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At Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles on May 23, the visiting Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer got past the goalkeeper and nearly scored before an LA Galaxy defender kicked the ball wide at the last second. Fans at home saw it in a whole new way: from iPhone 17 Pro Max Positioned directly behind the goal. For the first time in the history of major sports, a professional match was filmed entirely using… iPhone.
Fifteen iPhones were placed around the pitch (all iPhone 17 Pro Max models), eight of which were filming with their original lenses, such as the one behind the goal. The other seven were filming live through huge external zoom lenses attached to iPhones. Zoom lenses were such that people were used to seeing professional sports stadiums that allowed camera operators to capture plays from across the field.
Seth Bacon, MLS’s executive vice president of media, told media during a pre-game on-field preview that there were two or three more cameras than usual at previous games. But even better value is the ability to place iPhones with just their regular lenses in places where cameras with larger lenses won’t fit, like behind goals and facing teams on the sideline.
“Those cameras you saw on the bench, we can’t usually get the cameras that close. What we’ll do is we’ll shoot across the field to get reaction shots,” Bacon said. “This kind of small size of the iPhone and being able to position it correctly is a very big step forward for us.”
Of the 15 iPhones that captured footage of an NFL game on May 23, 2026, eight used the phones’ native lenses. This is placed behind the goal on the field, a location that may be riskier for a more expensive camera.
This proximity to players and coaches could provide fun opportunities to take photos of players on iPhones’ microphones at some point, but for now MLS wants to be considerate of their privacy. Pay attention, for example, to the colorful language they might use during heated moments in the game. iPhones elsewhere on the field pick up game audio.
People watching the game on Apple TV probably couldn’t tell the difference, and that’s the point. It showcases recording capabilities for Apple phones, suggesting viewers can capture footage at the same level of quality with the iPhone 17 Pro Max in their pocket.
“Our native lenses (the iPhone 17 Pro Max), the quality they can produce is just as good as traditional streaming,” said Royce Dickerson, executive producer of live sports at Apple. “You won’t be able to tell the difference between cameras with a native lens and cameras with a zoom lens.”
Seven of the iPhones around the stadium have external lenses mounted on their cameras and connected to professional videographer setups like this one. Although it’s difficult to see from this angle, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is inside the stand in the camera operators’ hands.
It is not easy for the average photographer to imitate the shots of these programs, as the external lenses they are shot with are very expensive. Apple declined to reveal the cost of these lenses, but they looked exactly like the Fujinon Duvo 25-1000 Cinema Box lens that was announced at a launch price of $265,000, according to YMCinema. The footage is then run through Blackmagic video processing software. Consumers can get their own copy with the company Blackmagic Camera iOS app.
Throughout the stadium before the game, I saw one of the mounted camera setups being led by an experienced camera operator. Sitting in a gimbaled chair with precise controls, he smoothly moved the camera up and down, zoomed in and out and rotated it side to side in practice shooting in-game action shots. It looked like I’d seen camera operators perform at other professional sporting events — but instead of an expensive camera receiver, the lens was mounted on an iPhone in a mount.
A close-up of the setup used by Major League Soccer to record video footage of the May 23 game. The iPhone 17 Pro Max is seen in orange in the middle of the setup, with an adapter mounted directly on its lens, allowing it to record shots through a large external lens.
As the teams took the field in the minutes before the game, I monitored other cameras around the field, thinking about all the footage coming from all the iPhones. Then I saw where everything was put together in one stream.
The iPhone, seen in the center of the stage in the operator’s hands, has its screen mirrored in a separate screen above it so the photographer can see it more easily.
In the room where sports broadcasting takes place for iPhone pro
The 15 iPhone setup compilation shots are designed to minimize footage delays from video shot at the stadium to viewers watching the game on Apple TV at home. Each iPhone 17 Pro Max shot 1080p video at 60 frames per second, which was routed from the phone via a USB-C to HDMI cable to an adapter connected to a fiber cable heading to the streaming hub. From there, it is treated like any other footage, managed by a large team that sends it out into the world to reach viewers’ screens.
Like any other sporting event, the footage was collected and compiled in real time within the broadcast center. In the case of the Los Angeles Galaxy’s home stadium, the center is a mobile headquarters that can be towed by semi-truck, parked deep within the fan seats in the bowels of Dignity Health Sports Park.
The broadcast center for MLS games at Dignity Health Sports Park is an expandable mobile trailer connected by cable to all iPhones for instant delivery of game footage.
I entered the broadcast center to find a cramped space housing three rows of consoles and monitors, all angled toward a main wall of displays displaying everything captured by the 15 iPhones simultaneously. About a dozen people sat in front of these signs, watched by a supervisor wearing headphones and issuing directions. As the countdown to the start of the broadcast began, chatter descended into a hive of coordination, switching from camera to camera as I watched footage from all the iPhones I’d seen in the field being carefully stitched together in real time.
Inside the broadcast center trailer, operators cycle through footage of footage from all the iPhones located throughout Dignity Health Sports Park for the May 23 MLS match.
As Bacon told us, the broadcast center was treating the match just as it would any other MLS match — the only difference being that the incoming footage was from phones you could buy off the shelf. While some were captured with expensive third-party lenses, they were initially processed with a $1,200 phone.
“The fact that you can use what’s in your pocket — the iPhone 17 Pro Max — to film your kids’ soccer game, you’re going to get great streaming quality that you can use with professional equipment with a device that’s readily available to the consumer,” Dickerson said.
