No one hurt after camera falls

[venuetech]

No one hurt after camera falls at Insight Bowl

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Flying cameras have been providing unique perspectives on everything from golf to college and professional football for more than a decade, becoming so commonplace that fans rarely notice the whizzing remote-controlled devices.
At the Insight Bowl on Friday night, no one could miss the overhead camera when it came crashing down to the field late in the fourth quarter, nearly taking out one of the players.
The ESPN camera narrowly missed Iowa receiver Martin McNutt Jr., who became entangled in the guide wire but wasn't hurt.

Read more: No one hurt after camera falls at Insight Bowl - NCAA - SI.com

 

[Sayen]

OU vs Iowa 2011 Skycam Fall (HD) - YouTube

HOW?

Man, and we argue about whether or not to safety a gel frame.

 

[blackisthenewblack]

Man, and we argue about whether or not to safety a gel frame.

While I haven't seen one of these units in person, I am curious now.
So what kind of safety mechanisms are on a thing like that? Is there some kind of overhead retracting lifeline? Or is it just the cables that fly it?

 

[Footer]

Those things are controlled with 3 or sometimes 4 winches that give it xyz movement. No safeties or anything like that . Ironically, its a very similar rig to what Spiderman on Broadway uses.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[porkchop]

They had one installed at my College for a while. Always wondered how they found good strong points to rig from at the top of the stadium.

Looks to me like one of the wires gave way, really big oopsies.

 

[gafftaper]

I'm a season ticket holder for University of Washington Football. I've seen them installed for a couple of big ESPN game of the week games. They just plop down four monstrous winches. The cable spools are really impressive, must be a couple thousand feet of cable on there maybe 1/4" thick. The drum is about the size of a small garbage can. Really high speed too. In our stadium they just plop them down in four corners of the field off the back side of the grand stands and run the cables up over the top of the roof. There must be a bunch of temporary blocks they install up on the roof to guide it all to the right place.

The way the camera came down in this game, and the way they pulled it off the field, it made me wonder if one of the winches completely gave out somehow. They only seemed to be able to move it in one direction as if the other end had just gone slack.