Putting the playoffs on TV takes 10 trucks, 40 cameras

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Saturday, January 7, 2017
Putting the playoffs on TV takes 10 trucks, 40 cameras
They don't call it the "magic of television" for nothin'.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- They don't call it the "magic of television" for nothin'.

Putting on a 4-hour or so broadcast of playoff football takes a monstrous effort of hundreds of people and massive amounts of equipment.

"We try to make it look easy," said senior operations producer Matthew Kwok. "That's why we do a lot of preparation before the show."

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Miles of cable, cameras and a lot of hard work goes into creating the Texans playoff broadcast you see on TV.

We got a behind-the-scenes look at Saturday's production: all 10 trucks that bring in cameras and cable, but also things like generators for back-up power.

"In the event of a stadium failure, we are still able to document what's going on," Kwok said.

There are miles of cables connecting the some 40 cameras to the production trucks - and the hundreds monitoring those cameras. (Don't forget the four pylon cams)

To get you those replays? There are 19 separate machines -- just to play back that one play you know the refs missed.

And once the game is over? It takes just about 160 minutes to pack it all up and be out of there.