CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Fox Sports together with Chapman Aerial Production unveiled its most advanced drone-camera to date for race coverage April 28 from Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.
The FreeFly Alta 8 drone using the newly developed FreeFly MoVi Carbon camera gimbal with five-axis stabilization is outfitted with a Fujinon 20-120mm lens, said Fox Sports. With the crop factor of the sensor, the focal range of the lens is elevated to 40-240mm.
The Fox Sports technical and production teams began executing on their vision of using drone cameras to enhance race coverage with early experiments three years ago that gave way to tethered drone use for the 2018 Daytona 500 and the broadcaster’s first untethered drone deployment at this year’s Daytona 500, said Brad Cheney, Fox Sports VP of field operations.
The drone at Talladega this weekend will “add dynamic views, not seen before in motor sports,” added Fox Sports director Artie Kempner.
Pre-race programming began with NASCAR Raceday at 12:30 p.m. EDT on FS1 and the FOX Sports App. At 1:30 p.m., coverage moved to the FOX broadcast network, followed by the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Geico 500 at 2 p.m.
