ESPN reports on the science of the kiss cam

From an article titled "Managing 'Kiss Cam' is a science":

CHICAGO -- Vanessa Kluth and Scott Cummins were just an unassuming couple enjoying a Bulls-Knicks game from the comfort of their courtside seats when in an instant, they became the stars of the show at the United Center.

"It was fun. It was a great time," Cummins said with a laugh.

Unwittingly, the couple became the latest stars on the "Kiss Cam", America's longest-running unscripted romantic drama that unfolds in front of tens of thousands of sports fans on JumboTrons across the country every night.

Over the past 20 years, it's become one of the most popular in-game promotions by putting couples on the spot -- literally.

"In general, it's hard to really tell for the camera people who's a couple with the way everyone's sitting," said Sergio Lozano, senior director of scoreboard operations at the United Center. "Sometimes we have two people and they're not there together, they're there with the person to the left or the right of them."

Lozano is the man behind the curtain of the Kiss Cam, calling the shots from his perch high above the court and determining what couples get to show their affection -- or lack thereof -- for one another on the big stage.

His staff consists of five cameras located throughout the crowd. His charges all have two simple instructions.

"Be safe and pick some interesting couples," he said. "It is somewhat of a family audience so we try and be kind of safe with the couples that we're displaying up there and just in general to have a good time with it."

Preparation for the big moment during the first break in the fourth quarter begins long before show time.

Lozano says he and his camera operators are constantly scanning the crowd, searching for couples who will bring the crowd to their feet. Cameramen we spoke with say they try to have a handful of couples in mind so it's only the couples -- and not camera operators -- who are caught off guard when the music starts playing.

With 20,000 people all together under one roof, it's not easy to pick out the couples from the non-couples, something Lozano says has caused some awkward moments drawing laughs instead of cheers from the crowd.

"That's just part of the trial and error of live TV -- just not knowing what's going to happen," he says.

Nobody -- not even Bulls legends -- are off limits.

"Last year we put up Scottie Pippen and his wife," Lozano said. "He was kind of surprised we put him up. They kissed and he kind of did the finger and pointed at us and did a nice little smile, so that was a good one."

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All about the L.A. Lakers Kiss Cam

Here's an article from the L.A. Times about one of the most celebrity-filled Kiss Cams in North American sports: The L.A. Lakers at the Staples Centre. Highlights:

Midway through nearly every Lakers game at Staples Center, in a manner so pure and unscripted we sometimes cry out in wonder, it happens.

It's about twisting, spinning, lunging, stretching, feinting, grabbing, clutching and, ultimately, scoring.

It's about kissing.

...Nobody does Kiss Cam like a Lakers crowd.

Nowhere, it seems, are the couples as animated, or the crowd as involved, or the message about the heart of Los Angeles any more clear. In a night filled with supermen, it is a brief, heartwarming reminder that the Lakers have been built upon the hopes and ideals of those who are real.

In a town where everything is supposedly disposable, no Kiss Cam moment is cheered louder than a smooch between an elderly couple. In a town that supposedly doesn't trumpet family values, the second-loudest cheers occur for the forehead pecks of a parent on a child.

The third-most popular Kiss Cam moment? Hugh Hefner sitting in a luxury suite kissing three or four bunnies. C'mon, this is still Hollywood.

...In the end there is usually wild cheering, because there is usually Dustin Hoffman. Sitting several rows behind the scorer's table, Hoffman has inexplicably become the star of this show, giving the old-fashioned segment a vaudeville ending.

He will kiss wife Lisa passionately, or with popcorn coming out of his mouth, or mysteriously behind a program. Recently he topped himself by kissing her before the cameras found him, as if he's always making out in the middle of the game.

The cool thing about Hoffman is the cool thing about Kiss Cam. Not once have the Lakers talked with him about his participation. Not once have they warned him that he was going to be shown. Like everything else on the Kiss Cam, it just happens.

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Cavaliers Mascot & Eva Longoria on the Kiss Cam

Found on YouTube:



Cavaliers Mascot and Eva Longoria in hot steamy Kiss-Cam action.

(via DCSportsChick)