Fox Sports is undertaking an extraordinary technical effort to capture every sight and sound of the 117th World Series and concoct a few of its own visual creations to aid fans’ understanding of the strike zone.
The World Series begins Tuesday, Oct. 24 — the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are each one win away from qualifying in their series against the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, respectively — and will be the network’s 20th broadcast of the Fall Classic (and the first with presenting sponsor YouTube TV).
Among the technological rollout: up to 41 cameras and 121 microphones, including more than a dozen mics for managers, coaches, umpires and players as well as 14 more situated underground and around the playing field (one more than the 13 used in the All-Star Game this summer).
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“We will have eight Super Slow Motion and Hyper Motion Cameras, including the FOX Phantom Cameras, at either side of the plate to capture at-bats and close plays at a blistering 1,500 frames per second,” Michael Davies, FOX Sports senior vice president of field & technical operations, said in a press release. “Quite simply, it’s more Motion Cameras in play than at any other baseball game on any network this season.”
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Fox will continue to provide an augmented reality strike zone, using a live zone produced by SMT (SportsMEDIA Technology, which acquired SportVision last year) and MLB Advanced Media’s radar-powered Statcast. When providing replay sequences, Fox Sports will continue to use the Pitchcast system — produced by MLBAM and ChyronHego — which first appeared as part of the network’s coverage earlier this postseason. Fox has not yet tried replicating the 3-D prism strike zone that ESPN debuted during the AL wild card game this month.
In all, Fox will rely on more than 175 technicians and support staff operating the immense production traveling more than three miles of fiber optic cable, occupying up to 64 terabytes of data storage and spanning up to seven games of the World Series.