Apple TV set up 14 iPhone 18 Pro units around Dodger Stadium as specialty cameras for its last Friday Night Baseball broadcast of the 2026 season, the San Francisco Giants at the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 18. Eight of them were set to send live video to the production over a dedicated T-Mobile Private 5G network, according to Sports Video Group, the broadcast trade publication that laid out the plan before first pitch.
That more than triples last season’s trial. For a September 2025 game between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park, the production used four iPhone 17 Pro phones for select game shots and cinematic images, without the private 5G link.
Where the phones went
The point of using a phone is its size. Sports Video Group lists the embedded positions Apple TV planned for the iPhones:
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- Inside the pitch clock
- Behind the backstop
- Along the foul pole
- In both bullpens
These are the kind of places where, in the trade publication’s words, “physical space, cabling, or safety considerations make installation of a traditional broadcast camera challenging.” A full broadcast camera with a lens, a housing and a cable run does not fit inside a pitch clock. A phone does.
The plan went beyond live game action. The phones were also lined up for batting practice, player introductions, dugout shots and scenes of the atmosphere around the ballpark, working alongside Apple TV’s traditional camera systems rather than replacing them.
Why the private 5G network matters
Cables are the usual problem with specialty cameras, and they are the reason a camera in a bullpen or on a foul pole is hard to rig. Eight of the 14 iPhones were set up to skip the cable entirely, sending their feeds wirelessly into the production in real time over the T-Mobile Private 5G network.
A private network dedicates capacity to the broadcast instead of relying only on public cellular service shared with a full stadium. Sports Video Group describes the aim as “more predictable connectivity” for the eight wireless feeds moving around the ballpark. That link is the new element this year, on top of the higher device count.
What the iPhone 18 Pro brought to the shoot
Matching a phone’s picture to a professional broadcast camera is harder than it sounds, because viewers notice when one shot looks warmer, brighter or softer than the next. The iPhone 18 Pro’s 48MP Fusion Main camera has a variable aperture, and Apple’s spec sheet lists “Pro controls for lens aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and viewing histogram.” According to Sports Video Group, those manual controls give the production team more control over matching the iPhone shots to the rest of the broadcast cameras.
Those are the same controls every iPhone 18 Pro owner has in the Camera app. If you want to use them yourself, note that the phone does not hold a manual aperture setting between sessions by default; our guide to why iPhone 18 Pro resets your aperture each time Camera opens shows how to change that. For a wider look at which Apple hardware suits video work, see our buying guide for video creators.
A showcase with a clear audience
The game fell on the same day iPhone 18 Pro reached Apple Stores. Broadcasters have been fitting smaller cameras into odd corners of stadiums for years, and Sports Video Group says Apple takes that idea “in a particularly consumer-facing direction” by putting the phone it sells straight into the camera line-up.
The game closed out Apple TV’s 2026 Friday Night Baseball schedule, which is available to Apple TV subscribers in 60 countries and regions without local broadcast restrictions.
