• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026

2

Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup

3

Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI

1

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026

2

Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup

3

Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
TechIntel

NFL Opener to Highlight Intel’s Latest Video Wizardry

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 7, 2017, 11:00 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

If you’re a New England Patriots fan and want to see Tom Brady’s view of a just-completed touchdown pass, Intel aims to oblige. (Or if you’re a hater, Intel can also generate his view of an interception.)

Just in time for Thursday night’s National Football League season opener at Gillette Stadium, Intel says it has embedded its high-tech cameras and processing power in 11 NFL stadiums. The goal is to give ticket holders what Intel calls an “immersive, 360-degree” experience of replays.

In 2016, the chip giant acquired 3D video specialist Replay Technology and then virtual reality startup Voke to boost its live sports efforts. And last season, it installed its video gear in three NFL stadiums in Houston, Baltimore, and San Francisco.

Now, as part of a multi-year deal with the entire league, Intel (INTC) has put 38 cameras—each about the size of a Pringles can—at strategic points in 11 NFL stadiums. (Last year’s venues had to make do with a mere 28 cameras.)

The cameras bristle with sensors that let Intel create different views from all over the field. “We map millions of voxels—or 3-D pixels,” Preston Phillips, managing director Intel’s sports group, tells Fortune. For non-techies, pixels are the tiny two-dimensional dots that together make up on-screen images.

Intel’s FreeD camerasCourtesy of Intel
Courtesy of Intel

The latest incarnation of Intel’s “FreeD” technology should be on display at Thursday’s New England Patriots home opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. Given that NFL commissioner and Patriots nemesis Roger Goodell will be there, you have to wonder if anyone will notice the fancy video, but I digress.

Related: Five Ways Tech is Tackling Football

The cameras themselves do not move but the massive amounts of data they collect let Intel technicians in the control room create any viewpoint needed.

“On computer side we can drop a pin anywhere on field of play, on the quarterback’s helmet or wherever, and provide that perspective,” Phillips says.

That takes a ton of processing power, which Intel provides with three FreeD “supercomputers” running Intel Core i7 chips, at the site. This is no wireless connection given how data-rich these images are. Each camera is connected by optical fiber to the computers. The cameras, each of which has its own processor, capture about one terabyte of data every minute, he said. A terabyte of is roughly equal to about two million average-sized photographs.

Related: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at MLB Statcast

On the output side, Intel converts the data into a compressed MPEG file that is ready for viewing. The Intel techies work with team and league personnel who choose which images to run on the Jumbotrons or the NFL mobile app, YouTube channel, and NFL.com website.

Intel FreeD video system

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

NFL broadcast partners CBS, Fox, and ESPN will also be able to use FreeD videos at the start of the season. Broadcast coverage is due to start Sunday during the Fox Carolina-San Francisco game and the New Orleans-Minnesota ESPN game Monday night.

Intel would not disclose how many years this partnership will last or what it is worth.

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei speaking into a microphone.
NewslettersEye on AI
Decision on Anthropic’s Fable and Mythos models means the U.S. has a licensing regime for frontier AI—it just doesn’t want to admit it
By Jeremy KahnJune 16, 2026
43 minutes ago
Exclusive: PayPal winds down venture arm as fintech giant restructures under new CEO
Startups & VenturePayPal Holdings
Exclusive: PayPal winds down venture arm as fintech giant restructures under new CEO
By Ben WeissJune 16, 2026
45 minutes ago
‘Making China the elephant in the room’: The G7 confronts its reliance on U.S. AI and Chinese energy supply chains, experts say
EuropeAnthropic
‘Making China the elephant in the room’: The G7 confronts its reliance on U.S. AI and Chinese energy supply chains, experts say
By Mia OsmonbekovJune 16, 2026
2 hours ago
elon musk poses while wearing a suit
AISpaceX
SpaceX’ surging stock paid for the $60 billion Cursor acquisition in just a few hours of trading—and it reveals Elon Musk’s new power
By Lily Mae LazarusJune 16, 2026
3 hours ago
CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk
InvestingSpaceX
SpaceX just surpassed Amazon’s market cap, overtaking the 31-year-old company on day three of public trading
By Eva RoytburgJune 16, 2026
4 hours ago
Anthropic’s Fable fiasco leaves the door open for open-source AI, particularly cheaper models from China
AsiaAnthropic
Anthropic’s Fable fiasco leaves the door open for open-source AI, particularly cheaper models from China
By Nicholas GordonJune 16, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 15, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup
Success
Team USA star Ricardo Pepi grew up in a trailer in El Paso—and his parents pawned their car title to fuel his soccer dream. Now, he’s in the World Cup
By Preston ForeJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
Big Tech
Hundreds of Stanford students walked out of their grad ceremony to protest Google CEO’s commencement speech. It wasn’t all about AI
By Tristan BoveJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, June 15, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 15, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of June 16, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 16, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 16, 2026
8 hours ago
Current price of gold as of June 15, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of June 15, 2026
By Danny BakstJune 15, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.