Event results are integrated with L-bar graphic in Los Angeles
By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor, Sports Video Group
Friday, February 28, 2025 – 1:25 pm
The 2025 NFL Combine returns to the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium Feb. 27–March 2. NFL Media, the league’s production arm, is once again broadcasting several events and challenges via NFL Network and NFL+, deploying 40-yard-dash data, Zebra data, and optical tracking for on-field and AR graphics.
“I’m always proud to see the team pull off an event like the Combine, especially with the quick turnaround from the Super Bowl,” says Jessica Lee, VP, production operations and engineering, NFL Media. “It’s very helpful to have the event hosted again in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indianapolis Convention Center, as they are both venues we have become very familiar with through the years. This event is more graphics-heavy and data-driven than some of our other events, with the timing of the 40s, the Simulcam. and integration of Zebra data making it unique.”
The NFL Media compound at the venue houses five trucks provided by NEP Group, with Sunbelt Rentals providing redundant power via house, UPS, and generator power as well as UPS power to the broadcast sets, according to NFL Media Lead Tech Manager Rhett Van Buskirk. Besides the main Combine show, which is produced onsite at Lucas Oil Stadium, NFL Media is also doing three REMI shows via its Los Angeles–based control rooms.
Key tools and components for this year’s event include tracking the Combine athletes with Zebra data to identify the on-field participants with assistance from SMT, a Durham, NC–based technology provider, says Patrick Lee, director, real-time systems, NFL Media.
In addition, NFL Media is deploying optical tracking with SkyCam and SMT for on-field graphics to label events and provide tracking data for augmented-reality graphics. Combine data is sent to the Los Angeles facility, where the team incorporates the L-bar data with event results.
Zybek Sports is providing 40-yard-dash data for a real-time clock up to thousands of a second. Additionally, two graphics machines, one for the show’s banner and one for graphics, pull data from NFL Media’s database to create graphics for event results. Lee notes that in the area where Combine participants are interviewed on NFL Network is a touchscreen on which the athletes can access the touchscreen applications.
A total of 64 communications channels are available between Indianapolis and the Los Angeles studios for Combine coverage, Van Buskirk says. The 25 cameras deployed for broadcast on NFL Network, which has been covering the Combine since 2005, include two super-slo-mos, one SkyCam, five robotic cameras, and three point-of-view cameras for the skills challenges. In addition, four robotic cameras cover player and coach press conferences at the city’s convention center.
Providing key technology and services for the production are AVS for RF video connectivity, CP Communications for RF audio, Robovision for robotics, and Thumbwar, which supplies editing and file-transfer assistance, both onsite and in Los Angeles. AY Productions assists with communications support.
The NFL Network on-air team for the Combine comprises Host Rich Eisen, Insider Ian Rapoport, Lead Draft Analyst Daniel Jeremiah and Super Bowl champion quarterback Kurt Warner.
Besides Van Buskirk, Jessica Lee, and Patrick Lee, NFL Media Operations Manager Margaret Thompson is a key contributor to NFL Media’s combine coverage.