A cutting-edge virtual measurement system will make its NFL debut when the 2025 season kicks off in less than two weeks, to help make the most precise ball placements the gridiron has ever seen.
The new Sony Hawk-Eye camera technology will soon make sideline officials who rush onto the field with a 10-yard chain to determine whether the ball is in position for a first down a thing of the past.
Justin Goltz, commercial director of Sony's Hawk-Eye North America, told "Good Morning America" that the new system implements "six 8K cameras in every NFL stadium that measure where the static ball is on the field."
"So, once a ball has been placed by the official on the field, we can determine whether that ball has or hasn't passed the line to gain," Goltz explained.
Sony worked closely with the NFL to design the camera measuring system, which is controlled in the instant replay booth with playback and touch screens and applied in real time.
The NFL's deputy chief information officer, Aaron Amendolia, told "GMA" that "this technology was tested in the background of all games last year -- preseason through all the whole season and the postseason."
Once the referee on the field spots the ball after a close play, the operator zooms in on that ball to confirm its location. The Sony Hawk-Eye then cuts back to the ball's position before the play began and re-creates a virtual measurement for viewers.
Amendolia said implementing Hawk-Eye will help with the NFL's continued efforts "to have less interruption to the game and to the action."
While Goltz said he doesn't predict any specific pushback, he acknowledged that "there's going to be traditionalists here that maybe miss the reveal of the chains, or the nuances of seeing people come onto the field, but I think our goal is always to make this as efficient, objective and accurate as possible, to aid those officials on the field -- not, you know, take away anything from their job."
