When you first walk into Amazon Prime Video’s new 13,000-square-foot NBA studio in Culver City – a two-storey complex wrapped in LED screens, a regulation half-court and enough cameras to make an arena blush – it’s easy to get distracted by the flashier stuff. But tucked above all of that, following two carefully curved aluminium tracks, is a system that discreetly keeps the whole operation looking as smooth as it does: Motion Impossible’s AGITO SkyTrax.  

Amazon had an unusually specific brief: they wanted a permanent overhead camera system that could glide across a complicated studio layout without becoming a daily rigging exercise. They were looking for the strongest, most future-ready solution for overhead motion, and SkyTrax stood out because of its rigidity and reliability. Belt-driven systems can get a little temperamental when you throw arcs and long spans at them, but the rail design on SkyTrax holds its alignment and torque from end to end – crucial when you’re broadcasting live several nights a week and can’t afford surprises.  

The two curved tracks installed in the NBA facility were designed around the space rather than imposed upon it. One arches over the mezzanine to give the pregame desk a clean, elevated frame; the other traces the contour of the half-court, supporting the overhead angles used when analysts break down plays. Both rails are hardwired for power and data, so the camera units behave like permanent infrastructure: no battery swaps, no charging schedules, no pre-show rituals involving cables and crossed fingers. The system simply wakes up and works.  

Creatively, SkyTrax gives Amazon a stable overhead perspective that ties together with the studio’s shifting scenes – mezzanine deck, lounge area, analysis court – without jolting the viewer between them. Each carriage also carries a FoMa ANTARES stabilised remote head chosen specifically because, when paired with the AGITO Column, it gives the studio the option of genuine top-down shots without any re-rigging.  

Technically, SkyTrax acts as one of the few, fixed anchors in a studio where almost everything else can be re-skinned or re-lit at a moment’s notice. When the floor becomes a virtual arena and the walls turn into data canvases, it helps to have at least one piece of kit that does the same thing every time. Built for consistency, not theatrics, AGITO SkyTrax relies on quiet motors, reliable torque and clean stop points. That dependability lets a single operator run both units and heads, while the director can call shots knowing the rail system will support them. 

In the end, SkyTrax is not – and never will be – the star of Amazon’s NBA House… and that’s rather the point. It’s the shot that behaves; the move that never calls attention to itself. In a studio designed to rethink how basketball is talked about on television, that hushed reliability is its own kind of innovation.