CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The mash up of cinema and auto racing has left its mark on audiences over the years with films like “Le Mans,” “Snake & Mongoose” and “Days of Thunder.”
Fox Sports is working to leave a cinematic impression on viewers watching “NASCAR Race Hub,” now in its 15th season, which began Jan. 29 with episode 2,500, from its studio here.
For this season’s debut, the broadcaster has deployed a new SUPERTECHNO Technodolly25, a programmable camera crane that delivers the precise, repeatable flying camera shots the broadcaster is relying on to add a new sizzle to productions. Fox Sports will use the device daily to capture shots for the show’s virtual set—the product of Zero Density real-time visual effects software and Unreal Engine—that otherwise would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pull off.
Typically used in cinematic production, the 2,500-pound, robotic, track-based dolly can extend its telescopic reach 25 feet into the virtual set, opening new production vistas that will blend 3D objects and augmented reality features into the show’s presentations in ways that are not typical of live TV.
“It [Technodolly25] creates all kinds of interesting possibilities for perspective that we never could have had with a jib and a Steadicam,” says Tom Creter, vice president of operations and engineering at Fox Sports.
Virtual Drone
Before installing the Technodolly25 in early January, the show relied on an 11-foot jib and Steadicam for some of the more interesting shots on the virtual set—a rather common occurrence in television production, he says.
While satisfactory for more shots, one in particular never worked as seamlessly as the production staff desired, says Creter.
“One of our engineers developed a virtual drone inside the virtual environment,” he recalls. “As part of the Zero Density software there’s a way to pull out with a real camera, hand it off to the virtual camera and that [virtual] camera will continue on and fly off. It allows you to do a lot of things that you just wouldn’t be able to do with a real camera,” he explains.
That function “never really worked great,” however so the show looked for a way to have a more precise handoff, he says.
The answer revealed itself at the NAB Show a couple years ago, when Creter and his colleagues got a demo of Technodolly15, a smaller version of the model it has installed, from the SUPERTECHNO’s founder Horst Burbulla.
“Technodolly is used on film sets mostly and TV commercials but mostly cinematic,” says Creter. “They use the repeat functionality of the robotics to do multi-layered green screen stuff in film. We were like, ‘Well, we kind of do that, too.’”
The robotic dolly offered the reproduceable shots needed for a show that starts with the same look every day—shots that at the time were taken from the camera on the moving jib. Plus, the robotics had many other functions that “we though could be really handy,” he says.
Not only would the dolly reach all the way around the set’s desk, which is used for race day, it also could replace the jib and the Steadicam, providing continuous movement from one position to another simply by being programmed to execute desired moves, he says.
Fox Sports saw this as the opportunity to bring its virtual drone to life as well as create a number of other new, seamless moves. For example, with the dolly it’s possible to capture a moving shot that starts behind the talent, comes up over their shoulders and flies over a large virtual screen that comes out of the floor, says Creter.
Another moving shot the broadcaster saw during the demo and one may make it into the show originates from Technodolly flying around a virtual racetrack. “It’s almost like you were driving a car around the track, and because of the gimbal, it follows the track just like a car,” he says.
Setup and Safety
Technodolly25 is a permanent fixture in the studio—at least for this season of “NASCAR Race Hub,” and it’s easy to understand why. Setup required many steps culminating in the track on which the dolly rides being bolted to the floor.
Before that could be done, however, it was necessary to layout the track and figure out what location would work best in the studio, which took a couple of times, he says. Once in place, a SUPERTECHNO technician from Pilsen, Czech Republic, flew to Charlotte to make adjustments ensuring the track and dolly were perfectly level—a must for a moving, virtual camera that needs to report its precise real-world position to pull off realistic-looking shots for a virtual environment, he says.
Fox Sports has mounted a Grass Valley 4K-capable camera to the dolly and is evaluating whether to use a Fujinon or Canon lens for this application, says Creter.
Beyond the physical setup, maintaining the safety of talent and crew around Technodolly25 was a major concern, something Creter regards as “the preeminent driving force,” especially in its first week of use when talent and guests are being introduced to its presence.
“The backend of the crane where all the counterweight is is pretty big,” he explains. “It’s like 8 feet. When that thing is swinging around, you have to clear all of the carbon-based units out of the way so the crane doesn’t whack anybody. So, we have a no-walk zone.”
Talent, guests and crew simply cannot walk onto the set when they feel like it. “They have to be ushered out by the floor director, and when the crane operators are saying, ‘Crane is moving,’ everybody stops. Nobody is walking.”
Since its setup, the broadcaster’s production team has been learning how to use Technodolly25, building shots and becoming more comfortable with how to use it on-air.
“We are taking baby steps. We are going to crawl and then walk. I know our director wants to start sprinting right away,” says Creter, chuckling. “But we are just being a little more cautious, because if you take the wrong step, you can break the illusion of a virtual reality set. We are being cautious so we can make sure it does everything we need it to do.”
