Many NFL teams and a number of college programs are "phasing out" hydraulic scissor lifts used for filming practice and "replacing them with new state-of-the-art telescoping video equipment," according to Paul Domowitch of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS. Two years ago, the Eagles "purchased something called a MastRcam" from Florida-based tech company 8K Solutions. The Eagles station the MastRcam between "two of their three training camp practice fields and can film the action on either field." Earlier this year, the Eagles "added to their video arsenal, purchasing smaller and more portable telescoping equipment from another sports video company," Texas-based Endzone Video Systems, including a pair of $7,200 winchcams that "extend nearly as high in the air as the MastRcam, but can be folded up and moved around." Eagles Dir of Football Technology Patrick Dolan said, "We get a nice end zone picture without having to put a guy 45 feet in the air on a lift." Domowitch noted the polecams, which cost $2,200 apiece, are "smaller and much lighter than the winchams." Dolan: "That’s the nice thing about these cameras. The flexibility. You can move them around anywhere because they’re lightweight compared to a scissor lift or boom lift. A scissor lift weighs about 13,000 pounds. The MastRcam weights about 1,300. The winchcam weighs about 500 pounds. And the polecams are much less than that." He added, "When you’re managing that, you can put it in places where it’s not going to hurt the turf and not be in the players’ way." The Eagles typically use "nine cameras to shoot a training-camp practice, including three stationed on the roof of the NovaCare Complex." All of the cameras, including the MastRcam, the winchcams and polecams, are "equipped with SD (Secure Digital) cards that transfer the practice video to the NovaCare’s computer system" (PHILLY.com, 8/20).
