Have you ever wandered how they superimpose the first-down line on televised football games? or provide a three-dimensional representation of the speed, timing and distance of the football thrown from a quarterback to his receiver? We’ll take a look at some of the inside technology CBS will be using when the Bears and Colts go head to head on Superbowl Sunday.  

It’s quite amazing when your watching the game and can see the 1st down line imposed on the screen; a semi-transparent yellow line that would not seem more real if it was actually painted on the field. The process is extremely complex, with many variables that must be calculated on the fly.

CBS uses software from Sportvision, Inc. to achieve all this; what you see on your screen is the result of a harmonious mixture of sensors, encoders, eight computers, and an indefinite amount of wires.

To operate properly, the software has to be aware of the positioning of the camera with respect to the field and must know where every yard line is in order to virtually paint the yellow line on your screen.

It all starts at the video equipment; these aren’t your ordinary TV and video broadcast cameras. Each camera must have a highly sensitive encoder working with it to read the camera’s physical position, angle, tilt, pan, and zoom with respect to the football field. This information, along with the video feed, is sent to the software.

The software uses colors, pixel by pixel, to differentiate between the players, the field, the ball, and must be aware of graphics that may be superimposed by the network so as not to draw lines over the players or network advertisements.

The football field is slightly angled in the middle to allow rain to wash away; therefore, the software must have a detailed 3D model of the field to reference where each yard line is, and must calculate the curve of the field to properly draw the lines in the exact places.

The amount of data that must be processed is massive, and calls for eight computers: four SGIs, one PC, and three special purpose data acquisition computers.

This same technology allows CBS to display the distance required for a first down, provide a 3D representation of the speed, timing, and distance of a football thrown, depict by how much a football place kicker makes or misses a field goal, and unfortunately permits for advertisements to be pasted on the field.

Sportvision provides many other sports enhancements including services for Nascar’s Nextel Cup and other sports including baseball,  basketball, golf, horse racing, and bowling.

It’s often an overlooked technology, but is the only fulfillment us ‘nerds’ can acquire in watching sports on television.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 4:37 am under Software.

Read more entries by George Gardner.
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