With nearly 80 cameras throughout Arrowhead Stadium, CBS is ready for Bills-Chiefs showdown
By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S., Sports Video Group
Friday, January 24, 2025 – 4:01 pm
Arrowhead in January. At this point, it seems almost a foregone conclusion for NFL fans. However, for CBS Sports, the annual pilgrimage to Kansas City for the AFC Championship — it’s sixth in even years — is a welcome routine for the broadcaster’s biggest NFL production of the season.
“At this point, we have a phenomenal working relationship with the onsite stadium team at Arrowhead, and it’s always a great experience being here,” says Patty Power, EVP, operations and engineering, CBS Sports. “It’s the sixth time in seven seasons for the AFC Championship, so it kind of feels like a repeat of all those years we were going to New England [during the Patriots’ dynasty]. Although the compound is a bit challenging in its size, their team is great to work with, and we’re looking forward to it as always.”
With nearly 80 cameras scattered around Arrowhead Stadium — including the return of the Doink Cam and TrolleyCam systems — CBS will have no shortage of resources in bringing the Bills–Chiefs matchup to what many expect to be a record-breaking audience. In addition, the NFL Today studio show will be onsite in KC with a full production of its own.
“During the regular season, we have six 4K cameras to help zoom in on those game-defining moments plus pylon cameras, Skycam, and drone and blimp aerial coverage,” says Jason Cohen, SVP, remote technical operations, CBS Sports. “We already felt really good about our [equipment] levels heading into the playoffs; it’s not like we’re building a house from scratch. With that elite complement already established for our biggest game each week, we can turn our attention to the fun stuff: specialty equipment and technology enhancements like the DoinkCam and the TrolleyCam.”
The Cameras: Doink Cam, Trolley Cam, and Plenty More Toys
CBS’s camera aresenal is headlined by the return of the aptly named Doink Cam, which debuted last year at Super Bowl LVIII, and the Trolley Cam, which has drawn rave reviews on CBS’s playoffs coverage since debuting in 2021.
CBS will be using the same uprights that were used at Super Bowl LVII for the Doink Cams, with Antelope Nucleus 4K robotic camera systems from NEP Specialty Capture (formerly BSI) attached to the left and right goals posts in both end zones.

The Trolley Cam point-to-point cabled camera system, provided by Flycam, zips along a wire from one end of the stadium to the other at up to 65 mph to capture “front- row” angles. The system is equipped with a Sony HDC-P31 and Canon 5×20 lens.
As is standard on its A game throughout the regular season, CBS will deploy four pylon camera systems in each end zone. The front pylons are provided by NEP Specialty Capture and feature 4K Antelope robos with wide-angle lens; the back systems are 180-degree cameras from C360 Technologies (a Cosm company). CBS will also have line-to-gain pylon cameras from NEP Specialty Capture as usual.
For aerial coverage, CBS has its trusty Skycam four-point system on hand at Arrowhead, along with a fixed-wing plane from Winged Vision and a drone from Beverly Hills Aerials.
The broadcaster will have a multitude of Sony HDC-5500 and HDC3500 cameras on hand at Arrowhead, including eight 4K super-slo-mo systems. Roaming the sidelines will be an RF Atlas Steadicam (provided by Aerial Video Systems) featuring a Sony PXW-FX9 camera and 35mm lens. Fletcher is providing all specialty robotic systems, and Marshall POV cameras will provide looks inside each team’s tunnel.
In terms of glass, CBS is using a mix of Canon 111X and 122X lenses on its hard cameras, Canon 40×9.7 and 18×28 lenses for robos, and Fujinon 23×7.6 lenses for handhelds.
“We never try to overly persuade [the production team] on what tools to use and when to use them,” notes Cohen about the large camera complement. “We just try to give them the best possible toolbox and let the game play itself out. Oftentimes the game dictates that the technology be used by the front bench; oftentimes it doesn’t.
“You’re not going to use a Doink Cam if there are no field goals,” he continues, “but, if a ball hits the upright, you’re going to be prepared for that. Same with Trolley Cam: if there’s a great 60-yard play on the far side of the field where the trolley is positioned and the camera can run with the player down the sideline, that’s going to be a compelling shot. Every tool has its place and its moment. It’s just a matter of what the game dictates, and the front bench can go from there.”
The Compound: NFP TFC System Brings It All Together
NEP Supershooter CBS A, B, C, and D units — the network’s A-game fleet throughout the regular season — is in the compound serving the game production. NEP Supershooter 4 (A and B units), which handled CBS’s B-game this year, will serve the studio-show operation, and an additional QC unit from NEP — dubbed Supershooter QC — is also on hand in the compound.

“Obviously, it starts in the compound with our robust mobile-unit infrastructure,” says Cohen. “This year in Kansas City, we’re going to be an entirely NEP TFC [Total Facility Control] compound, which we think is going to make things smooth for us as far as moving sources around and sharing signals between our game truck and our studio truck.”
TFC is NEP’s proprietary software platform for solving the issues that arise with adoption of IP infrastructure. TFC provides a single touchpoint to configure, provision, monitor and control systems, networks, and facilities. With TFC, NEP can bring disparate systems onto one unified platform, making highly complex setups seamless and simplified.
The production team, led by producer Jim Rikhoff and director Mike Arnold, is in Supershooter CBS A unit, audio and video are in the B unit, EVS replay is in the C unit, and robo-land is in the D unit. CBS Sports has 13 EVS XT-VIA 12-channel replay systems and another five Sony Hawk-Eye systems at its disposal for game coverage.
In addition, CBS will have plenty of virtual graphics and augmented-reality elements within the AFC Championship broadcast provided by Fingerworks (telestration), SMT (1st and Ten Line, tracking, and more), G3Dvu (AR graphics), and Silverspoon Animation (AR graphics).
Redundant power in the compound is provided by Aggreko, with transmission a mix of The Switch, AT&T, and Lumen.
The Studio Show: Onsite at Arrowhead
As it did for the Chiefs–Bills matchup in Buffalo on Nov. 17, CBS has brought its NFL Today studio show on the road. The set, featuring three cameras (including a jib) and a modular desk, will be located on the Bills sideline. The CBS crew will manage tight load-in and load-out windows for the pre/postgame and halftime.

Although having the studio show onsite is standard for AFC Championship Games, this actually marks the third time CBS has brought NFL Today on the road this season, following the Nov. 17 matchup and the Bills–Lions Week 15 showdown on Dec. 15.
“It has been great to give our studio crew more reps on the road,” says Power. “It makes it easier in terms of the setup, the execution, the teardown, and the whole package. Most important, I think it adds a lot to the atmosphere, and we’re excited to have them out there again with our A crew.”
Looking Back: Another Season in the Books
Reflecting on the past five months of NFL football — not just CBS’s schedule but also the Netflix and NFL Network games the broadcaster helped support — Power and Cohen are filled with pride.
“Coming off the Super Bowl last year,” says Power, “I think we rode that momentum and had a strong season — both internally with our own NFL package as well as with our partnerships with NFL Network with Netflix. We feel really good about what we’ve accomplished.”
Adds Cohen, “The final game of the season to me is such a great event because it’s a true celebration of what we’ve accomplished over the past 20-plus weeks. Whether it’s an AFC championship or a Super Bowl, it’s the pinnacle moment of your season, and it’s an opportunity to appreciate all the people you trust and enjoy. We can celebrate the final moments of the season together, which is going to be a lot of fun and special for everyone involved.”