CLIFTON, N.J.—RailCam Robotic Systems had its Super Bowl moment recently, announcing that five of its stabilized tower-rail camera systems were used as part of the live broadcast production of the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show featuring singer The Weeknd.
RailCam provided one Mini-C and four Newton stabilized heads mounted on telescopic towers and rail systems, which were placed around the stage to capture the performance. The moving camera systems are operated live by a cameraman, controlling the towers and rail systems with their feet and the camera pan/tilt/roll with one hand and the zoom/focus with the other.
Brian Sheid, a RailCam Robotic Systems technician, explained why having human operators for these robotic cameras was preferred to pre-programmed camera movement:
“Many people think programmed moves is a great idea until the artist walks faster or stops for a second and the camera keeps on going right past them. Also, the magic behind a robotic camera not looking too robotic, is to have a human operating it.”
Four RailCam technicians installed the robotic camera systems and served as stand bys for the Halftime Show. This was the first Super Bowl assignment for RailCam.
