By Phil Kurz

Technology and sports have gone hand-in-hand at least since KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the first live sporting event—a boxing match—more than 100 years ago.

Since then, the two have become so enmeshed that it’s hard to think about one without the other. But the new United Football League (UFL) plans to take things to a whole new level, building its foundation with technology as the cornerstone.

“The UFL is a league defined by technology,” says vice president for field operations and engineering at Fox Sports Brad Cheney. “That’s what the board wants. That’s what the league wants, and that’s what the broadcasters want.”

While Fox Sports plans to use some new production technology and apply a bit of “one-upmanship” on technology used for the past few years, he says, much of the tech will be what the broadcaster has developed over the past 30 years covering the NFL and nearly 20 years of college football.

 “The real benefit is we are going to give the viewer the access they desire. Quite honestly, we know what that is now,” says Cheney.

UFL, tech and the viewer                                             

The UFL, which begins inaugural play March 30 with four games, is the new league formed by the merger of the XFL and USFL. Fox Sports and ESPN share the UFL broadcast duties.

The league’s emphasis on technology is a strategy to differentiate itself and produce dividends for the fans, the teams and the league. “By leveraging technology, you get to be part of an R&D-oriented environment with the goal being to make the players better, which makes the play better, which makes the games more exciting,” he says.

One tech improvement viewers will notice immediately is the use of an automated first down system that keeps the game moving and running at the pace the players want.

“Imagine a long drive with a little bit of time left on the clock,” says Cheney. “You’re running down the field. The last thing you want to do is let the defense reset itself while you’re pulling the chains out.”

Instead, Fox Sports will use an optical ball-tracking technology that relies on data from multiple static cameras in the stadium and cloud processing to determine exact ball positioning within three seconds, he says.

“As the official places that ball on the field, it is laser-marked exactly by the optical system. The system tells us exactly how many yards that ball moved from the last time it started and from where the first down was,” he explains.

Audio Enhancements

The broadcasters will mic coaches and key players as well as rely on an array of parabolic mics to enhance audio.

Not only will fans be able to hear what coaches and quarterbacks are saying when the Fox Sports production team thinks the audio will improve viewing, but the telecast’s on-air crew will be able to listen and step up their game calls and color commentary.

“That’s a piece of the learning experience we’re developing,” says Cheney. “Our talent will explain what a play could be before the snap [based on these communications]. Viewers will be able to start to really understand these exchanges as they hear them in our broadcasts.”