Live From The Open Championship: NBC's Golf Team Refined Workflows Make a Difference By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 5:27 am
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The 148th Open Championship marks the fourth year that NBC Sports is on hand to produce coverage for U.S. golf fans and with 350 people on hand in the small seaside town of Portrush and production teams in Stamford and Orlando operating in full gear to deliver coverage via The Golf Channel as well as NBC stations across the country.
(l-to-r) Keith Kice, Allison McAllister, Ryan Soucy, Craig Bernstein, Marc Caputo, and Ken Goss at the 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Ryan Soucy, VP, golf operations, NBC Sports, says operations are similar to last year with some slight workflow improvements like a unilateral RF Toptracer and the use of a LiveU camera to capture beauty shots around town.
We're working closely with CTV OB and working a little more closely with Sky Sports to do a couple of things differently and it's worked out great.
Keith Kice, technical manager, NBC Sports, says that NBC has 49 unilateral cameras deployed around the course. The production team also takes 63 camera signals from the European Tour Productions (ETP) team which is producing the world feed.
We also have four super slo-mo cameras and our own RF tracer, he explains. And new this year is the use of a LiveU camera to show scenery around the town and it's been great to show the beauty of the area.
Once again, the NBC Golf production team works in a massive tented structure built by Tall Order Structures. The larger space provided by the cabin allows for a larger monitor wall than can be used in a production truck. Next door to the expanded production gallery is a replay area with EVS servers and the third room in the cabin is the main audio-mix area.
The NBC golf team continues to rely heavily on the proprietary NEWBERT remote flypack which allows for engineering and production staffers at the Golf Channel operations center in Orlando to work remotely from Orlando. Golf Channel's Live from The Open talent and camera crew calls a studio along the 18th fairway home during The Open. But the front bench team, ChryonHego and Vizrt graphics operators, the A1 audio mixer, and EVS operators are all back in Orlando operating from a control room where they have access to 13 cameras and other sources via integrated tally and router control. A Lawo audio frame is also part of the package on site, helping create a local mix, and DNF Controls provides GPI transport between The Open and Orlando. In addition, the system allows frame conversion of 50-fps signals to 59.94-fps to take place in Orlando, with less equipment needing to be rented for the coverage. Libero graphics for analysis are also being completed back in the States.
Craig Bernstein, senior director, technical operations and engineering, NBC Sports, says that the team is building off of the success of last year and once again the transmission kit is also being used.
Operations are similar to last year, but we have more sources available to Golf Channel in Orlando, he says. They keep pushing the capacity of what we can do with the kit and it keeps evolving as their needs grow. We have more IP gateways this year so we can get more sources and signals back to Orlando.
Soucy says Tommy Roy, lead golf producer, NBC Sports, came up with the idea to rely on LiveU to get live shots from around the area and places like the wide beaches and Dunluce Castle.
It's not new technology but it's worked out great, Tommy loves it, and it's been a good addition, says Soucy.
The set location for Mike Tirico offers dramatic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Portrush.
This was the first time the NBC golf team called Royal Portrush home for an event so there were three site visits to sort out studio locations, camera locations, and compound logistics. The first visit was after last year's Open in Carnoustie followed up by a second visit in December and then a third in May. When all was said and done camera locations and studio locations were locked down, including a studio for NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Tirico that has two windows that offer dramatic views of the Atlantic Ocean as well as the town of Portrush.
One thing all of the entities located in the broadcast compound have appreciated is having a compound that is on a paved car park that is usually where locals park their cars for visiting the beach.
Anytime you can be on flat ground it helps out tremendously, and Stuart Cook [ETP senior technical producer] and his team did an unbelievable job with access in and out of the compound, says Soucy.
Also helping out is that the NBC team, CTV, and ETP are completely on the same page after four years of working together (this year's Open marks the fifth time they have all worked closely, including last year's Ryder Cup in France).
It's getting to be so smooth, says Kice. By the time I go here a lot of the rooms were built, the monitor walls were done, and it's been great working with CTV. They're like family.
Ken Goss, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Network & Golf Channel, SVP, remote operations and production planning, says that operations continue to get better.
It's been an incredible team effort between NBC, Golf Channel, Sky Sports, and ETP, he says.
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Live From The Open Championship: NBC's Golf Team Refined Workflows Make a Difference By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
