Fox Sports to secure many government approvals.

Seeking those approvals began months ago, and only days before the race, when Davies was interviewed for this article, did the Fox Sports executive vice president express confidence that “our aerial profile is complete.”

Aerial shots from drones are critical to race coverage at this point because “it just wouldn’t look like the same kind of race” without them, he said.

“This is how far drones have come over the years,” Davies said. “They've become not a nice-to-have, but something that is essential to the sport.”

In all, Fox Sports will deploy some 90 cameras to cover the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, consisting of multiple manned and robotic cameras along the streets, including a swift-panning robotic camera it first used in March, during the Java House Grand Prix in Arlington, Texas.

Fox Sports will also deploy in-car cameras, which “have been a huge part of what we’ve been reimagining for IndyCar,” Davies said. The broadcaster has doubled the number of in-car cameras used.

“We now have two cameras and two simultaneous feeds out of every car,” he said. “We’ve added some positions, including the ‘Top Gun’ position, which basically looks back at the driver to see the driver’s helmet, as well as the driver’s eye view camera.”

However, it’s not simply the in-car cameras but also the graphics paired with those shots that create the biggest impact on viewers. “The graphics that go with them allow viewers to really stay focused within the context of the race in watching the cars,” he said. “The graphics communicate where the car is on the track, its speed, its position and the turn that is coming up.

“When you take an in-car [camera], you not only take the camera, but you also take the graphics that go with it,” Davies said.

RF Environment and More
As with other races, RF plays a critical role—not only for video transmission from in-car cameras but also telemetry sources, communications between drivers and crews and production comms. However, unlike in other locales, the federal government in Washington makes extremely intensive use of RF to support its communications needs.

Fox Sports contracted with BSI, an NEP company, for in-car camera transmission and “everything else,” said Davies. BSI began three months ago working on every facet of frequency coordination, including securing Special Temporary Authority (STAs) from the FCC to meet the broadcaster’s needs.

“Nothing has been left to chance in terms of making sure that all the stakeholders, from law enforcement to government security to everything else, are on the same page with us in terms of all the frequencies that we use,” he said. “Coordination definitely was not an afterthought.”

The broadcaster will produce race coverage on site with its production partner Indy Motorsports Productions, using the Penske Entertainment-owned company’s flagship HD5 production truck. For its pre-race coverage, Fox Sports will work from a Game Creek production truck, he said.

For its audio coverage of the race, the broadcaster will continue to rely on two mics in the car—one at the front of the vehicle towards the engine and one onboard the car. “One of the things we’ve been working on is separating the audio both in IndyCar and NASCAR to expand the audio. It’s always great to hear that separation of audio in street races. It’s fantastic,” Davies said.

Contemplating the upcoming Freedom 250 Grand Prix, Davies reflected on the race’s historic nature.

“You know, back in the late 1700s and early 1800s they used to run horses by the White House,“ Davies said. ‘For five years, they had a horse track—that was the racing that used to be in D.C.. We’re looking forward to bringing back horsepower to Washington, D.C.”

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES—Fox has finally announced a launch data and pricing for Fox One, with the direct-to-consumer streaming service set to launch Aug. 21 for $19.99 per month or $199.99 a year.

As previously reported, Fox One will bring all of Fox's news, sports and entertainment branded content together in one streaming platform, including the Fox broadcast network, Fox-owned television stations and Fox News Channel.

Fox One for the first time will provide cord-cutters and cord-nevers with full streaming and on-demand access to the company’s full brand portfolio, including Fox News, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, Big Ten Network, its local TV stations and the over-the-air Fox network.

Subscription streaming services Fox Nation and Big Ten+ will also be available on Fox One. Subscribers can bundle Fox One and Fox Nation for $24.99 per month or the equivalent of $19.99 per month when purchasing the annual plan at launch, the company said.

“We’re eager to launch Fox One in just a few weeks and super-serve our viewers with the best in live news, sports and entertainment content all in one place,” Fox CEO, Direct to Consumer Pete Distad said. “In bringing together the full power of the Fox content portfolio in one service, we have created a great value proposition and user experience that will appeal to the cord-cutter and cord-never fans currently not served by conventional pay TV packages.”

Fox also said the streaming service will feature advanced, AI-powered personalization technologies that seamlessly integrate live and video-on-demand content in a cohesive experience.

More information is available at www.FoxOne.com.

PALISADES, N.Y.—The Video Call Center will continue to provide its services to “The Herd With Colin Cowherd” as the company announced a one-year contract extension with FS1.

“The Herd With Colin Cowherd” is a daily sports talk show on FS1 that uses VCC’s Caller Cloud system to help bring athletes, coaches and other guests live on air from remote locations, often with quick turnarounds.

Caller Cloud connects with guests via their mobile phone or any device with an internet connection and does not require any downloads. Guests click on a text or email link and are then connected to a VCC call producer to ensure the feed looks good and they have a solid connection. VCC touts its patented technology for delivering hyper-low-latency video return and IFB mix-minus.

"The VCC delivers quality and reliability that meet the standards of our show,” said Mike Wilken, senior vice president Systems and Technology, Fox Sports. “VCC is frictionless for our producers, and more importantly, for our guests. Connections are rock-solid, look fantastic and let Colin and Joy have fast-paced, face-to-face banter without awkward lag. The experience for guests is great, which is key because it means they are happy to come back. As a partner, the VCC gives us great peace of mind."

For more information, visit www.thevcc.tv.  

LOS ANGELES—There was no blackout of Fox-owned broadcast stations and networks for National Cable Television Cooperative members and subscribers when the clock struck midnight on 2019, as the two sides reached a new carriage agreement.

Fox shared the news on its site www.keepfoxnewsandsports.com, which features the following statement:

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the NCTC that avoids any disruption to our viewers. All of the NCTC’s members will continue to carry our portfolio of leading sports, entertainment and news programming for years to come.”

The Fox programming referred to in that statement includes Fox-owned broadcast stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes and Fox Soccer Plus.

The NCTC represents more than 700 small and rural cable operators that cover around 3 million subscribers.

Fears of a blackout were raised by NCTC as it claimed that Fox was seeking a rate increase 10x its current rate. The financial terms for the agreement have not been disclosed.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Sports will begin bringing 4K Ultra HD with high dynamic range (HDR) to fans of Thursday Night Football Sept. 26 when the Philadelphia Eagles play the Green Bay Packers.

Fans can access the 4K UHD HDR coverage via the Fox Sports and Fox Now apps, Apple TV 4K, select Roku devices or by tuning into various Fox Sports distributors, including DIRECTV, Altice Optimum, Comcast Xfinity, Verizon Fios, TVision and fuboTV, the broadcaster said.

Fox will produce the games in 1080p HD HDR, up-converting the production to 4K UHD HDR for viewers with 4K displays and down-converting to 720p for its HD broadcast audience, says Michael Davies, SVP Field & Technical Operations at Fox Sports.

“There is a confluence of different things that made it the right time [for 4K UHD HDR coverage of the NFL],” he says.

“The broadcast equipment we use that’s all been hypothetically capable of doing this format for quite some time is available. But I would argue that only now in a lot of cases is able to do that in such a way that standard dynamic range HD customers aren’t affected.”

To ensure its biggest audience –those watching in HD with standard dynamic range—remain unaffected by conversion from HDR to SDR, the broadcaster’s engineering team performed tests with “a variety of important colors in football,” as Davies describes it, to evaluate how jersey colors, colors on the field and those of sponsors would hold up in the conversion from HDR’s Rec. 2020 color space to SDR’s Rec. 709 color space.

The broadcaster has produced the last three Thursday Night Games in 1080p HD HDR and converted to 4K HDR as part of its internal testing to prepare for the official launch in Green Bay, next week.

Fox Sports will employ a full battery of 1080p HDR production equipment and rely on Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) as its production HDR format. Conversion equipment installed in Game Creek Video’s Encore production truck will handle the up- and down-conversion chores.

MEETING THE DEMAND

Another factor driving the decision to go 4K UHD HDR is demand from Fox Sports distributors, says Davies. “Fulfilling those program needs is a big thing,” he says.

The broadcaster chose the 1080p HD HDR conversion approach rather than native 4K HDR production to minimize resources needed for the production, such as server capacity that would require four times the storage budget for four times the resolution, as well as to maintain the level of production viewers have come to expect, he says.

“For instance, super slow motion is one of those things that while you can do it in 4K, the options are a lot more limited to you in terms of having a lot of super slow motion cameras available,” explains Davies. “We’ve got eight, and we didn’t want to lose that super slow motion capacity.”

Most importantly, Fox Sports has the ability to up-convert to 4K UHD HDR because “up-converted 1080p looks pretty amazing, and the up-scalers do a great job,” adds Davies.

For the time being, Fox Sports will rely on the same production vehicle to produce Thursday Night Football. Doing so reduces the demands placed on the broadcaster’s engineering staff to configure multiple trucks for the conversions that are needed, says Davies.

However, as demand for 4K UHD HDR grows, so will the pressure to configure additional production vehicles with conversion capabilities similar to those on board Encore, he adds.

Davies can’t say when Fox Sports will extend 4K UHD HDR to its entire NFL lineup. However, the broadcaster is at work on “knocking down the barriers” to prepare for a time when 4K UHD HDR coverage becomes the rule rather than the exception.

Already it has produced limited Major League Soccer and MLB coverage in 4K UHD, and plans currently are coming together for similar postseason baseball coverage, he adds.

For now, however, the focus is on Thursday Night Football, and making 4K UHD HDR happen. Davies credits companies in helping to make 4K UHD HDR possible.

“We have some really good technical partners like Game Creek Video. AJA is a big, big help. Sony has been fantastic. These companies have come together to help us through this and other projects so we can get the knowledge base out there to make the next big show that needs to go to UHD a much easier kind of hill to climb,” he says.

ORLANDO, Fla.—Fox Sports will stream 4K coverage of the MLS All-Star Game July 31 from Orlando, Fla., as part of its expanded use of the high-res format online and made available on its apps.

“Fox is looking at how we get into 4K in a really exciting way,” says Steven Thorpe, VP, video platforms, for Fox. “The question is, how can we start getting 4K out to our audience? The best way to do that is through our digital products.”

Streaming 4K from Orlando (broadcast coverage begins at 8 p.m. EDT on FS1) follows Fox Sports’ 4K stream this summer of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup made available on its website and coverage of the July 27 game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox from Fenway Park.

Fox will also stream 4K coverage of the Aug. 3 contest between the Yankees and Red Sox from Yankee Stadium (broadcast begins at 1 p.m. EDT on FS1).

The 4K all-star soccer coverage, available on the Fox Sports App and Fox Now as well as Apple TV and Roku devices and via select MVPDs offering TV Everywhere services and pay-TV providers, will not make use of high dynamic range (HDR), which the broadcaster is experimenting with at the moment, says Thorpe.

For distribution, FOX has partnered with satellite service provider SES. Coverage from Orlando City Stadium will be uplinked to an SES satellite and downlinked to an SES facility where basic bugs and slates will be added before being re-uplinked for distribution to Fox’ distribution partners, says Thorpe.

One destination will be Verizon Digital Media Services where Thorpe’s team and Verizon will rely on the Verizon Slicer ecosystem for transcoding into HLS video, which will be transited out via Verizon’s EdgeCast CDN and ultimately to consumer devices, he explains.

For consumers, the goal is to make accessing the 4K stream fast and easy. “We are trying to make sure we surprise and delight our audience by making content available in 4K,” says Thorpe. “We will give them some simple badging that lets them know a feed is available in that higher quality. We want to make sure that when people go into the Fox Sports app or Fox Now, 4K content is treated just like anything else.”

The approach Fox Sports is taking to 4K production harkens back to the early days of HD production, says Michael Davies, Fox Sports SVP, Field & Technical Operations. “The way to go about it [4K production] is to produce in that highest common denominator format and downconvert,” he says.

While resolution is important, it is HDR that will make the most noticeable impact. “I would go as far as to say that the colorimetry of a broadcast is more important than the resolution. It’s nice when you have both. But overall, the HDR is the moneymaker,” says Davies.

During these early days of HDR, Fox Sports has zeroed in on Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) for high dynamic range, “mainly because of what the manufacturers support at the moment,” says Davies.

There is even an incremental increase in the quality of standard dynamic range video that begins as HDR and is downconverted, another benefit of starting in the higher resolution and downconverting, he adds.

However, challenges remain from a production point of view. Small, specialty cameras, such as those used in pylons, aren’t available with 4K support. Nor are the RF cameras that play a critical role in sports production, he says.

Additionally, high frame rate cameras and graphical treatments viewers expect, like the yellow line on a football field, are in short supply, says Davies.

As a consequence, the availability of upconverters on production trucks takes on added importance. “There is a fair amount of conversion that is always needed, and sometimes you find that sort of left out,” he says, adding the dearth of upconverters makes renting additional resources common.

An often overlooked aspect of 4K production—until it’s needed—is monitoring. “All well and good if you are producing 4K, but unless—let’s say your video person—has an HDR monitor to actually see what he is doing, you will need to make sure one is added,” says Davies.

As Fox Sports expands its 4K sports coverage, however, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of viewers still watch in HD.

“Let’s be honest, there are not a lot of people watching HDR at the moment, so it is important to make sure at the end of the day that you are protecting the show that 99% of the people are watching,” says Davies. “They won’t understand if the colors are wrong because you are doing HDR for a small segment of the audience.”

Streaming provider fuboTV announced that it plans to carry Fox Sports’ (FS1) UHD-HDR coverage of selected NCAA football games starting with San Diego State-Stanford matchup on Aug. 31.Other games to be covered in ultra-high definition, high dynamic range include W. Michigan vs. Michigan Sept. 8 and Fresno State at UCLA on Sept. 15, as well as other PAC12 and Big 10 games during the season.

The collaboration extends fuboTV’s relationship with Fox Sports when fuboTV launched its 4K HDR Beta service carrying FS1’s coverage of the World Cup in July as well as FS1’s coverage of a recent Yankees-Red Sox duel in UHD HDR. This is the second year FS1 has covered NCAA football games in UHD HDR. 

[Read: Dish Kicks Off 4K Broadcasts Of Fox Sports College Football]

To view the games in fuboTV’s 4K HDR10 Beta format, subscribers will need to have a 4K HDR-enabled television, HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 compatible cable and run the fuboTV app on a streaming device that supports the format, which includes Android Mobile Phones with HDR10 displays and Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV and Roku devices. Bandwidth speeds of 30Mbps-40Mbps or higher are recommended. 4K HDR-capable TVs may also need calibration to present the content correctly. For subscribers without 4K HDR hardware, this content will continue to be available in its usual formats.

fuboTV says it will also offer additional sports and, for the first time, entertainment programming in 4K HDR Beta in the coming months. 

LOS ANGELES—There’s definitely a difference between being a player or coach in a timeout huddle and sitting in the stands. Take that distinction one step further for fans sitting at home in front of their televisions. However, FS1 tonight plans to erase those distinctions—at least a bit—during the Providence vs. DePaul Big East men’s basketball game (8:30 p.m. ET).

John Entz

FS1 will jettison its normal commercial breaks and mic up Friars coach Ed Cooley and Blue Demons coach Dave Leitao to bring viewers onto the bench, inside huddles and into the locker room during halftime and postgame. While FS1 previously has used a similar setup for two women’s college basketball contests—one last season and one about a week ago—tonight’s game will be the first time the broadcaster is using the commercial-free, mic’d coach setup for a men’s game.

In this interview, John Entz, president of production for Fox Sports, discusses how and why FS1 is taking this approach and what it might mean to attracting and holding the interest of younger viewers.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTechnology:Tell me about the thinking behind micing the coaches and going commercial free?

John Entz: The idea is we want to stay with the action the entire way and frankly give the viewers an experience they have never seen before. We’ve done it twice with women’s games. We did it once last year and once last week.

This is the first time a men’s game has gotten this type of coverage. Not going away during commercial gives you a feel like you are right there in the arena, and you are also listening to the coaches and players in the huddle and getting an idea what to look for.

During a timeout, you get bits and pieces in a normal broadcast, but you possibly never get to see what happens during the whole timeout from this vantage point.

TVT:From a production point of view, how is that going to be handled since both coaches will be talking to their respective players at the same time?

JE: We’ll bounce back and forth. We’ll try to give them equal coverage, similar to how we do when we are outside or inside the locker room.

We did a women’s game last week, and you just get this really interesting, unique visual of the coaches sitting on the steps before they even go into the locker room devising a game plan and then going in to see the players and actually communicate it to them. It’s all part of the process that viewers don’t normally see.

Back to the timeout, sometimes the coaches huddle themselves before they go talk to the players. And we will see that. It depends on the situation. So, yes, we will bounce back and forth and try to give equal coverage to both.

TVT:Is it hard to convince the coaches to get mic’d up for a game?

JE: It’s really a testament to [Big East Conference Commissioner] Val Ackerman and the Big East Conference and the trust level that we have built with each other over the years.

If we were to have asked the coaches four or five years ago, it would have been a pretty quick no. This is the case in every sport. The coaches generally don’t want to give us this access. Luckily, we have been able to build up this trust.

Steve Scheer, who is the producer, sat with Ed Cooley last night, and it is not comfortable for him, quite frankly. It’s not something he is used to doing. But because we are lucky enough that he trusts Steve and trusts Fox as a whole, and the Big East trusts Steve and Fox as a whole, we are able to do it.

Because we did it last year, and it was so well-received and came off so successfully, it gave us a springboard to try it again this year with a men’s game.

TVT:Can you tell me a little bit about the tech setup?

JE: Basically, the technical setup is both coaches are wired [with wireless mics]. Both locker rooms are wired. We have additional bench and court microphones. We have cameras dedicated to each head coach at all times on the court and in the locker rooms. We will also provide the coaches’ audio-only on FOX Sports Go. We have three cameras with 95x lenses and three cameras with 24x lenses, three replay operators with all the cameras being recorded full time during the pregame and game to recap action, four transmission paths and a 45-person crew. So, this is not your normal technical setup.

TVT:What do you do for a backup—especially with the wireless mics on the coaches?

JE: We try to have backups on everything, whether it’s the batteries or cameras. You can never predict what is going to happen. For instance, last week it was so cold in the East that we did lose transmission. You have to have a backup ready for that. You have to have backups for everything you can imagine could possibly fail.

TVT:What about the business side of this—cutting out the commercial breaks. Is that a problem?

JE: It’s something we probably couldn’t do every game, I guess, right? Obviously, there is a financial piece to it. But our sales team has been fantastic in realizing what a unique opportunity this is for the conference, for Fox and really for the viewers.

This type of coverage is really just different and opens your eyes. This has been so successful, and we believe in it so much that, yes, there is a financial impact. Is it worth it? In the big picture, yes.

TVT:Would you like to add anything else?

JE: When we first did this last year, I sat there and watched and thought this is interesting, unique and frankly a fun event production. We are constantly talking about how to get to the next level at Fox. How do we do things differently? How do we appeal to the Millennials? This is one approach that feels completely different and innovative.

Now to be doing this on a bigger stage is really exciting. Anybody who has watched this [during the women’s games] walked away with the feeling that this truly is different and could be the future.