TechRadar, a technology media, published a blog post today (September 30) reporting that Apple achieved an industry-first on September 26, 2025, by using four newly-released iPhone 17 Pro series phones for the first time in the live broadcast of "Friday Night Baseball" on Apple TV+ during a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.
During the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers, the production team deployed four iPhone 17 Pro series phones (three Pro models and one Pro Max) that had been released just a week ago, using them as official broadcast-grade cameras.
The media pointed out that due to their size and weight, traditional broadcast cameras are greatly restricted in terms of deployment locations. However, the iPhone 17 Pro series, with its compact body, has successfully broken through these physical limitations.
According to IT HOME，the Apple team fixed one phone at a high position on the famous Pesky Pole in the right field of Fenway Park using a fixture, and another was cleverly hidden in the gap of the scoreboard on the "Green Monster" home run wall.
In addition, one phone was mounted on a "Ronin" stabilizer and handheld by an operator for mobile shooting, and the last one was set up on the first base line.
These special camera positions captured unique shots that traditional equipment could not present. As Royce Dickerson, the executive producer of Apple TV's live sports, said, "Our goal is to enter new spaces and let users see game angles they have never seen before."
Surprisingly, no custom software or hardware developed by Apple was used in this live broadcast. The four iPhone 17 Pro phones ran the Blackmagic Camera app, which can be publicly downloaded from the App Store, and were equipped with standard off-the-shelf accessories such as tripods and filters.
The captured images were transmitted to the production truck almost without delay through fiber optic or radio frequency (RF) technology. Inside the truck, the director's team could remotely control the camera positions of all the iPhones through an iPad, adjusting parameters such as zoom, white balance, and exposure in real-time. The operation experience was no different from that of controlling other professional cameras.
Although the iPhone 17 Pro supports 4K 60fps video recording, to match the existing live broadcast standards, this broadcast adopted the 1080p 60fps specification. Judging from the final effect, there was no obvious difference between the images shot by the iPhone and those of professional cameras. Only when the image was switched, a "Shot on iPhone" watermark would appear in the upper right corner of the screen.
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