No Arguments Here: Camera Makes It Clear

It’s hardly a surprise that John McEnroe would attach his name to a device that is controversial and new. In terms of self-promotion, it’s a free ride.

McEnroe, the former tennis star turned TV analyst, took one look at CBS’ new super-high-speed camera being used to show baseline replays at the U.S. Open and dubbed it “the Mac Cam.” It shows, with startling clarity, a tennis ball as it hits the baseline, contorts on impact, and flies away.

The technology is enough to make a linesman obsolete.

Maybe.

The camera undoubtedly makes a powerful impact on television, but the tennis world is unsure about its application. In fact, many fans, officials and journalists here may not even be aware of it, since they are not watching television, they are seeing the event live.

But Brian Earley, the chief referee of the U.S. Open, said he didn’t foresee the cameras replacing line judges.

Bill Babcock, Grand Slam administrator for the International Tennis Federation, had not heard about the camera, but said the idea of instant replay being applied to tennis was remote.

“The way tennis moves, I don’t see it,” Babcock said. “Each tournament may have its own spin on things, but any discussion of the use of replays would be pretty substantive. The most important aspect of the four Grand Slam events is that there is uniformity and fairness to all the players.”

Still, the camera is an intriguing piece of equipment. It was developed by Kodak to observe vehicle crash tests and analyze the manner in which cars break apart in collisions. It’s also used in some types of surgery and manufacturing.

“It’s useful for anything that can’t be detected by the human eye,” said Stuart Meyer, director of technical facilities for CBS Sports.

The digital camera is the size of a shoebox and costs about $450,000, almost twice the cost of a standard television camera. Its most impressive statistic, though, is its speed--it shoots at 1,000 frames a second, affording the replays remarkable clarity.

By way of comparison: The fastest single-lens reflex camera used by newspaper photographers shoots 10 frames a second. The standard television camera shoots 30 frames a second. The super slo-mo cameras that networks use at sporting events shoot 90 frames a second.

“It’s really fast,” Meyer said, with considerable understatement.

The two cameras being used here are second generation. CBS experimented with a camera operated at 200 frames a second during a clay-court tournament at Pinehurst, N.C.

Meyer saw the camera in Palm Springs, where Kodak was testing it on a golf course, and arranged to experiment with it, using professional golfers.

Then he began casting around for ways to best use the new technology. CBS met with USTA officials to discuss its use here, which required extensive construction.

Special camera mounts had to be built and were fitted inside a wooden barrier that was constructed in front of the existing photo pit at the sides of the Stadium court.

A control room was built beneath the stadium where the two specially trained camera operators work. Meyer said the operators must be young with good eyes and quick reflexes.

The system also requires other equipment to make it compatible with existing broadcast equipment.

The cameras--one focused on each baseline--are so valuable that they are removed when not in use.

So far, the system has been used only here, and, tennis being tennis, there is no indication that it will be used elsewhere, since each of the Grand Slam events does things its own way. Wimbledon, for example, is the only one to use an electronic device to detect net calls on serves. The Australian Open experimented this year with a system of pressure-sensitive devices mounted under the court to call lines.

Even the electronic Cyclops system to call service faults, which was adopted amid controversy in 1980, is not in use everywhere. It took years to make it proficient and it still is turned off on occasion when it becomes obvious that it is not functioning correctly.

The big problem with technological advances such as the Mac Cam is that they are so expensive that only the Grand Slam tournaments can afford to use them, and that use is limited.

Here, for instance, the camera is being used only on the Stadium Court and thus only a few players have been subjected to it.

The Open uses 20 courts and to totally automate the line calls each court would require six cameras--one on each baseline and two each on the side lines--at total cost of nearly $60 million.

There are other thorny questions for its use as an instant-replay device: The camera shows only the line and the ball, providing no other context. A player could argue that there is no proof he actually hit the ball that is shown in the frame.

Also, because the digital system is operated on a loop from the camera to a disc, the replays are recorded over. The disc can store only 1 1/2 seconds of data, then it is lost. There would be no opportunity to review points other than the most current one.

And even that would be at the discretion of the camera operator. To capture the nanosecond, the operator has to make an instantaneous decision to stop, record and replay the crucial frames. If the operator doesn’t think a ball is close enough to the line to warrant stopping the camera, the point is lost.

None of which fazes Meyer. He said the camera has applications in many sports but didn’t want to be specific. He also said that these cameras would be removed and returned to Kodak after the Open.

“We’ll work on a better one,” he said.