Teledyne Dalsa-powered "freeD" replay makes NFL premiere
26.09.2013 -
Replay Technologies' "freeD" sport replay system was introduced during NBC Sunday Night Football's broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys/New York Giants season opener. The freeD replays, which are known on NBC Sports as "NBCee it 360", are powered by cameras and frame grabbers from Teledyne Dalsa. The 85,000 fans watching the game live at AT&T Stadium were entertained by the freeD replays shown on the stadium's massive 159' x 71' screen. Throughout the game, in which the Cowboys beat the Giants 36-31, the freeD system captured several of the most exciting plays. NBC featured both of Jason Witten's two touchdowns for the Cowboys using freeD as well as Victor Cruz's second of three touchdowns for the Giants.
The freeD system incorporates 24 Teledyne Dalsa Falcon2 CMOS cameras. Twelve cameras are positioned around each end's red zone at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Falcon2 camera's 12 megapixel resolution increases the image quality of the freeD system, allowing it to capture more of the action with the ability to ‘go in closer' while retaining HD quality. In addition, Teledyne DALSA Xcelera frame grabbers, which are optimized for the Falcon2 cameras, are installed in the control room at AT&T Stadium to capture the camera data and to interface with the freeD system.
The freeD system made its premiere in major league sports this April on YES Network's Yankees home games - under the name YESVIEW. freeD records reality not as regular two dimensional video, but as a true three dimensional scene. This enables the production team, and in the near future the actual viewers, to freely roam around a captured scene where no physical camera exists.