ESPN Debuts ‘Front Row Cam’ Developed with VER

SVG recently covered a new VER camera innovation, which replicates the long-lost low-home position for MLB coverage.

“ESPN’s new mirror-based robotic Front Row Cam system, developed in conjunction with VER and introduced during July 2’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast in St. Louis, aims to bring the low-home position, which gradually disappeared over the past two decades in favor of premium ballpark seating, back to live MLB telecasts.

Stephan Raymond, ESPN Senior Technical Specialist, came up with the concept of building a camera in a cylinder aimed skyward and shooting the image off a mirror. He worked with VER Director, Global Camera Operations, Patrick Campbell, who played an integral role in innovating mirror-based camera systems as Cameron-Pace Group CTO during the 3D–sports-production boom of the early 2010s, to create a system with a small enough footprint to serve ESPN’s needs.

Measuring 16 in. wide x 16 in. deep x 32 in. high, the system features a Sony HDC-P43 camera equipped with a Fujinon HA42x13.5 lens. The camera chain comprises a Sony BPU-4000 baseband processor unit (with high-frame-rate license), HDCU-2500 CCU, and RCP1500 remote-control panel inside the truck. The 6X slo-mo replays are handled by an EVS XT3 replay server. The entire system runs on two fibers into a Sony HKCU-SM100 CCU extension adaptor.

Front Row Cam system also features a VER pan-and-tilt controller for the robo operator and a VER 3D-printed pan-and-tilt housing, which uses ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) material and was printed by a Stratasys Fortus 900mc 3D printer (taking more than 200 hours of printing time).”

Read more about the VER’s “Front Row Cam” at Sports Video Group:

http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/07/07/espn-debuts-front-row-cam-on-sunday-night-baseball/