CBS Sports Returns to Kansas City (Again) for AFC Championship With Doink Cam and Trolley Cam in Tow With nearly 80 cameras throughout Arrowhead Stadium, CBS is ready for Bills-Chiefs showdown By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Friday, January 24, 2025 - 4:01 pm
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Arrowhead in January. At this point, it seems almost a foregone conclusion for NFL fans. However, for CBS Sports, the annual pilgrimage to Kansas City for the AFC Championship - it's sixth in even years - is a welcome routine for the broadcaster's biggest NFL production of the season.
At this point, we have a phenomenal working relationship with the onsite stadium team at Arrowhead, and it's always a great experience being here, says Patty Power, EVP, operations and engineering, CBS Sports. It's the sixth time in seven seasons for the AFC Championship, so it kind of feels like a repeat of all those years we were going to New England [during the Patriots' dynasty]. Although the compound is a bit challenging in its size, their team is great to work with, and we're looking forward to it as always.
With nearly 80 cameras scattered around Arrowhead Stadium - including the return of the Doink Cam and TrolleyCam systems - CBS will have no shortage of resources in bringing the Bills-Chiefs matchup to what many expect to be a record-breaking audience. In addition, the NFL Today studio show will be onsite in KC with a full production of its own.
During the regular season, we have six 4K cameras to help zoom in on those game-defining moments plus pylon cameras, Skycam, and drone and blimp aerial coverage, says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. We already felt really good about our [equipment] levels heading into the playoffs; it's not like we're building a house from scratch. With that elite complement already established for our biggest game each week, we can turn our attention to the fun stuff: specialty equipment and technology enhancements like the DoinkCam and the TrolleyCam.
The Cameras: Doink Cam, Trolley Cam, and Plenty More Toys CBS's camera aresenal is headlined by the return of the aptly named Doink Cam, which debuted last year at Super Bowl LVIII, and the Trolley Cam, which has drawn rave reviews on CBS's playoffs coverage since debuting in 2021.
CBS will be using the same uprights that were used at Super Bowl LVII for the Doink Cams, with Antelope Nucleus 4K robotic camera systems from BSI attached to the left and right goals posts in both end zones.
The Trolley Cam point-to-point cabled camera system, provided by Flycam, zips along a wire from one end of the stadium to the other at up to 65 mph to capture front- row angles. The system is equipped with a Sony HDC-P31 and Canon 5 20 lens.
As is standard on its A game throughout the regular season, CBS will deploy four pylon camera systems in each end zone. The front pylons are provided by BSI and feature 4K Antelope robos with wide-angle lens; the back systems are 180-degree cameras from C360 Technologies (a Cosm company). CBS will also have line-to-gain pylon cameras from BSI as usual.
For aerial coverage, CBS has its trusty Skycam four-point system on hand at Arrowhead, along with a fixed-wing plane from Winged Vision and a drone from Beverly Hills Aerials.
The broadcaster will have a multitude of Sony HDC-5500 and HDC3500 cameras on hand at Arrowhead, including eight 4K super-slo-mo systems. Roaming the sidelines will be an RF Atlas Steadicam (provided by Aerial Video Systems) featuring a Sony PXW-FX9 camera and 35mm lens. Fletcher is providing all specialty robotic systems, and Marshall POV cameras will provide looks inside each team's tunnel.
In terms of glass, CBS is using a mix of Canon 111X and 122X lenses on its hard cameras, Canon 40 9.7 and 18 28 lenses for robos, and Fujinon 23 7.6 lenses for handhelds.
We never try to overly persuade [the production team] on what tools to use and when to use them, notes Cohen about the large camera complement. We just try to give them the best possible toolbox and let the game play itself out. Oftentimes the game dictates that the technology be used by the front bench; oftentimes it doesn't.
You're not going to use a Doink Cam if there are no field goals, he continues, but, if a ball hits the upright, you're going to be prepared for that. Same with Trolley Cam: if there's a great 60-yard play on the far side of the field where the trolley is positioned and the camera can run with the player down the sideline, that's going to be a compelling shot. Every tool has its place and its moment. It's just a matter of what the game dictates, and the front bench can go from there.
The Compound: NFP TFC System Brings It All Together NEP Supershooter CBS A, B, C, and D units - the network's A-game fleet throughout the regular season - is in the compound serving the game production. NEP Supershooter 4 (A and B units), which handled CBS's B-game this year, will serve the studio-show operation, and an additional QC unit from NEP - dubbed Supershooter QC - is also on hand in the compound.
Obviously, it starts in the compound with our robust mobile-unit infrastructure, says Cohen. This year in Kansas City, we're going to be an entirely NEP TFC [Total Facility Control] compound, which we think is going to make things smooth for us as far as moving sources around and sharing signals between our game truck and our studio truck.
TFC is NEP's proprietary software platform for solving the issues that arise with adoption of IP infrastructure. TFC provides a single touchpoint to configure, provision, monitor and control systems, networks, and facilities. With TFC, NEP can bring disparate systems onto one unified platform, making highly complex setups se
