ADVERTISEMENT NFL Kickoff 2026 CBS Sports Goes HDR Across Its Entire NFL Package, Heads to Rio in Week 3 By: Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. • Posted on: September 11, 2026 • 7 minute read ADVERTISEMENT The network will phase in HDR crew by crew while expanding Next Gen Stats integration, SkyDry availability, and onsite studio shows Coming off a record-breaking season, CBS Sports is expanding HDR across its entire slate of weekly game productions. The move, which completes a transition that began with Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, will roll out in phases across all six of the network’s core NFL crews plus its lead college football crew. “We’re coming off the most successful season in the history of NFL on CBS, but we’re always looking to improve our productions, and expanding HDR throughout all our games is a prime example of that,” says Jason Cohen , SVP, Remote Technical Operations, CBS Sports. “The power of the NFL is unlike anything else, and it’s obviously an incredibly important property to CBS — we take that very seriously. So we hold ourselves and those who work with us on this package to an incredibly high standard week in and week out.” The HDR expansion headlines a season that also includes a trip to Rio in Week 3, expanded NFL Next Gen Stats integration, more onsite studio shows than ever before, and increased use of the SkyDry mechanism that debuted during last year’s playoffs. CBS Sports is opening its NFL season on the road, broadcasting The NFL Today live from outside US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. (Photo: CBS Sports) All HDR: Phased Rollout Puts All NFL Crews in HDR by Mid-Season The NFL on CBS expansion of native HDR production begins in Week 1 with the network’s B game, alongside its top college football game. The transition then pauses while the operation turns its attention to CBS’s Week 3 game in Rio de Janeiro before resuming in Week 4 with the network’s C-game shows, with plans to add a crew every two weeks. “NFL A has been HDR since the Super Bowl in Vegas,” says Craig Stevens , VP, Remote Engineering, CBS Sports. “We’ll take everything we’ve learned from the past couple of years — as well as from doing the Masters and the PGA Championship — to fine-tune how we produce HDR. But we want to take it slowly with each crew, because it’s extremely complex and we want to make sure we do it right. The technology is proven, so our biggest challenge in HDR is making sure our technicians are fluent in it.” As it has since beginning its HDR journey, CBS will produce all games in HLG. The network worked with NEP and Game Creek Video to upgrade all mobile units over the summer, including HDR monitor walls for the front bench and HDR video monitoring for camera shading. Tech Check: 4K Zooms, Canon Glass, SkyDry, Next Gen Stats, and ‘NFL Today on the Road Beyond HDR, the network is layering new and returning technology onto shows at every level. 4K zooms are being added to specific games, and the A game will add 4K to the Low Sky and High Sky cameras in the weeks the High Sky is deployed. Both the A and B crews are adding the latest Canon lenses, while C games and below are getting additional super-slo-mo cameras. Pylon and specialty cameras return largely intact, with NEP Specialty Capture providing Nucleus systems on A-game pylons and Cosm providing C360 on B-game pylons and line-to-gain positions. Beverly Hills Aerials is also back, providing a fleet of drones on select games this season. SkyDry, the rain-clearing system for SkyCam, expands to the B show and college football after proving out on the A game. “The SkyCam has become one of the most valuable tools we have to cover the NFL, but if it’s raining and there are drops on the lens, then it essentially takes the camera out of the mix,” says Cohen. “This ensures that we’ll always have that camera available no matter the conditions.” CBS is also trialing CamFlag, a new automated, dynamic shading device designed to eliminate lens flare and improve image contrast on hard cameras in sun-affected positions such as the reverse 50 and the reverse cart. The shade retracts as the operator zooms out so it stays out of frame. “We’re hoping that in those spots, when we’re really getting blasted with the sun, we won’t see that flare anymore,” says Stevens. “If they’re successful, we’ll expand the use of that. It’s truly one of the bigger issues that I don’t think gets talked about enough, so we think this is going to make a big difference.” CBS is also working closely with the NFL to expand its use of the league’s Next Gen Stats system, integrating the data into broadcasts on a more consistent basis. “You’re going to find us leaning heavily into the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, more and more this year than ever before,” says Cohen. “The NFL is a great partner when it comes to collaborating with us on how to access all of that data.” Expect to see that data incorporated into FingerWorks telestration and Chyron graphics, as well as provided to the announcers in the booth in near real time. “Sometimes it’s not even necessarily about whether you can add it to a graphic, but whether you can just give the information to the announcers to incorporate on a moment’s notice: who’s coming in the game, who’s coming out, is the defense playing a 4-3 or a 3-4?” says Cohen. “Those types of information nuggets that live in NGS will now become readily available.” Last year, The NFL Today studio show hit the road more than ever before, and that will continue this season. CBS will once again rely on a REMI model — a set and small truck onsite, with the production team back at Studio 43 in New York — and the network has added engineering improvements aimed at pre-building the show to shorten setup time. “At this point, we can show up, connect, and within a day we’re rehearsing,” says Stevens. “Our aim is obviously less time on the ground.” Rock in Rio: Building a Control Room in a Parking Garage The Week 3 game in Rio de Janeiro will be CBS’s largest single lift of the season. The network has hired NEP to supply a flypack and will bring out roughly 90% of the NFL A crew, building control rooms in a parking garage and staffing them with the crew’s regular operators. The camera complement includes the usual count of super-slow-motion units plus an additional pair of RF cameras to capture the raucous atmosphere in Rio. Equipment will be on the road for six to eight weeks, shipping by boat three weeks before setup begins. The engineering team will arrive 12 days out, while the A crew will fly down midweek of game week after finishing its Week 2 domestic assignment. “There aren’t really any mobile units that can supply what we need at the level of an NFL on CBS show,” says Stevens. “We will also have a separate crew cable the entire stadium.” A Year-Round Effort: Kickoff Represents Months of Prep The NFL season may run from September through February, but inside CBS Sports the planning cycle barely pauses for breath before the next one begins. It all happens under the guidance of EVP, Operations and Engineering Patty Power ; VP, Production Management & Operations Krissi Florian ; SVP, Engineering Greg Coppa ; Senior Director, Broadcast Operations & Solutions Alyssa Blake ; and VP, Post Production & Media Operations Ed Coleman. “We were talking about this season at the end of the day after the AFC Championship,” says Stevens. “We do several big events throughout the year, but the NFL is always top of mind no matter what time of year it is.” As CBS kicks off its 67th season of NFL coverage, the broadcaster continues to innovate and add new technology along the way. Cohen, however, makes sure to point out that all these tools are nothing without the people operating them behind the scenes. “There’s no possible way we could produce week in and week out with the breadth of games we have without the talented men and women of CBS Sports,” he says. “Our incredible, hardworking technicians in the field are the ones out there humping through the conditions every week and making this all happen.” Sharing Upcoming Events Top Stories NFL Kickoff 2026: ESPN's MNF Gets in Tune With Apple Music, Adds Ludacris to 'In the Air Tonight' Open By: Dan Daley, Audio Editor Posted on: September 14, 2026 NFL Kickoff 2026 FOX Sports Homogenizes Coverage With Upscaled Game Tech, Seamless Integration With Studio Shows in L.A. 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