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Remember when Fox started attaching that little red glow to hockey pucks during its broadcasts of NHL games? Hardcore fans hated the digitally inserted streak, but the point was well taken: Hockey is a difficult game for channel surfers to follow. The puck is small, it blazes around the boards relentlessly, and a whole lot of white guys are wearing white jerseys against white ice.

Technology marches on. Now, New York Rangers games are getting an HDTV makeover. So are Knicks basketball games and Mets and Yankees baseball games. MSG Network is currently broadcasting HD feeds of the Rangers and Knicks on a separate channel reserved by Cablevision, the owner of the network. The partnership forged between MSG and Sony last fall-when the network invested in the manufacturer's cameras, VTRs, monitors, video and audio routing switchers, edit controller, and conversion and distribution products-has made all of this possible. The live video production materializes in an HD production truck owned by National Mobile Television and leased by MSG through the next five years.

"We had a quick time frame," says Dave Shaw, MSG's VP for technical operations. "We started in January '98 and needed to finish by September. Sony offered the best products; the HD 7000 switcher has enough inputs, bells, and whistles for sports production, which takes a lot to do. And they offered 1080i, which nobody questions the quality of."

A former cameraman himself, Shaw is enthusiastic about what the upgrade from 4:3 means to his shooters. He says that the wider frame is a natural for capturing rectangular hockey ice and basketball courts. Baseball, too, will offer viewers some new perspectives after its HD rebirth. Looking at HD test footage of the Yankees shot last fall, one clearly sees that a ubiquitous baseball tactic-the pickoff move-has moved to the major leagues. Previously, directors would employ a split-screen to monitor the pitcher and opposing runner on first base. Now it is all one unbroken shot with a 16:9 point of view. And overhead shots of the Yankee Stadium playing field, usually cropped at about the foul line, now extend to include several rows of fans.

Even so, Shaw says any adjustments his cameramen have made have been minor ones. "I've talked to cameramen, and good cameramen will follow the puck or ball in the frame, so it's not a major adjustment for them. What was interesting is switching viewfinders from 4:3. It requires more work on focusing, because of the depth of field." He also points out the improved picture detail when composing hockey in HD. "You can really see the puck," Shaw proclaims, uttering the words that may convert legions of previously would-be fans.

While MSG will honor its lease of the NMT truck for five years, he reports the network has tentative plans to rebuild its facility as early as 2001. "We'll still need a truck for the Devils, Islanders, Nets, and Mets," he says. "We plan to go on the road more."

NFL Films in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, takes its name very seriously. That is to say, the company shoots football games in film. Period.

But even as Steve Andrich, VP of cinematography, says, "They're probably going to have to wrestle the film camera from my dying arms," NFL Films personnel is gearing up for an HDTV era.

"We realized early on that HD was the future of sports," says Andrich. "When I got here, in 1995, we had no 16:9 [film] cameras, so one of the first things I did was purchase two convertible Arri SR3s. We're up to eight now."

Andrich says NFL Films took a cue from the NBA and the BBC, both of which were already archiving 16:9 footage. But there is another purely non-production reason Andrich and company went widescreen. "We realized there were players like Joe Montana who were about to retire, and we needed to build up our library so we wouldn't be scrambling later."

Speaking of scrambling, Andrich points out the widescreen aspect ratio means equal football coverage with smaller camera moves. "The field is almost 16:9, as it is. Instead of the line of scrimmage out to a guard or tackle, you can get from the tailback to the middle linebacker in the frame." While NFL Films has not yet captured much action in HD, they have transferred a lot of film negative to HD on their new Spirit DataCine, and Andrich likes what he has seen. "The depth of the image is amazing, compared to an NTSC transfer. You see the pebble grain on the ball, grass, players' eyes in their helmets."

NFL Films also shot HD test footage at the past few Super Bowls. Unfortunately, there is one area where all video-HD included-fails to match a filmed image. "We overcrank a lot," Andrich explains. "Sometimes we'll shoot 120 or 150 frames per second. With film, you're actually seeing 1/120 of the motion, so it's much smoother. Video still just takes 30 frames and slows it down. Until they perfect that on HD video, it won't be able to compete with film."

But that has not stopped the company from employing HD gear for other programming. They recently produced a show for ESPN called NFL Matchup for which Sony provided a mini-HD studio. And they will probably purchase HD equipment for blue-screen interview segments of various football talk shows. Andrich's motivation is to give such ancillary programs the same level of aesthetic attention as the games. "We already spend a million and a half dollars on 16mm film and a million on 35mm each year," says Andrich. "We have to go to HD on interviews just to match quality. The average viewer knows in his gut that NYPD Blue looks more professional than a soap opera. It's the same with high-def versus 525. There's a strong emotional tie, a sense that there's more thought and detail behind it."

Still, don't expect to see Andrich or his cinematographers tracking an airborne field goal attempt with an HD camera just yet. He submits: "High-definition video still has an electronic edge. It's different from the chemical process of film. I know a DP who says humans are essentially chemicals and, therefore, react to chemicals. I don't know if I agree with that, but it's an interesting theory."

Broadcast TV director Joe Cortina is smarter than the average bear when it comes to both HD technology and sports coverage. After working for NBC news and sports for years, Cortina now directs the NBA series Inside Stuff. He has also made a two-hour documentary for Turner called The NBA at 50, several HD projects for clients such as Mitsubishi, and a high-def documentary that tied for top honors at the Columbus Film Festival with Tom Hanks' From the Earth to the Moon.

Cortina finds HD aesthetically cinematic for two reasons. "HD not only matches the cinematic aspect ratio," he says, "but the resolution is high enough that you don't have to always use close-ups to see emotion or dialogue. You can see how people are emoting, and so it's more cinematic in that sense as well."

Cortina notes that this advantage applies to basketball in particular. "You see these guys' faces. A lot of sports have players who are masked or far away, but with basketball being so intimate, you see the reactions on players' faces." And, he adds, "You see a significant amount of court [in 16:9]."

Aside from a better viewing experience, Cortina also thinks the HD movement benefits from more user-friendly equipment such as Sony's HDCAM gear. "In the past, the camera systems were bulky, or they were tethered to a tape machine," he says." They were phenomenal, but shooting was difficult. With HDCAM, anyone who's forward thinking will try to shoot HD. And sports will be at the forefront of that because there's such a built-in market already." He also speculates that archived HD material will influence the future of paid programming-on-demand, much the way satellite technology has in recent years.

Cortina credits the NBA for anticipating the 16:9 revolution and shooting Super 16 for over seven years. And, in fact, this might have been a great year for NBA Entertainment to fortify its HD-ready foundation. But with the NBA player lockout delaying the action until last month, NBA Entertainment is merely salvaging what is left of the season.

DP Michael Winik reports that the Secaucus, New Jersey, operation has not invested in HD equipment but is certainly discussing it. "We have the same problems as everyone. We need the cameras, the editing equipment, online rooms, switchers, monitors-it's a huge investment. And with the [players'] labor dispute, this will be a lost year as far as capital investments."

A dyed-in-the-wool film lover (and self-described "documentary specialist"), Winik is pretty casual about HD's aspect ratio. "I think the whole framing thing is overrated," he says. "When you're shooting sports, you don't have time to think about composing. People can give you a song and dance about showing off the players or the court, but you're just trying to keep the players in frame and follow the ball."