Fox Sports will use 52 cameras to broadcast the World Series starting tonight. Three of those will hover in the air.
For the first time, a broadcast network will use drones as part of its coverage of the baseball championship. (Drones have previously been used for coverage of the All-Star Game, however.)
The drones will join Fox’s UmpCam as part of its coverage of the World Series. That innovation made its debut in the American League Divisional Series, offering an umpire’s view of pitches, plays, and big hits. (Those cameras are installed at the top of the home plate umpire’s mask.) The network also plans to position more than 100 microphones around the stadium to capture the sounds from players and fans.
While Fox is touting the technology, it does not plan to use drones to follow live action in the game. They’ll be dispatched as players head into the dugout or walk from the bullpen to the pitcher’s mound. Only one of the three (named the “Gimbal Bee,” “Hummer Lite,” and “Hummingbird”) will be in the air at a time, and they’ll be stationed between the outfield and the bullpens.
Each drone will be operated by two people, one to pilot the device and another who will operate the gimbal on the drone, looking for the best shot and angle.
While this is a first for the World Series, Fox has been utilizing drones in its sports coverage since 2018, when it used them as part of its broadcast of the Daytona 500.
Drones first became a part of sports broadcasting in 2015, though, when the NFL was the first major sports league to get FAA approval to use them. Two years later, they were a part of the Super Bowl halftime show.
The 2023 World Series kicks off Friday night at 8:03 p.m. ET on Fox.