- Four iPhone 17 pro phones will broadcast parts of a live MLB game
- This is a first for the iPhone and MLB
- The game will broadcast on Apple TV +
Major League Baseball, the American hobby, has seen a lot of changes in the past 149 years, but now it is seen through a new set of digital eyes – the iPhone 17 Pro – and delivered to millions of baseball fans watching Friday evening baseball on Apple TV +.
For the first time, Apple and the MLB officially bring the new iPhone 17 Pro on the ball field to shoot the game and deliver live flows as part of Friday evening baseball, which broadcasts on one of the best streaming services, from September 26 at 6.30 p.m.
Four iPhone 17 professionals will be seated in Black Magic telephone quays and dotted around the Boston Fenway Park for the Tigers VS Red Sox game. One will be inside the emblematic green monster, two will be in the canoes, and we will go browsing the stadium.
The phones will all run the Black Magic Camera application with an exposure and a balance of whites defined by connected iPads. The wiring, which will bring power and send a video, will allow them to run continuously and deliver the flows directly to the diffusion trucks.
It will only be four phones. The broadcasters do not intend to exchange them during commercial breaks. Instead, they will all broadcast continuously during the duration of the game, and the broadcast team will use them – inserting live shots from them – at any time during the broadcast.
The iPhone 17 Pro has three 48MP cameras, including a 4x optical zoom which rises to an 8x zoom covered with sensors. Apple TV + and the MLB plan to use all the lenses of iPhones, including 24 mm, 48 mm. 100 mm and 200 mm equivalent (zoom 8x).
This is not exactly the first time that the iPhone 17 Pro was running on the field. There was a test a week ago in the last regular game of the Dodgers Clayton Kershaw launcher. This proof of concept gave Apple and MLB the confidence necessary to try it during its dissemination of baseball Friday evening of the regular season on Apple TV +.
While the iPhone 17 Pro is more than capable of drawing up to 4K 120 images per second, the broadcast will be captured at 1080p 59.94fps to meet the requirements of diffusion trucks, which will receive the flow on a fiber optic line.
I am not surprised by the use of the iPhone 17 Pro in a professional scenario. After all, my own criticism found it as one of the best smartphones on the market, and photography is incredibly good.
Aside from the potential quality of iPhone 17 videography, there is another obvious advantage to use a mobile phone in this scenario: size. Even in the platform, the iPhone 17 Pro is much smaller and lighter than a traditional diffusion camera. It can probably adapt discreetly to the places where a diffusion camera will probably not.
In truth, the use of four iPhone 17 pro phones will not change the game or its result, but it marks something milestone for the Apple pocket product. This is one of the most public manifestations of the capacity of the iPhone 17 PRO to be inserted transparently in a workflow in terms of production. A proof of live concept which goes somehow beyond what we have seen Apple and other creators do with the iPhone. Most of this was captured, produced, then delivered as pre-recorded content. A live sports game at a quick rate is a different beast.
Apple and the MLB may have understood the easy part. Let’s see if they can avoid choking on the plaque on the day of the match. And Techradar will exclusively check the iPhone 17 Pro ‘in action at Fenway Park because they are used for the Friday evening baseball match, so stay attentive for our reports.
