On September 29th, BSI, one of our teams that is part of NEP's Specialty Capture group, debuted their brand-new First Down Cam for NFL coverage on CBS.  The initial request from CBS came in on September 4th, and in just a few short weeks, BSI was able to conceive, develop, build, test and launch this new specialty camera.

The first step was to assemble a working group - drawing from engineering, operations and manufacturing - to throw around concepts and then narrow it down to a solution that would deliver a great result while also meeting budget requirements and the tight timeline.  Oh yeah, it also had to fit into a pylon that the chain crew could carry up and down the field.  

After the team was in place, they set to work selecting the camera technology.  Quickly, they landed on a 360-degree pan & tilt camera, instead of a software-based solution or a solution that would have required stitching.  From there, the team at BSI hit the ground running with development.

With the technology selected, BSI's experts took a pylon, cored out the inside, and created a whole new interior structure to support the camera.  They built a custom housing and engineered it so that the top two inches of the pylon can pan around with the camera.  Add in their RF expertise and technology, and boom: In a few short weeks they had a new camera solution built from the ground up (or should we say, from the first-down line up).

See the camera in action

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