This Saturday, Aug. 2, the Braves and Reds will face off in a special MLB regular season game at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Speedway Classic is already set to break the regular-season MLB attendance record, based on tickets sales to this point. SBJ Tech has more on Fox Sports’ extensive camera coverage for the broadcast.
In today’s edition of Power Up:
- Fox Sports featuring bullpen car cams at MLB Speedway Classic
- Rezzil offering free VR broadcast of Burnley vs Lazio on Meta Quest
- Shriners Children’s joins TGL as the league’s fourth founding partner
Fox Sports to use car cams at MLB Speedway Classic
Fox Sports is leaning into the auto racing setting for the MLB Speedway Classic and will have cameras mounted on several motorized four-wheelers. Among the 40 cameras in use for the broadcast will be a pair affixed to the bullpen cars driving in relief pitchers to the mound, and the same rover that featured at the Indy 500 will speed around the track.
Director Matt Gangl indicated that the rover -- officially known as the RC Car Camera -- will be used to capture footage of a pregame players parade around the track, for pregame introductions and possibly for in-game reporter hits and fan shots during the pregame concert.
“Rover Cam offers perspective of what it’s like to be on the track at Bristol Motor Speedway, coming into the ends and experiencing the visual of the third-steepest banked NASCAR track at 30 degrees,” Gangl told SBJ, noting that it’ll provide “unique angles and perspectives of an MLB game set in the infield of a racetrack with 85,000-plus fans.”
“We hope to capture fun interactions with players on the field before the game: Walking to the field for the first time, hanging out along the baseline during batting practice,” he added. “Players are like big ‘kids’ and like to have fun with what looks like an oversized ‘toy.’”
Bullpen cars, meanwhile, are a relic of baseball’s past that briefly resurfaced a half-dozen years ago. HOFers from each club -- Johnny Bench from the Reds, Chipper Jones from the Braves -- will ride them before the game, and pitchers have the option to do so later.
“This is a nostalgia item,” Gangl said. “Harkens back to an era where the bullpen car was how a reliever made his way into the game. Having a camera inside the car, bringing viewers along for the ride is a shot you don’t get during an average MLB game. This would be Johnny Bench and Chipper Jones coming out for the ceremonial first pitch and then possibly relievers during the game. It also ties in to in-car cameras at a NASCAR event.”
Fox also will utilize the home plate Ump Cam as well as cameras on a drone and a helicopter, not to mention 20 field effects mics and 14 to be placed on players and coaches.
Rezzil to offer free VR broadcast of Burnley friendly
Rezzil, an official VR partner of the Premier League, will offer global fans a free virtual reality broadcast of Burnley’s friendly against Serie A club Lazio on Aug. 9.
Anyone with a compatible Meta Quest headset can download the free Rezzil-created Premier League Player app and watch the match in an immersive environment. The traditional linear broadcast will be available on a videoboard in VR as well as the full match recreation in a 3D stadium based on Genius Sports tracking data.
Rezzil co-founder and Director Andy Etches described it as a “first of its kind” production for the way the video and rendering will be blended together. Friends can virtually sit with each other to make it more social, too.
“It will actually feel like you’re there, sat in the stands, crowd around you, able to look in any direction,” Etches told SBJ, likening the concept to animated alt-casts, only with the realistic player likenesses rather than cartoon proxies.
Burnley Chairman Alan Pace described the VR production as a reflection of “our forward-thinking approach to fan engagement and our commitment to global supporters.” The club’s home stadium, Turf Moor, will appear in the broadcast as it does in the Rezzil game environment.
This first experience will be entirely free, but there are monetization opportunities in the future through admission or subscription prices, virtual sponsorships and more. Etches is hopeful a few regular season Premier League matches could be shown in the coming months.
“It’s obviously an infinite stadium. Effectively, we can put as many people in as we want, sell as many tickets as we want, albeit this event will be free,” he said. “We’re going to hopefully replicate it a few times over the course of the season, wherever we can get hold of rights to do so.”
Playable highlights
The Premier League Player will also soon offer what Rezzil is calling “playable highlights” in which big moments from the matchday will be presented in the app for fans to try their luck in scoring the goal or making the save. Etches said the technology is capable of near real-time offerings, but rights restrictions require a 48-hour delay before those will be available.
“It’s a unique take on video games, a unique take on sports consumption for younger people,” Etches said. “We’re already seeing some pretty cool videos in the community coming out from our test and beta phase.”
It is helping creators on social media to produce new content based on the action, while empowering fans to play out what-if scenarios when they see stars succeed in a challenging spot or narrowly miss. Etches pointed to a Heung-Min Son goal for Tottenham against Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez from March 2024 as a good example.
“From every video angle, it looks like a great goal, but it doesn’t look like it was impossible to save,” he said, “and then you stand on the field in Emi Martinez’s position, and it is impossible to save.
“All of a sudden, you have a newfound appreciation for what they’re doing on the field, and it’s a really nice way for us to educate fans and get them immersed in it and also appreciate the athleticism and majesty of what they actually do and how difficult is.”
TGL adds Shriners Children’s as founding partner
TGL has added a fourth founding partner ahead of its second season, with Shriners Children’s coming aboard as part of a multiyear deal. Shriners, which dropped its long-running title sponsorship of the annual PGA Tour event in Las Vegas last year, joins Best Buy, Genesis and Businessolver as TGL’s other founding partners.
Financials weren’t disclosed, though prior estimates pegged TGL founding partner deals in the $5M-8M range annually. Crown Properties Collection, the partnerships division of Oak View Group, helped negotiate the deal. OVG also oversees food and beverage at TGL’s venue, the SoFi Center. The deal with Shriners marks TGL’s first new partnership of the offseason.
RELATED: TMRW Sports utilizing SoFi Center during TGL offseason
Shriners will be a presenting sponsor of a Children’s Day and will have national ad spots, along with other integrations. Patients from the hospital will be able to interact with TGL players during matches, the company said.
The league’s second season is slated to commence in the winter, though a schedule has not yet been released. TGL recently confirmed a Detroit team for the 2027 season, while also filing trademarks for potential teams in Dallas and Chicago. The league is said to be working on a collaboration with the LPGA, though details of that partnership have yet to surface.
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