Grass Valley Company Makes Camera Mounts Featured In NFL Broadcasts

GRASS VALLEY (CBS13) — Football fans may not realize some of the technology used to show Thursday Night Football games was manufactured in our region.

The Grass Valley Company makes the gimbals—camera mounts that give viewers an eye in the sky experience—featured in NFL broadcasts.

Mike Sterbenz is the co-founder of the company that makes the mounts that were used during Thursday's game that was seen by an estimated 16 million people.

"We thought we could make something better than what's out there," he said.

The 70-pound piece of equipment uses a series of motors and gyroscopes to take the shake out of live video images, even when mounted on an airplane flying 2,000 feet above the field.

The three-year-old company has 15 local employees and all assembly and design is done in their Grass Valley headquarters. Each gimbal takes about a month to make, and orders are already backing up.

"We really made a commitment to make this happen and it's taken everything to do it," he said.

The technology is also used for overhead inspections of pipelines, railroad tracks and windmills.