Super Bowl LV, Brought to You By Over 120 Cameras, Sony VENICE, and Unreal Engine

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest sporting events on television, and CBS has pulled out all the stops to broadcast the game and include over 120 different cameras, plus a few new tricks up their sleeves.

This year's big game is between the Kansas City Chiefs, who look to repeat against Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. Since the coronavirus is an absolutely real thing, attendance has been capped at 22,000. That includes 7,500 vaccinated health-care workers, making it one of the lowest attended games in history.

CBS Sports isn't slowing down when it comes to the at-home experience for the game that's become known for implementing the latest broadcast technology. Last year, Fox infused several Sony 8K HDC-8300 cameras and 24 super motion cameras to capture images from 180 to 1,800fps. In 2019, CBS added augmented reality to the broadcast, and the year before, NBC created complete body scans of six different players for Super Bowl LII.

For Super Bowl LV, viewers at home will experience the action from multiple sky cameras, 31 super slo-mo cameras, 18 robotic cameras, 32 pylon cameras, two scrimmage line cameras, and 12 cameras with 4K and 8K capabilities. The 4K cameras will be controlled robotically from high above the stadium concourse level, and two 8K cameras will be fixed on robotic gimbals lower on the field.

Trolley CamCredit: CBS

CBS Sports is also adding new angles through its new Trolley Cam, which will speed to each end of the stadium over a wire from the point of view of the fans in the stands. The rig is similar to a Skycam and will be positioned in the eighth row of the stadium, where it can zip along up to 65 mph showing players from unique angles.

Two Sony VENICE cameras will be rigged to a Steadicam or MOVI to capture up-close player interactions with a shallow depth of field similar to how Fox deploys Sony Alpha cameras to capture its endzone celebrations.

Speaking of celebrations, Unreal Engine will power the fireworks that light up the Tampa sky, and CBS plans to continue its tradition of in-game graphics, animations, and augmented reality packages.

CBS Sports is also adding visual aesthetics to the pregame set with a 53-foot Movie Bird crane located in the upper concourse, which will also serve as one of the augmented reality encoded cameras that will be placed in the stadium.

The game is going to be different this year because of all the precautions, which include remote replay operators working from home and dozens of editors, graphic operators, and production crew working remotely from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. That said, with play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and color commentator Tony Romo calling the game, it should be entertaining, to say the least.

You watch all the action starting Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021.