How Apple Shot an Entire MLS Game Using Only iPhone
Apple made sports broadcasting history on Saturday night by shooting an entire Major League Soccer (MLS) game using iPhone 17 Pro Max smartphones. Now that the historic broadcast happened, it is worth taking another look to see not only how it went, but how Apple pulled off the impressive feat.
Apple shared some behind-the-scenes footage from the match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo on its social media channels, providing neat looks at some of the rigs camera operators were using.
As Apple explains above, it set up 15 Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max smartphones to capture the action on the pitch and in the stands at Dignity Sports Health Park in Carson, California. The company adds that the iPhone’s small size enabled the team to put professional-grade cameras in places that don’t support full-size, traditional broadcast cameras. The team put cameras on long poles and inside the nets.
Since the iPhone 17 Pro can output over HDMI, the smartphone easily fits into Apple TV’s typical MLS broadcast setup, and all the phone feeds were sent to the on-site production truck.
Apple’s full highlights from the match below look pretty standard, which is actually quite the accomplishment. Achieving a professional-grade, industry-standard broadcast using a device people carry around in their pocket is seriously impressive.
As expected, the broadcast relied on much more than just the iPhone 17 Pro Max, though. As Brian Tong showed on Instagram, Apple attached some of its iPhone 17 Pro Max phones to industry-standard Fujifilm Fujinon broadcast lenses, creating an unusual-looking setup. It’s quite something to see a smartphone attached to a massive Fujinon lens.
“This looks like a normal broadcast camera on a soccer field, but it’s not,” Tong says. “This is an iPhone 17 Pro Max with a lens attachment that allows it to work with the Fujinon HZK 25-1000mm lens that is about $265,000… ”
While setups like these with massive broadcast lenses go far beyond anything most iPhone owners could ever or even want to do, Apple’s on-field iPhone setups were much simpler, using on-device lenses and fairly normal handheld rigs that many, even enthusiast-level creators, could use to record professional-grade video.
As Tong explains, the 15 iPhone 17 Pro Max phones used for the broadcast were running the excellent Blackmagic Camera App and recording in Apple Log 2 at 1080p60. Some of the camera setups were also using an attached iPad as a monitor.
Although Apple hasn’t shared any plans to exclusively broadcast its pro sporting events, including the entire MLS season, Formula 1, and Friday Night Baseball (MLB) using iPhone, the special MLS broadcast appears to have been a smashing success. Apple’s smartphone camera technology clearly works in a professional broadcast environment, and the company has been increasingly utilizing the iPhone as part of its broader sports broadcast workflow. As the company says, iPhone can go places and do things traditional broadcast cameras cannot, delivering distinct, dynamic camera angles.
Image credits: Apple. Additional behind-the-scenes footage and info by Brian Tong (@nostratongus)
