Everything started with a simple yellow line. On September 27, 1998, Sportvision debuted its yellow first down marker on the ESPN broadcast of the Week 4 game between the Ravens and Bengals. For the first time fans watching at home could see the exact moment the ball crossed the plane.
Sixteen years later, Sportvision can now weave almost anything into a football broadcast, from down and distance arrows to virtual video screens; it can even reveal the yard lines completely obscured by snow during winter games.
The chroma key and camera modeling technologies on which the yellow first down line was built, though, still lie deep at the heart of almost everything the company has brought to football since 1998. “That whole concept just blew everybody away,” says Mike Jakob, president of Sportvision. “It still remains one of the foundational [improvements] that we think enhance the viewing experience.”