AAM’s New Gig: The Highs and Lows of Drones in Sportscasting

If you’re a fan of American football or baseball, soccer, F1 or NASCAR racing, you’re probably familiar with the aerial videography blimps and helicopters bring to your viewing experience. But, increasingly, there’s a new bird in the sky above the stadiums and racetracks around the globe: a video camera-equipped drone.

What the blimp or helicopter gives you is the “very typical shot we’ve seen for 40 years, just circling around,” Michael Davies senior vice president, technical and field operations for Fox Sports, a major U.S. television network and leading sportscaster, told Drone Expo. “What the drone does is add some dynamics to those kinds of shots. They can be especially useful flying in areas and in conditions that blimps, planes or helicopters can’t fly.”

For example, while covering a Major League Baseball game at Los Angeles’ iconic Dodger Stadium, a drone soared between the flagpoles above the stadium’s main entrance and rose to the sky to reveal the Los Angeles skyline and the glow of a magical pinkish sunset.

The net effect is a cinematic experience helping viewers to see the whole picture. What drones bring to the game is the ability to access tight spaces in a hurry — and get out of the way just as quickly — providing coverage that is dramatic and dramatically changed. “We’ve been working with drones since 2015 and, at the time, we weren’t entirely sure what drones would bring to the equation,” Davies continued. “Over time, we began to say, quite honestly, ‘The more we can make our live sports coverage look like a video game, the better, right?” Right!

Subscribe to AAM Today

Top 3 Takeaways

• Drones are a real game-changer for sportcasting
  

  A drone is ready for its closeup — and the closeups it will take — above a studio

  g the sporting events are covered by broadcasters

• Drone coverage of sporting events gives viewers a more cinematic experience
• Drones can swoop in quickly to grab a shot and fly away just as quickly