Agreed. I pay for RUclips premium so that I can watch interesting esoteric videos like this without some stupid kars4kids commercial surprise jingle. If any other platform offered me the kind of variety that gives me nerdy videos on baseball broadcasting as well as videos on how to fix my car I would gladly give them my money lol.
I retired from broadcast sports after 50 years, and televised over 1000 games. When i first started, we only had 3 cameras. Lo3rd, hi home, hi 1st. Cable length made cf unworkable. When triax came about in the mid 70s, we added cf then lo1st. Later in my carreer, other cameras were added. When i retired, we were up to 16 for a regular broadcast for FSSW. TC, 2 robos, h3rd, rf, beauty, booth, etc. Camera ops for basebaĺl are really talented. The sport is so different from football, basketball, hockey, and soccer because those sports go back and forth over a designated area. The best baseball ops learn very quickly that their eyes need to be out of the viewfinder to capture all the action. BTW...I retired as an EIC. Thanks for reminding me of everything I miss.
It truly is crazy seeing how the technology involved in broadcasts has developed over the years, and makes me wonder what else is coming in the future. Thanks so much for sharing! You chose a great career ;)
do camera ops follow the team or only work at their home stadium? would you think the directors job is frantic and requires and incredibly deep understanding of the game, pacing and prediction of where to go next? Who does the team use for "on the field" stuff, like crowd events or entertainment in-between innings for the local crowd or interviews for broadcast?
Great Question. Camera operators typically stay in their home markets, though some travel on specific "packages" and when necessary in smaller markets. The director definitely needs to have a high level of understanding of the game, and it can certainly be frantic at points, but having a good crew around you makes it much easier. For "on the field" marketing and "big screen" shows in the venue, this crew is typically hired out by the team or stadium itself.
Thank you so much! We are loving the positive feedback on this video and will definitely continue this series with other sports. There's already a basketball video on our channel as well, so feel free to check that one out if you haven't already!
I shoot for the Reds home broadcast and this video is spot on with assignments. Our high third camera is labeled Camera 9 and our backstop robo is labeled Camera 8. We also have a left field foul pole camera (camera 7) as well as an RF camera (camera 10). Baseball is one of the most complex sports to cover and I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to show everything that’s happening once the ball is in play. Great job! You should do a follow up video talking about the nuances between the home and visit broadcasts and how they all connect together.
@adamschrand1186. Does each network have their own camera operators? For example, you shoot for the Reds. But if the Reds are playing the Mets, will the Mets have their own camera crew?
@@DBR00 most if not all camera operators are crewed locally in each market. With a lot of these games being televised on the RSNs, usually each team hires locals in the city and travels in a few people. Mainly it's the directors, producers, and talent that travel with each team.
@@adamschrand1186 Thanks for the reply. I think you misunderstood my question. I understand that the crews are local for each market. I wanted to know if there are basically 2 crews. One for the “home team” feed and one for the “away team” feed. So in theory, you’ll have 2 cameras in center field, 2 cameras at first base, 2 at second base, etc. I always wanted to know the answer to that question. Thanks!!
@@DBR00 Yes there are two separate crews, and they both shoot for their respective broadcast. The home show gets the majority of the broadcast camera positions (cam 4, low 1st, high home) and the visit show usually only has three, maybe four manned cameras; all are favored towards the visiting team and their dugout. So the visit show usually provides a low 3rd cam, a tight follow cam, and a high 1st or high 3rd cam. The home show covers all the other positions with just one camera that is shared between both trucks. All cameras are working for both the home and visit shows, but their primary responsibility is towards the show they were crewed for. The home show cameras will hear their respective director in their headset, but they may get a "secondary" yellow tally when the visit show takes their camera on air. Hope that helps
I didn't even finish the video before I recognized the tight center shot you used from the Tigers vs Rays this year that I shot on that camera. Wow haha. Great breakdown of everything.
Dude this is an awesome video. It’s rare I see something totally unique and still interesting on RUclips and this qualifies. Any baseball fan will be fascinated by this. Thanks for doing it.
Thanks for discussing this topic. In my six decades (!) of watching baseball on TV, there has been a gradual increase in the use of close-up shots. TV directors like the grimaces on the faces of pitchers and batters. We almost never see whole field shots, or even whole infield shots. When they occur, it's almost always on a return from an inning break. This is very different from the experience of watching a game in person, when a spectator can, and does, notice that the outfield is shaded to leftfield, while the infielders are straightaway. The obsession with close-ups deprives the television audience of seeing and appreciating defensive tactical adjustments.
This is a great explanation. I do a little camera work for a minor league baseball team and we don't have quite as many camera positions to work with so it's cool to see how it scales up. Cameras 1-4 are the same and then 5 is the roving 'fan cam'. Love this video. Can't wait to see more!
Would love for you to comment on how some of this has changed in the last 25 years, as there are some evolutions I’ve noticed just since I’ve been watching baseball. For example, it used to be common that on an infield grounder, high home cam would be used to show the fielder glove the ball (as it is now), but then the director would switch to the high first cam for the actual throw. This provided a “finish line” view of the race to the bag. Another one is that on balls hit up the middle, instead of switching to the high home cam, directors would stick with the batters eye cam all the way through the play. Both of these practices seem to have faded away by the early 2000s.
Fantastic! Just more on baseball production. The whole production team, duties, equipment. The pre-game prep and planning. What goes on in the truck. The planning and execution of live shot selection (that guy must be very busy for the 3-½ hours!) The replay function. So much to appreciate!
I just wish when an outfielder throws the ball that the camera would track the whole arc of the ball and not immediately cut away from the throw to go check in on the base and watch the ball come in the rest of the way. It really dampens a cool moment and takes the excitement away. Also no one seems to ever remember that picture in picture exists and they could be following the ball on the main screen while showing the baserunner running in the inset frame. That could be really cool
Yes, different directors definitely have different philosophies on this, and some make cutaways more than others. Some broadcasts make use of PiP, but most often for replays. In a slower sport like baseball, it's often seen as unnecessary because there's more time to show additional replay angles than most other sports.
You should do a video on how the augmented strike zone overlay is automatically put on feed from center field camera. Also, the integration of statcast data with the scorebug would be cool
This was great. I have a new appreciation for everything that’s happening during the games I love to watch. I can tell you I won’t be watching the same way again!
Its been quite some time ago (20 years?), but back when Fox did Saturday afternoon baseball, they did a game where they recreated the history of televised baseball going back to the very first televised game. They used actual cameras and lenses from the periods and used the same camera positions. One fixed camera about halfway between 3rd base & home.for the first inning. Two early 1950s cameras in the second. Then a double exposure with a chalkboard for graphics. Then better lenses. Then the overexposed overcontrasted color of the 60s. And so on through the innings showing the progress of the technology through the decades. I came of age watching Dizzy Dean & Pee Wee Reese on CBS back in the 50s & 60s in black and white. Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Al Kaline in black & white. Seeing today's players that afternoon in black & white with the same lenses and camera positions gave a timeless feel to the game of baseball and made me realize that the players then and the players now are not really all that different. The game has changed in some ways, but a double play is still turned the same. A diving stop at third is the same. And a homerun is a homerun even without Statcast.
This is awesome. I run camera and broadcast direct for my church and it's a handful switching and working with even just 4-5 cameras. I'm sure people would be fascinated to see what the live director sees and what it sounds like on comms!
YES!! I LOVE behind the scenes stuff like this!! I am a photographer/videographer so I'm always looking at cameras, lenses, gimbals, etc...big gear nerd and I just GOTTA knowing how things work. Would love to see the "Control room" and how all that works with picking which camera is live!!
Thank you for making this video. I’ve been watching baseball for years and I found this very interesting. I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I really don’t like when a cameraman runs onto the field after a player hits a home run. It looks silly and it’s distracting. And I’m aware that the player has to pretend the cameraman isn’ there even though he’s well aware that there is someone running next to him pointing a camera at his face. I like the broadcasters to show the game, not participate in it.
So glad you enjoyed it! I totally get that a lot of people don't like that up close and personal look, but it's one of many things that networks are trying out to bring a new, modern look to sports broadcasts. Like anything else, they're always looking for ways to evolve and bring a fresh look to an old game.
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 to be clear, it’s not “up close and personal” look that I don’t like. It’s seeing a cameraman run onto the field that bothers me- especially when I’m at the ballpark. It’s distracting and the guy running with the camera onto the field looks idiotic. When I’m watching a game, my attention should not be drawn to the camera crew. The focus should be the game itself and the athletes on the field. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be overly harsh. I appreciate the work that everyone does. I just think in this case the cons are far outweigh the pros. You can get a close-up shot of the athletes using telephoto lenses. Having a man run onto the field to get close-up shots is not adding anything of value in my opinion. Again, I appreciate you taking this time to make this video and I’m not bothered by anything in the broadcast of baseball games these days except for this one issue.
College student here at Georgia Southern. I help produce our athletics broadcasts to ESPN+. I've only been on the team since February, but I've worked a handful of baseball games already. Based upon this video (it was mentioned at the beginning) and reading some other comments, the camera numbering can vary, but the responsibilities are bang on. At Georgia Southern, we have 8 cameras in baseball: 1. 3rd base 2. High home 3. 1st base 4. Outfield (referred here as Center Field) 5. High 1st 6. Roaming wireless (usually used on the field for pitcher shots/following home runs home) 7. I don't actually know. I think it's most often used for our drone. 8. Announcer's booth I've run every camera except for 6 (and 8 is static). My favorite is definitely high 1st. The last game I worked, I had to do cam 5 AND cam 3's job, as we were short-staffed that day.
That's awesome to hear! I began my career working for my college's athletic department as well. It's a great way to gain real world experience while making some extra money.
I’m not a camera op nor do I work in sports broadcasting but i’m in the industry as an audio technician for corporate events and conventions. Early on in my career I worked at an arena that houses a WNBA team. The amount of work and skill that goes into these broadcasts is something that not many people realize while watching at home. There is so much finesse and muscle memory that goes into operating broadcast cameras. Those things are huge and NOT light by any means, it takes so much more skill than a lot of people realize to make camera movements and zooms look as smooth as they do on TV and following a ball or even a player in a live setting is not easy ln the slightest. You may just be standing in one spot all night but you have to be on your toes at all times and prepare for anything that can possibly happen at any moment with precision. The best comparison I can think is being a professional video gamer for say Call of Duty or Overwatch as major examples, you have to be precise, aware, and ready for anything at any time
That’s pretty cool actually… I happen to run cameras myself actually. Our team is more of an Independent Baseball league that is actually a partner league with the MLB… I’ll mention how we run things, we’ve actually got 2 cameras in the press box, camera 1 is our game cam while camera 7 is our secondary camera that focuses on the pitcher or the runners, I’m on our wireless camera which I’ll hide in the dugout most of the game, and we’ve also got a phone camera (more for anything in the press box), and we’ve also got a GoPro. Everything else are PTZ cameras that run off of the network… we’ve got 3 on the concourse and one out where the batter’s eye is. And then we feed our stuff through our league’s television (which is the best league in Independent professional Baseball btw) and we actually hook up the radio audio for both teams into two separate streams. Now even though we only monitor our home broadcast (which allows us to mute the home audio between innings since we also feed ads to our video board through the same switcher). Which means there’s a reason why we tell the visiting broadcast to not hot mic themselves because we don’t monitor their audio
Great video. I personally want to see less reliance on camera 4 in CF. Like you said, it’s repetitive. I don’t mind missing that view of a pitch every now and then. I like a wider angle, almost from a fan’s perspective. So many times they’ll have a creative shot to transition from commercial showing a pitcher warm up, and I wish they kept it around even for just one pitch. A view from behind the catcher would be great. I also think the high third or high first camera would work well too. Just frame the pitcher and the hitter rather than the pitcher and the baserunner. Those cameras already do such a great job with pickoffs. The cat and mouse game between a pitcher and a speedy baserunner on first is just so great, and we would never see it without that camera. Shout out to all the camera operators and behind-the-scenes broadcast folks! You make the season memorable
Educational. Now i see why my favorite shot, once a regular view in TVBB, is never seen -- i.e. the shot from behind the screen looking over the plate umpires shoulder at the pitch arriving.. I long wondered why this, the most interesting shot in BB was abandoned. Also, it's frustrating how seldom we see a valuable view of the defensive placement prior to a pitch or at least when a new batter steps up. Directors must think we're more interested in counting pitchers' and batters' nosehairs. I'd love to have games covered with emphasis on the game rather than on the personalities.
Suggestion: Can you do a video about the superimposition process that's used in NHL telecasts? What I mean is where the boards from the high centre ice cameras are replaced by TV ads? It started a few years ago, and the way it changes and follows the play at the same time is impressive.
@@The_Red_Off_RoadNFL virtual first down is more complex. The NHL’s “DED”, “digitally enhanced dasherboards”, requires the truck engineer to feed program audio and video out to the NHL, and bring the enhanced program audio & video back into the truck. The TD usually has a transmission router that allows them to send out either the DED enhanced feed or regular program. We have to do a 5-10 minute check in with the DED folks in Toronto.
The Giants started the Splash Cam which is a high right field camera that frames the entire infield and follows the ball all the way to the end of the play or if a HR leaves the park. I've noticed other teams hand added this prospective. Also FOX and the Dodgers have had cameras in the bases and pitcher's mound.
Hi, I SOOOOOOO grateful for this video! I'm from Italy and it's a century I'm trying to explain to the Italian national broadcaster (RAI and RAI Sport) how to film the italian games, unfotunately it's since '90's they are killing our beloved sport framing (I'm not sure this is the correct technical word) the runners touching the homeplate instead the action on the field or the flight of the ball (against the dark of the night...) instead the outfielders running adn or diving for a catch..... I hope this video it could be helpful to explain them how and why they are making wrong their work. Speaking about low budget broadcasting I think the "order" of the most important cameras is: MUST have: 2 - high home (the most basic one!) 4 - Camera center 5 - low first (to get the most of the hitters from the front side) 1 - low first (less LH hitters) Nice to: 6 - tight center (it could be more important than "3" in order to have a sort of backup of "4" 3 - high first 8 - high third pretty eventual: 7, 9 and steady... do you agree? Thanks again for this video! I can't say how much I appreciate it!
So glad you found it helpful. You're spot on in terms of camera importance. cameras 1,2,4, and 5 are essential. Typically you will see a high first camera added before you get a tight center, solely for the purposes of replays, but you've definitely got the right idea. If there's any other way we can help you guys out with this, let us know!
I really like homeplate/looking in front of pitcher view. You get to “ump” the ball because theres no strikezone and when the ball is hit, there is no abrupt cut.
would love to see NFL and racing, oval or road, but id imagine its hard to break down how cameras are setup for road racing as all tracks are different. great video!
oh hell yeah! I've always wondered about this, and always kind of wanted to one day be one of the camera guys on a baseball field. This is a super informative and efficient video. Thanks!
Nice video that explains a lot. This could be very useful for my high school students who help broadcast our games. Could you do one for football 🏈 and volleyball 🏐 please?
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 Glad to hear football is on the list. We would also love volleyball. These will be great resources for our high school broadcast club we have just started!
This is really cool information thank you for sharing. I work for an MLB team and know all the cameramen but never asked myself how it works. Love the vid
Can you do this for Cricket next? Also, you might have to pick a track but can you explain a racing sport on a road track (so not a nascar oval) because I can imagine the camera work and director role for that sort of race is a really big challenge. Same goes for something like the on road cycling races.
I'll watch a breakdown of every sport. But also I want to know how they get those really tight shots of a ball going through the air? I want to know about the contraptions that make that possible.
Super neat! I've always been curious about why the San Jose Sharks' broadcasting angle is different than seemingly every other NHL team. Always bugs me whenever I watch their games lol
Great video. Can you do one on hockey broadcasts? I can vaguely recall watching baseball games on tv as a kid (60+ yrs ago) when the cameras were bigger and bulkier. They used to have a camera behind home plate protected by a screen/net, which in many parks was a passageway for ground crews. It would move side to side depending on if the batter was righty or lefty.
I would love to see how golf is covered. 18 fairways and 18 holes require a lot of coverage so it would be interesting to see how a network crew handles it.
In the future… lol. I can see there being a microchip in the balls and cameras with servo motors to track the ball. Imagine having a camera like what nasa uses to track aircraft through the atmosphere. That’s what baseball needs. The setup during the World Series is amazing and I always enjoy the WS just because of the slow mo and extra microphones. It’s a thing of beauty.
Who pays for all these chipped balls? What good is your idea of a camera when someone steals? What about a wild pitch? Your cameras all follow the ball but don’t show base runners moving. As for the World Series, the budgets are at a different scale. In 2017 Fox had 42 cameras for the Series. I haven’t talked to the current WS director since he got the job, not sure how many they are up to now, but most visiting RSN shows are only using three or four cameras of their own, taking feeds of everything else from the home show,
@@mikecumbo7531 wow thanks for telling us all about what you know but more importantly, who you know. You must be special. Can I have your autograph??? I don’t give a hoot who pays for it. It’s just an idea. Calm down. Not everybody is as cool as you and has the friends you have.
I’d like to see more camera action from behind the plate during pitches. It changes up the usual look of the broadcast and gives you a dynamic close up of the game. Almost like you’re standing right there with the ump, catcher and batter.
Nice explanations! A few other cameras: bullpen cameras, blimp/drone cameras, "splashdown" cameras at Pittsburgh and San Francisco (and maybe Tampa Bay's rays tank and Arizona's swimming pool?).
...and the base cams in the playoffs and the ALCS/NLCS and World Series. There's also typically a camera in the ground front of home plate facing the batter. Great video.
Great video and at the 2 ballparks I work they have different numbers! QUESTION: how does (on broadcast) camera 5 put the “ball” GFX onscreen less than a second after the pitch gets to the catcher? (Nobody I work with knows)
Something that needs to change NOW at all levels of baseball and softball.. if there is a runner on second and the batter hits one in the gap and attempts to stretch it into a double, we can all assume that runner will score. We don’t have to cut to them crossing the plate. Follow the throw. The ball is where the play is. If I miss another close play on a base because we cut to a runner jogging across the plate, I’m going to lose it.
My pet peeve about baseball broadcasts is that a runner is shown routinely crossing the plate while the play is going on elsewhere. We know the runner will score. The announcer can say that so-and-so scores while we are watching the play that is happening. I don't know why directors do not understand this.
Yeah this is the tough part about baseball. Unlike other sports, there's so much action going on at once in different locations, so it's hard to decide what takes priority at any given moment. That being said, I think many people casually watching the game would miss runs scored if this wasn't shown, especially in settings like restaurants where people may be watching without audio. It's also more sensible to show other parts of the play during replays than showing the runner score after the fact, so it's up to a director's discretion to decide what the audience needs to see in the moment.
They used to have split screens where it would show the runner trying to score and the play on the field in the 80s and early 90s. And that was back when it was low res 480i or lower. Maybe they can bring it back now that we have really large tvs with high def?
The camera shots in super close up of runners rounding the bases are awful... They never give perspective to where the runner is relative to the bases.
I've been looking for something like this forever.... gave up and then this video randomly popped on my home page!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a video on golf cameramen, specifically the shot that keeps a golf ball zoomed in center frame from the moment the golfer hits it until it reaches its target... Is there some sort of ball recognition technology behind it or is it just skill? I've always wondered how someone can zoom in perfectly on such a small, extremely fast moving object and keep it in frame. Thanks
Thank you! To answer your question: no, it's all manually done by the operator. They will typically use points of reference on the field to get their framing to be as consistent as possible, and when you have to reposition to that same framing that often, most skilled operators tend to be pretty spot on.
I wonder if baseball broadcasts will ever experiment with drones. Seems like there would be cool opportunities there as long as they don't get intrusive and interfere with the game.
I've always argued with my friends that baseball is the best sport to watch on TV because of camera 4. It's a perfect camera angle to watch the battle between pitcher and batter, I think it's the best angle of any sport competition. Also, part of the allure of having tickets behind home plate is knowing you will be in the shot of camera 4.
This is the kind of obscure analysis content that you can only find on RUclips and I love it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Agreed. I pay for RUclips premium so that I can watch interesting esoteric videos like this without some stupid kars4kids commercial surprise jingle. If any other platform offered me the kind of variety that gives me nerdy videos on baseball broadcasting as well as videos on how to fix my car I would gladly give them my money lol.
I retired from broadcast sports after 50 years, and televised over 1000 games. When i first started, we only had 3 cameras. Lo3rd, hi home, hi 1st. Cable length made cf unworkable. When triax came about in the mid 70s, we added cf then lo1st.
Later in my carreer, other cameras were added. When i retired, we were up to 16 for a regular broadcast for FSSW. TC, 2 robos, h3rd, rf, beauty, booth, etc.
Camera ops for basebaĺl are really talented. The sport is so different from football, basketball, hockey, and soccer because those sports go back and forth over a designated area. The best baseball ops learn very quickly that their eyes need to be out of the viewfinder to capture all the action.
BTW...I retired as an EIC.
Thanks for reminding me of everything I miss.
It truly is crazy seeing how the technology involved in broadcasts has developed over the years, and makes me wonder what else is coming in the future. Thanks so much for sharing! You chose a great career ;)
do camera ops follow the team or only work at their home stadium?
would you think the directors job is frantic and requires and incredibly deep understanding of the game, pacing and prediction of where to go next?
Who does the team use for "on the field" stuff, like crowd events or entertainment in-between innings for the local crowd or interviews for broadcast?
Great Question. Camera operators typically stay in their home markets, though some travel on specific "packages" and when necessary in smaller markets. The director definitely needs to have a high level of understanding of the game, and it can certainly be frantic at points, but having a good crew around you makes it much easier. For "on the field" marketing and "big screen" shows in the venue, this crew is typically hired out by the team or stadium itself.
I’ve watched baseball games for decades and never had this detailed insights. Thanks man
You're very welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!
This needs to become a series. Ive never put any thought into how sports broadcasts are made, now ill never watch sports the same way. Great stuff!
Thank you so much! We are loving the positive feedback on this video and will definitely continue this series with other sports. There's already a basketball video on our channel as well, so feel free to check that one out if you haven't already!
I agree!
I shoot for the Reds home broadcast and this video is spot on with assignments. Our high third camera is labeled Camera 9 and our backstop robo is labeled Camera 8. We also have a left field foul pole camera (camera 7) as well as an RF camera (camera 10). Baseball is one of the most complex sports to cover and I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to show everything that’s happening once the ball is in play. Great job! You should do a follow up video talking about the nuances between the home and visit broadcasts and how they all connect together.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it.
@adamschrand1186. Does each network have their own camera operators? For example, you shoot for the Reds. But if the Reds are playing the Mets, will the Mets have their own camera crew?
@@DBR00 most if not all camera operators are crewed locally in each market. With a lot of these games being televised on the RSNs, usually each team hires locals in the city and travels in a few people. Mainly it's the directors, producers, and talent that travel with each team.
@@adamschrand1186 Thanks for the reply. I think you misunderstood my question. I understand that the crews are local for each market. I wanted to know if there are basically 2 crews. One for the “home team” feed and one for the “away team” feed. So in theory, you’ll have 2 cameras in center field, 2 cameras at first base, 2 at second base, etc. I always wanted to know the answer to that question. Thanks!!
@@DBR00 Yes there are two separate crews, and they both shoot for their respective broadcast. The home show gets the majority of the broadcast camera positions (cam 4, low 1st, high home) and the visit show usually only has three, maybe four manned cameras; all are favored towards the visiting team and their dugout. So the visit show usually provides a low 3rd cam, a tight follow cam, and a high 1st or high 3rd cam. The home show covers all the other positions with just one camera that is shared between both trucks. All cameras are working for both the home and visit shows, but their primary responsibility is towards the show they were crewed for. The home show cameras will hear their respective director in their headset, but they may get a "secondary" yellow tally when the visit show takes their camera on air. Hope that helps
I didn't even finish the video before I recognized the tight center shot you used from the Tigers vs Rays this year that I shot on that camera. Wow haha. Great breakdown of everything.
That's awesome! Thanks so much!
Dude this is an awesome video. It’s rare I see something totally unique and still interesting on RUclips and this qualifies. Any baseball fan will be fascinated by this. Thanks for doing it.
Thanks so much! That means a lot. Really glad you enjoyed it.
Ive watched baseball for years and never thought about how the cameras and directors do their work. Great job!
Thank you very much!
Ive been working as a Grip for live sports for a few years and Baseball is certainly my favorite!
Thanks for discussing this topic. In my six decades (!) of watching baseball on TV, there has been a gradual increase in the use of close-up shots. TV directors like the grimaces on the faces of pitchers and batters. We almost never see whole field shots, or even whole infield shots. When they occur, it's almost always on a return from an inning break. This is very different from the experience of watching a game in person, when a spectator can, and does, notice that the outfield is shaded to leftfield, while the infielders are straightaway. The obsession with close-ups deprives the television audience of seeing and appreciating defensive tactical adjustments.
It also makes it difficult to use TV broadcast for learning the game. Especially fielder placement as you mentioned.
This is a great explanation. I do a little camera work for a minor league baseball team and we don't have quite as many camera positions to work with so it's cool to see how it scales up. Cameras 1-4 are the same and then 5 is the roving 'fan cam'.
Love this video. Can't wait to see more!
Thank you so much!
Would love for you to comment on how some of this has changed in the last 25 years, as there are some evolutions I’ve noticed just since I’ve been watching baseball.
For example, it used to be common that on an infield grounder, high home cam would be used to show the fielder glove the ball (as it is now), but then the director would switch to the high first cam for the actual throw. This provided a “finish line” view of the race to the bag.
Another one is that on balls hit up the middle, instead of switching to the high home cam, directors would stick with the batters eye cam all the way through the play.
Both of these practices seem to have faded away by the early 2000s.
Fantastic! Just more on baseball production. The whole production team, duties, equipment. The pre-game prep and planning. What goes on in the truck. The planning and execution of live shot selection (that guy must be very busy for the 3-½ hours!) The replay function. So much to appreciate!
This was reallly well done and informative
Thank you so much!
I’d REALLY like to see INSIDE the REPLAY/REVIEW camera in NEW YORK used to evaluate manager appeals during a MLB game. ⚾️
I just wish when an outfielder throws the ball that the camera would track the whole arc of the ball and not immediately cut away from the throw to go check in on the base and watch the ball come in the rest of the way. It really dampens a cool moment and takes the excitement away. Also no one seems to ever remember that picture in picture exists and they could be following the ball on the main screen while showing the baserunner running in the inset frame. That could be really cool
Yes, different directors definitely have different philosophies on this, and some make cutaways more than others. Some broadcasts make use of PiP, but most often for replays. In a slower sport like baseball, it's often seen as unnecessary because there's more time to show additional replay angles than most other sports.
What a great primer in to the production side of baseball
I’d love to see soccer/football next!
Glad you enjoyed it. That video will definitely be coming down the road!
this is 10 of 10...thank...love...
You should do a video on how the augmented strike zone overlay is automatically put on feed from center field camera. Also, the integration of statcast data with the scorebug would be cool
Excellent presentation skills. Thank you.
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it.
This was great. I have a new appreciation for everything that’s happening during the games I love to watch. I can tell you I won’t be watching the same way again!
Welcome to my world! I can't help but pay more attention to the broadcast itself than the actual game when I watch most sports.
Its been quite some time ago (20 years?), but back when Fox did Saturday afternoon baseball, they did a game where they recreated the history of televised baseball going back to the very first televised game. They used actual cameras and lenses from the periods and used the same camera positions. One fixed camera about halfway between 3rd base & home.for the first inning. Two early 1950s cameras in the second. Then a double exposure with a chalkboard for graphics. Then better lenses. Then the overexposed overcontrasted color of the 60s. And so on through the innings showing the progress of the technology through the decades. I came of age watching Dizzy Dean & Pee Wee Reese on CBS back in the 50s & 60s in black and white. Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Al Kaline in black & white. Seeing today's players that afternoon in black & white with the same lenses and camera positions gave a timeless feel to the game of baseball and made me realize that the players then and the players now are not really all that different. The game has changed in some ways, but a double play is still turned the same. A diving stop at third is the same. And a homerun is a homerun even without Statcast.
ruclips.net/video/nG86LmagDmQ/видео.htmlsi=fcm6RiObNUZ4GSwU
YT algorithm accurately suggested the video I didn't know I wanted. Very nice! My friend just got a job as an operator for our local AA baseball team.
So glad you enjoyed it! And congrats to your friend! It's a great job and I'm sure they'll love it.
Shouldn’t ask you this but what is the salary for AA cameras Operrateer
I don't really follow MLB too closely (hockey guy - Canada) but I thought this was really interesting, awesome content man. Keep it up.
This is actually very interesting video thank you for making this
Thanks so much. Glad you enjoyed it!
Now this is cool, I work as a playback op for pre and post game shows, so I never get to see how the truck does their stuff.
This is awesome. I run camera and broadcast direct for my church and it's a handful switching and working with even just 4-5 cameras. I'm sure people would be fascinated to see what the live director sees and what it sounds like on comms!
Absolutely. We hope to bring some content like this to our channel soon! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you so much for this overview. My major problem with watching baseball on TV is the canned shots. Camera 2 is always my favorite.
YES!! I LOVE behind the scenes stuff like this!! I am a photographer/videographer so I'm always looking at cameras, lenses, gimbals, etc...big gear nerd and I just GOTTA knowing how things work. Would love to see the "Control room" and how all that works with picking which camera is live!!
Glad you enjoyed it! We will definitely be looking to do some BTS of control room positions in the future.
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 Well, I'm looking forward to it. Subbed!
Excellent explanation. I would LOVE a breakdown of poor directing or producing in a baseball game
Astros loved that camera 4 in 2017.
this is neat. my grandpa worked for the Cleveland indians in the video department!
Thank you for making this video. I’ve been watching baseball for years and I found this very interesting. I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I really don’t like when a cameraman runs onto the field after a player hits a home run. It looks silly and it’s distracting. And I’m aware that the player has to pretend the cameraman isn’ there even though he’s well aware that there is someone running next to him pointing a camera at his face. I like the broadcasters to show the game, not participate in it.
So glad you enjoyed it! I totally get that a lot of people don't like that up close and personal look, but it's one of many things that networks are trying out to bring a new, modern look to sports broadcasts. Like anything else, they're always looking for ways to evolve and bring a fresh look to an old game.
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 to be clear, it’s not “up close and personal” look that I don’t like. It’s seeing a cameraman run onto the field that bothers me- especially when I’m at the ballpark. It’s distracting and the guy running with the camera onto the field looks idiotic. When I’m watching a game, my attention should not be drawn to the camera crew. The focus should be the game itself and the athletes on the field. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be overly harsh. I appreciate the work that everyone does. I just think in this case the cons are far outweigh the pros. You can get a close-up shot of the athletes using telephoto lenses. Having a man run onto the field to get close-up shots is not adding anything of value in my opinion. Again, I appreciate you taking this time to make this video and I’m not bothered by anything in the broadcast of baseball games these days except for this one issue.
That's completely fair! And no need to apologize, that's a super valid opinion that I think a lot of people share.
College student here at Georgia Southern. I help produce our athletics broadcasts to ESPN+. I've only been on the team since February, but I've worked a handful of baseball games already.
Based upon this video (it was mentioned at the beginning) and reading some other comments, the camera numbering can vary, but the responsibilities are bang on.
At Georgia Southern, we have 8 cameras in baseball:
1. 3rd base
2. High home
3. 1st base
4. Outfield (referred here as Center Field)
5. High 1st
6. Roaming wireless (usually used on the field for pitcher shots/following home runs home)
7. I don't actually know. I think it's most often used for our drone.
8. Announcer's booth
I've run every camera except for 6 (and 8 is static). My favorite is definitely high 1st. The last game I worked, I had to do cam 5 AND cam 3's job, as we were short-staffed that day.
That's awesome to hear! I began my career working for my college's athletic department as well. It's a great way to gain real world experience while making some extra money.
I’m not a camera op nor do I work in sports broadcasting but i’m in the industry as an audio technician for corporate events and conventions. Early on in my career I worked at an arena that houses a WNBA team. The amount of work and skill that goes into these broadcasts is something that not many people realize while watching at home.
There is so much finesse and muscle memory that goes into operating broadcast cameras. Those things are huge and NOT light by any means, it takes so much more skill than a lot of people realize to make camera movements and zooms look as smooth as they do on TV and following a ball or even a player in a live setting is not easy ln the slightest. You may just be standing in one spot all night but you have to be on your toes at all times and prepare for anything that can possibly happen at any moment with precision.
The best comparison I can think is being a professional video gamer for say Call of Duty or Overwatch as major examples, you have to be precise, aware, and ready for anything at any time
This and your Basketball video are amazing pieces of content. Please make one for Football!
Fascinating! I found this insightful.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great content. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for sharing !!
Love this! We need an ice hockey video and also why camera 1 is always delayed.
That’s pretty cool actually… I happen to run cameras myself actually. Our team is more of an Independent Baseball league that is actually a partner league with the MLB… I’ll mention how we run things, we’ve actually got 2 cameras in the press box, camera 1 is our game cam while camera 7 is our secondary camera that focuses on the pitcher or the runners, I’m on our wireless camera which I’ll hide in the dugout most of the game, and we’ve also got a phone camera (more for anything in the press box), and we’ve also got a GoPro. Everything else are PTZ cameras that run off of the network… we’ve got 3 on the concourse and one out where the batter’s eye is. And then we feed our stuff through our league’s television (which is the best league in Independent professional Baseball btw) and we actually hook up the radio audio for both teams into two separate streams. Now even though we only monitor our home broadcast (which allows us to mute the home audio between innings since we also feed ads to our video board through the same switcher). Which means there’s a reason why we tell the visiting broadcast to not hot mic themselves because we don’t monitor their audio
Great video. I personally want to see less reliance on camera 4 in CF. Like you said, it’s repetitive. I don’t mind missing that view of a pitch every now and then. I like a wider angle, almost from a fan’s perspective. So many times they’ll have a creative shot to transition from commercial showing a pitcher warm up, and I wish they kept it around even for just one pitch. A view from behind the catcher would be great. I also think the high third or high first camera would work well too. Just frame the pitcher and the hitter rather than the pitcher and the baserunner. Those cameras already do such a great job with pickoffs. The cat and mouse game between a pitcher and a speedy baserunner on first is just so great, and we would never see it without that camera. Shout out to all the camera operators and behind-the-scenes broadcast folks! You make the season memorable
Educational. Now i see why my favorite shot, once a regular view in TVBB, is never seen -- i.e. the shot from behind the screen looking over the plate umpires shoulder at the pitch arriving.. I long wondered why this, the most interesting shot in BB was abandoned. Also, it's frustrating how seldom we see a valuable view of the defensive placement prior to a pitch or at least when a new batter steps up. Directors must think we're more interested in counting pitchers' and batters' nosehairs. I'd love to have games covered with emphasis on the game rather than on the personalities.
Suggestion: Can you do a video about the superimposition process that's used in NHL telecasts? What I mean is where the boards from the high centre ice cameras are replaced by TV ads? It started a few years ago, and the way it changes and follows the play at the same time is impressive.
Absolutely! Great suggestion!
There are a few vids out there. It’s the same tech that the NFL uses, and they have a crazy huge setup.
@@The_Red_Off_RoadNFL virtual first down is more complex. The NHL’s “DED”, “digitally enhanced dasherboards”, requires the truck engineer to feed program audio and video out to the NHL, and bring the enhanced program audio & video back into the truck. The TD usually has a transmission router that allows them to send out either the DED enhanced feed or regular program. We have to do a 5-10 minute check in with the DED folks in Toronto.
@@mikecumbo7531 ah you’re a Canadian, eh? Makes sense…
@@The_Red_Off_Road not Canadian, just worked in a border market where we worked with a lot of good folks from up North.
Awesome breakdown. I loved watching this.
I'd love to see this sort of analysis done for hockey games.
Damn this dude deserves 15x the subscribtions at least ... 😮 great work here 👏
Thanks so much. Hopefully we'll get there soon!
The Giants started the Splash Cam which is a high right field camera that frames the entire infield and follows the ball all the way to the end of the play or if a HR leaves the park. I've noticed other teams hand added this prospective. Also FOX and the Dodgers have had cameras in the bases and pitcher's mound.
Yes! Bigger budget broadcasts practically put cameras everywhere, which is super cool to see.
Hi, I SOOOOOOO grateful for this video! I'm from Italy and it's a century I'm trying to explain to the Italian national broadcaster (RAI and RAI Sport) how to film the italian games, unfotunately it's since '90's they are killing our beloved sport framing (I'm not sure this is the correct technical word) the runners touching the homeplate instead the action on the field or the flight of the ball (against the dark of the night...) instead the outfielders running adn or diving for a catch.....
I hope this video it could be helpful to explain them how and why they are making wrong their work.
Speaking about low budget broadcasting I think the "order" of the most important cameras is:
MUST have:
2 - high home (the most basic one!)
4 - Camera center
5 - low first (to get the most of the hitters from the front side)
1 - low first (less LH hitters)
Nice to:
6 - tight center (it could be more important than "3" in order to have a sort of backup of "4"
3 - high first
8 - high third
pretty eventual:
7, 9 and steady...
do you agree?
Thanks again for this video! I can't say how much I appreciate it!
So glad you found it helpful. You're spot on in terms of camera importance. cameras 1,2,4, and 5 are essential. Typically you will see a high first camera added before you get a tight center, solely for the purposes of replays, but you've definitely got the right idea. If there's any other way we can help you guys out with this, let us know!
I really like homeplate/looking in front of pitcher view. You get to “ump” the ball because theres no strikezone and when the ball is hit, there is no abrupt cut.
Thanks for sharing
would love to see NFL and racing, oval or road, but id imagine its hard to break down how cameras are setup for road racing as all tracks are different. great video!
Would love to see the production crew in the truck, with the director actually calling up the cameras, seeing the monitors, etc.
We are definitely looking to do some content like this in the near future!
Great video, dude! The algorithm finally recommended something I'm interested in.
Thank you so much!
oh hell yeah! I've always wondered about this, and always kind of wanted to one day be one of the camera guys on a baseball field. This is a super informative and efficient video. Thanks!
Thanks so much!
Loved this video
Glad you enjoyed!
I watched this video and was shocked when I saw how many subscribers you had. Your content is amazing, keep you the good work! You'll definitely grow!
Thank you so much! We really appreciate the positive feedback.
Nice work!
This is super interesting!
And this is truly ‘inside baseball’ 😉
Nice video that explains a lot. This could be very useful for my high school students who help broadcast our games. Could you do one for football 🏈 and volleyball 🏐 please?
So glad you found it helpful! Football is definitely on our list, and volleyball is a great suggestion as well.
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 Glad to hear football is on the list. We would also love volleyball. These will be great resources for our high school broadcast club we have just started!
Someone could start a business with this video, some phones, and some drones
This is really cool information thank you for sharing. I work for an MLB team and know all the cameramen but never asked myself how it works. Love the vid
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was really epic! Thank you so much.
You're very welcome!
Can you do this for Cricket next?
Also, you might have to pick a track but can you explain a racing sport on a road track (so not a nascar oval) because I can imagine the camera work and director role for that sort of race is a really big challenge. Same goes for something like the on road cycling races.
Cool, interesting video!
I'll watch a breakdown of every sport. But also I want to know how they get those really tight shots of a ball going through the air? I want to know about the contraptions that make that possible.
v cool vid, would love to see for one for soccer
Super neat! I've always been curious about why the San Jose Sharks' broadcasting angle is different than seemingly every other NHL team. Always bugs me whenever I watch their games lol
Great stuff. Would you be able to do a WWE camera positions and assignments video? It would be very interesting.
This was super interesting. Thank you for putting this together! And... go Brewers!
Would love to see a video about Football cameras (I work for NFL films as a media manager - not broadcast)
Absolutely! That one will definitely be coming soon.
@@keystoneproductionnetwork8729 sweet!
Great video. Can you do one on hockey broadcasts?
I can vaguely recall watching baseball games on tv as a kid (60+ yrs ago) when the cameras were bigger and bulkier. They used to have a camera behind home plate protected by a screen/net, which in many parks was a passageway for ground crews. It would move side to side depending on if the batter was righty or lefty.
This was fascinating! Can you next explain how the home and away broadcast work? Do they “share” camera operators???
Awesome video! Great clear explanations thank you!
You're very welcome! Thank you!
No one is better than the NY Mets SNY crew.
At the Trip they have a camera in the upper deck on both sides.
Dude, this is a GREAT effin VIDEO!! Outstanding work!! 🤘👍👍
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed!
I would love to see how golf is covered. 18 fairways and 18 holes require a lot of coverage so it would be interesting to see how a network crew handles it.
great video, thank you!
Glad you liked it!
In the future… lol. I can see there being a microchip in the balls and cameras with servo motors to track the ball. Imagine having a camera like what nasa uses to track aircraft through the atmosphere. That’s what baseball needs.
The setup during the World Series is amazing and I always enjoy the WS just because of the slow mo and extra microphones. It’s a thing of beauty.
Who pays for all these chipped balls? What good is your idea of a camera when someone steals? What about a wild pitch? Your cameras all follow the ball but don’t show base runners moving.
As for the World Series, the budgets are at a different scale. In 2017 Fox had 42 cameras for the Series. I haven’t talked to the current WS director since he got the job, not sure how many they are up to now, but most visiting RSN shows are only using three or four cameras of their own, taking feeds of everything else from the home show,
@@mikecumbo7531 wow thanks for telling us all about what you know but more importantly, who you know. You must be special.
Can I have your autograph???
I don’t give a hoot who pays for it. It’s just an idea. Calm down. Not everybody is as cool as you and has the friends you have.
@@The_Red_Off_Road fr his comment made an assumption that all the other cameras would be removed. Let him flex his muscles tho I guess lol
Can you talk about professional wrestling or mma camera set ups? I’m about to watch the basketball one next!
So well done & informational!!👏
Thanks so much!
I’d like to see more camera action from behind the plate during pitches. It changes up the usual look of the broadcast and gives you a dynamic close up of the game. Almost like you’re standing right there with the ump, catcher and batter.
Ump cam is a thing for replays sometimes
That would be great, whenever I see that shot it provides such a great view of curveballs and makes it feel more lifelike
Would love to see American football next!
Absolutely! That video is definitely coming soon.
This is very helpful! Thank you so much! I as well will be using this with my high school student production?
Thank you! Happy to hear you found it helpful!
Great information. Thank you so much!
You are very welcome!
Nice explanations! A few other cameras: bullpen cameras, blimp/drone cameras, "splashdown" cameras at Pittsburgh and San Francisco (and maybe Tampa Bay's rays tank and Arizona's swimming pool?).
Yes! Different venues will often have additional specialty cameras, and robo or Marshall cameras are often used in the bullpens.
...and the base cams in the playoffs and the ALCS/NLCS and World Series. There's also typically a camera in the ground front of home plate facing the batter. Great video.
Great teaching!
Thank you!
In 2024, the Rockies are using a new wire camera that moves along the Third Base/Left Field side.
I would appreciate if next time you would cover on hockey
Great video and at the 2 ballparks I work they have different numbers! QUESTION: how does (on broadcast) camera 5 put the “ball” GFX onscreen less than a second after the pitch gets to the catcher? (Nobody I work with knows)
NFL and College Football next!
Definitely on the way! Look for this one as we get into football season.
Something that needs to change NOW at all levels of baseball and softball.. if there is a runner on second and the batter hits one in the gap and attempts to stretch it into a double, we can all assume that runner will score. We don’t have to cut to them crossing the plate. Follow the throw. The ball is where the play is. If I miss another close play on a base because we cut to a runner jogging across the plate, I’m going to lose it.
Very nice video...I hope you do more videos like this,
Thank you! We certainly will.
Why am i seeing Eli Manning and Jon B when I'm looking at this dude?
My pet peeve about baseball broadcasts is that a runner is shown routinely crossing the plate while the play is going on elsewhere. We know the runner will score. The announcer can say that so-and-so scores while we are watching the play that is happening. I don't know why directors do not understand this.
Yeah this is the tough part about baseball. Unlike other sports, there's so much action going on at once in different locations, so it's hard to decide what takes priority at any given moment. That being said, I think many people casually watching the game would miss runs scored if this wasn't shown, especially in settings like restaurants where people may be watching without audio. It's also more sensible to show other parts of the play during replays than showing the runner score after the fact, so it's up to a director's discretion to decide what the audience needs to see in the moment.
They used to have split screens where it would show the runner trying to score and the play on the field in the 80s and early 90s. And that was back when it was low res 480i or lower. Maybe they can bring it back now that we have really large tvs with high def?
The camera shots in super close up of runners rounding the bases are awful... They never give perspective to where the runner is relative to the bases.
I've been looking for something like this forever.... gave up and then this video randomly popped on my home page!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do a video on golf cameramen, specifically the shot that keeps a golf ball zoomed in center frame from the moment the golfer hits it until it reaches its target... Is there some sort of ball recognition technology behind it or is it just skill? I've always wondered how someone can zoom in perfectly on such a small, extremely fast moving object and keep it in frame. Thanks
Great video. Does camera 4 have a way to reset to the standard framing precisely so it’s identical for each pitch?
Thank you! To answer your question: no, it's all manually done by the operator. They will typically use points of reference on the field to get their framing to be as consistent as possible, and when you have to reposition to that same framing that often, most skilled operators tend to be pretty spot on.
I wonder if baseball broadcasts will ever experiment with drones. Seems like there would be cool opportunities there as long as they don't get intrusive and interfere with the game.
Interesting video. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've always argued with my friends that baseball is the best sport to watch on TV because of camera 4. It's a perfect camera angle to watch the battle between pitcher and batter, I think it's the best angle of any sport competition. Also, part of the allure of having tickets behind home plate is knowing you will be in the shot of camera 4.