Live from the 152nd Open: NBC Sports Set for Final Round; Expands Remote Operations for Top Tracer, ‘Live From’ Cameras

As Open Championship wraps up all eyes turn to Paris for Olympics effort

The NBC Sports golf team heads to the final day of the Open Championship at Royal Troon set to produce coverage for a tight final round (and with four Americans right in the mix) but also looking back with some nostalgia to the last time they were here as in 2016 this was the site of their first Open Championship production.

“We are thrilled to be back and beyond lucky that we have an awesome relationship with the R&A, EMG/Gravity Media, and ETP,” says Allison McAllister, NBC Sports VP, Golf Operations. “It was a seamless transition when we took over the rights in 2016 and every year snice things have gotten better as we’ve tweaked little things here and there.”

As for the coverage at the Open this year, NBC’s unilateral cameras this year include six hard cameras on the course as well as two robotic cameras with long lenses on the 8^th and 17^th holes. In addition, there are four handhelds and then three additional robos, one in the broadcast booth as a second camera, one on the range, and one on the putting range. The NBC production team, led by Tommy Roy, NBC Sports, lead golf producer, also has access to the camera feeds captured by ETP for the world feed and cuts the show from a large control room in the center of the compound.

LiveU is also in use, both as a backup to transmission as well as transmitting scenic from historical and other notable locations in the area.

Marc Caputo, Senior Director, Remote Technical Operations, NBC Sports says that this year the team back in Stamford is controlling more of the elements remotely.

“We’re using four Ross robotic cameras on the ‘Live From’ set and the team in Stamford is controlling them,” he says. “This is also the first year Stamford is operating Top Tracer graphics remotely.”

Also new this year for the Open is the Appear transmission kit which NBC used at the US Open in June.

“That kit continues to evolve,” says Caputo.

The two-story studio complex is home to both NBC Sports and Sky Sports.

One interesting production challenge this year involves HDR and SDR as the actual golf coverage on NBC is 1080p SDR but ‘Live From’ is being shown in 1080p HDR. That means that the camera signals that are shared are converted to 1080p SDR for integration within the SDR tournament coverage but then go back to Stamford as 1080p HDR for use in the ‘Live From’ show.

Ready for Paris

This is no doubt a monumental month for anyone who works at NBC Sports as it has included not only this Open but the Tour de France and later this week the Summer Olympics in Paris. Upwards of 40 of the production team working on the Open Championship head directly to Paris to work on the Summer Olympics which begin later this week.

Some of the team, like Samantha Ruby, NBC Sports, golf, remote technical manager, will be at the Olympics supporting golf, NBC’s unilateral coverage (which will be produced out of Control Room 8 in Stamford) as well as Golf Central which will have a presence, others are getting involved with non-golf events.

“Golf Central will be on-air from the Olympics on every day starting Monday and then until Saturday, August 10 after the women’s play ends,” says Ruby. “We’ll come on air two hours after coverage is finished and we’ll also have our entire engineering team from here going over.”

Some of NBC’s equipment is also heading to Paris as the Newbert flypack will be heading to the Le Golf National golf course near Versailles which is home to the women’s and men’s golf events that will be held during the second week of the Games.

While Ruby is at golf, Bridget Cugle, NBC Sports, director of golf operations, will be over at swimming as broadcast manager with NBC golf head producer Tommy Roy who will once again head up the swimming coverage for NBC.

And McAllister will find herself wearing various hats during the Games, many very different from her current role on the golf side.

“The energy around an Olympics is electric,” says McAllister. “To be a part of all the excitement that surrounds the games is special. You’re there working together to bring this amazing event to life, get caught up in all the excitement, plus cheering on our country to bring home the gold. It’s quite an adrenaline rush.”

For those working on both events there have been plenty of calls in the midst of Open coverage to nail down Olympics preparation.

Says Cugle: “It’s nice to be in the same time zone as our team in Paris and we have calls pretty much daily and when I get to Paris on Monday, we’ll be ready to go.”

“EMG/Gravity Media has been great,” says McAllister. “They’re wonderful to work with, without Hamish Greig [EMG UK, director of golf operations] and Alice Cutler, production manager, and team we would be lost.”

When the Olympics end it will be back to golf and, specifically, the Fed ExCup Playoffs which begin on August 12 with the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, then onto Castle Rock, CO, for the BMW Championship on August 19, and then finishing up with the TOUR Championship which will be held at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta beginning August 26.

Adds Caputo: “We will also have three road shows for the playoff events, so it’s not only tournament coverage but three studio shows for the three playoff events.”