3 X-Mo's at

Superbowl XLIII

are better than 1

Another critical component to the coverage were two additional sideline carts as well as high-speed cameras from Inertia Unlimited. “The high-speed cameras add a great look,” Esocoff explains. “Sometimes, when you spend extra money on a production, it’s just trickery, but super-slow-motion pays off in every game you do. In today’s environment, every dollar has to be spent properly, and that means stuff that gets to air.”

Drew Esocoff, NBC Director of Superbowl XLIII as quoted by SVG

View full article here

See what the Houston Chronicle said here

What is X-Mo?

X-Mo is a high speed HD camera that

shoot can shoot at up to 6933 fps with

absolutely no up conversion,

and actual pixel for pixel

sensor/output resolution.

The camera can be used live

and provides real-time replays.

It uses B4 or PL mount lenses,

and is configurable in

handheld, robo, or studio buildup

configurations. It can be Rf'd.

X-Mo has been perfected

over the past 5 years

at the most prestigious sporting events

in the world.

Convergent Designs

Flash XDR saves the day

At a recent HBO shoot in Cardiff, Wales another vendor mistakenly sent in a SD DVCPro deck instead of a HD deck. Luckily we had an alpha Flash XDR on hand. We utilized the X-Mo system operating at up to 6933fps to capture boxer Joe Calzaghe training in his gym. The HD-SDI was output from the camera onto the XDR which utilized four 32 GB CF cards to record the video at 50Mbs. Everything worked without problem and the picture quality was excellent on replay from the XDR. Watch HBO's multiple Emmy award winning show "24/7" October 26, and November 2 and 6 for the results.

Dunhill Cup

St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns, Scotland

18th fairway at St. Andrews

Recently at the Dunhill Cup, a RF'ed X-Mo camera covered every hole of every course. Using a Canon 22x lens and HD RF link, the camera was used primarily for replays but was also used live on occasion.

Open Championship

If you watched the Open Championship

from Royal Birkdale on TNT and ESPN,

you saw the newest version of X-Mo

Inertia Unlimited introduced the latest version of X-Mo utilizing Vision Research's V12 camera on TNT and ESPN on ABC. Used in an RF handheld configuration, the camera had access to the entire course and while it normally provided real time slow motion replays, on several occasions it was used as a live switched camera.

The camera used a Fujinon 22x B4 mount lens, Sony viewfinder, IDX batteries and a Gigawave HD RF link. In other words, for the camera operator, everything was familiar.

The output was sent to the truck in HD, downconverted to PAL SD and recorded by EVS, like every other camera. Commonly the camera was recording at 1000 fps, but many of the replays were captured at 6933 fps, the camera's top speed at 1280x720 resoution.

One shot was aired which was captured at over 65,000 fps at reduced resolution. It shows in minute detail compression of a golf ball being hit by a driver.

The official home of Digger

1/4" tall, full truck control,

able to survive 600 miles of

racing and 43 cars running

over it at 200mph.

It's the coolest

HD camera ever.

4 FOX Gopher cams reared their ugly head at the

50th running of the Daytona 500 on FOX.

They are accompanying Fox Sports

on all their Sprint Cup broadcasts.

"Simply the most awesome shot in sports!!!"

David Hill, CEO, Fox Sports

There is no reason

for us to say

anything more about

the effectiveness

of X-Mo at

Super Bowl XLII

"Fox had a good night in that we didn't miss anything we had to see. That super slo-mo replay of that unreal David Tyree catch with one minute left showed exactly how spectacular it was. No network had a better response to a big play, all season."

Phil Mushnick, N.Y. Post

read article here

"The star of the game was not either announcer, however, but the FoxScope, the super-slow-motion technology that elevated the use of replay beyond the necessary tool it has been for several decades. It illuminated how Brady’s sore ankle planted before passing, a sideline pass to Amani Toomer, the fumble by Ahmad Bradshaw, a fumble forced from Brady’s hand by Justin Tuck, and how Tyree held the ball against his helmet on his miraculous catch."

Richard Sandomir, New York Times

read article here

X-Mo was positioned at the reverse 50-yard line and used a Canon HD Digi Super 86x II lens and sled, Telecast Copperhead, HD Panasonic monitor, Vinten Vector 70 head, and one of the most outstanding camera operators in the industry, Keith Desantis.

Whether it's called

SuperVision or X-Mo

It doesn't matter

CBS Sports calls us SuperVision, Fox calls us X-Mo. The result is the same. HD, high-speed, tracking the action day and under lights for NFL football.

Supervision has been used by CBS on since Thanksgiving on its A-game, with the final stop in Foxboro.

Pictured: Reverse 50 position, Supervision with 100x Canon HD lens

NBC's Poker After Dark shoots in Las Vegas

Scott Duncan shoots promo and bumper shots with X-Mo

for the next season of Poker After Dark on NBC.

Inertia also supplied the hole cards, robos and

overhead cameras for the show.

If you watch any of these teams on FSN you will see X-Mo all season

Dodgers

Angels

Diamondbacks

Rockies

Cardinals

Royals

Tigers

Braves

Rays

And more coming soon...

The camera we use is based on Vision Research's V10 Phantom camera. .

X-Mo survives the Super "purple rain" bowl.

Thanks to Fujinon for an excellent 101x lens

Thanks to Shooterslickers for the camera cover

From the Northwest Herald...

(a Chicago area newspaper)

Some Bears fans bought $1,200 TVs to watch that game.

High definition. Flat screen. LCD. Plasma. Thirty-two inches. Forty inches. Sixty inches.

A billion inches.

Not that it was easy to actually SEE the Super Bowl, even with a crystal clear picture, with all of the rain in Miami on Sunday night. It was hard to tell just what the Bears were doing – call it a lack of definition – and not simply because they were soft against the run.

Somebody wipe the off the camera lens, gosh almighty, we can’t see here! Looks like the “Fog Bowl.”

“My glaucoma’s acting up,” little old ladies probably were saying.

No, ma’am. It was just wet out.

When CBS rolled out its “Super Vision” – on super slow-motion replays – fans had a sharp view of everything the Bears were doing wrong.

Maybe it was better to be blinded by the raindrops.

2 HD robos cover the table at the Aussie Millions.

Can't clearly see them? That's the whole point.

Cameras on the show include 4 Sony HDC-X310's

with Fujinon lenses, 8 Sony XC-555p's, and 2 robotic mounts.

X-Mo is Different

21 questions to ask if you are shopping for a high speed camera.

1. How long does it take to start to replay an image?

In X-Mo's case, no time, nada, none, zero.

2. Is that a help in quick turnarounds like sporting events?

How long does it take for a pitcher to throw another pitch? How long until the next snap? Sometimes even a few seconds wait is too much.

3. How much equipment needs to be used with the camera?

X-Mo consists a 10 pound camera and a common Windows XP laptop computer. That's it. One Pelican case is enough. It's pretty safe to say, the more equipment you show up with the less reliable a system becomes. In fact once X-Mo is painted it can happily work without any computer at all.

4. What kind of lens does X-Mo use?

Any Sony B4 mount lens will do from a ENG wide angle to a 101x studio lens. The camera operator has all their familiar controls.

5. What kind of viewfinder does X-Mo have for the operator?

No matter what the eventual output format the camera operator is framing with a HD viewfinder or 16:9 eyepiece. It is absolutely live with no delay. Focus and tight tracking shots are a breeze. The camera operator has peaking and other familiar controls for the video to help.

6. Speaking of the camera operator can we use our own local operator?

Absolutely. In fact, we prefer that you do. They will have no learning curve whatsoever.

7. Who else is needed?

A technician is required to set up X-Mo. This person will also do replays. If there are a number of events in a particular city we will train a local technician which can be paid for directly by the client. Training typically is very easy and takes about 2-3 games. A local computer savvy technician can pick it up in a little as one game though.

9. What formats does X-Mo support?

Natively X-Mo produces 1080i/p, 720p, NTSC and PAL SDI (4:3 and 16:9). There is absolutely no up conversion. We can output 24, 25, or 30 fps.

10. How does the signal get to the truck?

We supply 2 strands of single mode fiber which handles the video and data control. We can attach to SMPTE, SC, or ST fiber for long runs or can send the video down copper if the run is short. We of course provide all fiber, fiber adapters and converters as part of the package. We hand off a gen locked signal of your choice to the truck.

11. How do I replay the shot?

Unlike some super mo systems which require 3 channels of EVS, X-Mo only needs a single channel of EVS or similar or a tape machine in the truck. If you don't have one we can provide it.

12. How does a replay occur?

The camera records all the time. Internally there is memory which acts like a buffer which can store a maximum of about 6500 frames at 720p. When we see something we like, after it is complete (like a swing) we hit a trigger which marks the out point of the replay. The next frame of the output is the start of the replay. When the replay is done the camera returns to recording automatically.

13. What if I don't like the replay? Do I have to wait for it to play out before I can record again?

No. Replays can be instantaneously aborted and the camera immediately returned to recording.

14. What if the shot I want occurs just after the camera is triggered?

No problem, we can set the camera to capture up to 64 out points in a row and then replay any one of them or all of them. We can delete any of them and replay them at variable speed.

15. What does the truck see when there isn't a replay going on?

Live video comes out of the camera and can be seen in the truck. The output is switchable with other cameras.

16. How long can X-Mo record for.

In terms of real time we can record about 6500 frames at 720p (and about half of that at 1080i). Say we are recording at 1000fps, that translates into about 6.5 seconds of real time. Of course that replay would produce a replay of more than 100 seconds. Normally we replay between 1000-1500 frames.

17. What is the highest frame rate you can record at?

18. What are the different ways the camera can be set up?

Handheld, robotic, ENG on a tripod, and full studio buildup with rear controls.

19. How long does it take to set X-Mo up?

From scratch we are typically ready to fax in about 2 hours.

20. How long have you been involved with broadcast high speed cameras?

We shot the MLB World Series 5 years ago. Since then X-Mo has shot many of the world's biggest sporting events.

21. All this sounds more than a little geeky. You guys can't have a background in broadcast?

Everyone who works for us have a deep background in broadcast sports. We are shooters, editors, producers and have more than a few Emmy's to our name. We understand what works conceptually and practically in the harsh environment of traveling sports television.