NBC Coverage of Presidents Cup a Team Effort

NBC Coverage of Presidents Cup a Team Effort By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Tuesday, October 3, 2017 - 11:38 pm

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The Presidents Cup this past weekend might not have provided the kind of on-the-course drama of recent Ryder Cups but its location at the Liberty National Golf Club provided a dramatic backdrop thanks to the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. And for the NBC Sports golf operations team, headed up by NBC Sports VP of Golf Operations Ryan Soucy, met the challenge of keeping up with a U.S. team that dominated the action for the first three days and then making sure the final day coverage of the team's victory march met the needs of golf fans. And given the team nature of the event emotions can run high. When it's a team event everyone is pretty jacked up, says Soucy.

NBC's coverage of The Presidents Cup this past weekend made great use of a dramatic backdrop featuring the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.

The course is located on the New Jersey side of the Hudson and next to a military based which provided the land for the TV compound.

This is the first time we've been allowed access to a military base and they have an unbelievable operations team that we have been working with for about a year now, says Soucy. Most of our team travelled in on Monday from Tour Championship, turned our trucks around in two days, and it's been a great team effort.

The Presidents Cup is similar to the Ryder Cup in that it features golfers from the United States teeing off against a team of international golfers. For the Ryder Cup the international team is comprised of Europeans. For the Presidents Cup, they come from non-European nations. The biggest difference is that the Presidents Cup begins on a Thursday with afternoon sessions on both Thursday and Friday while The Ryder Cup begins on Friday with a morning session.

Having one more day spreads it out a little bit more but we are here with TopTracer which can be used to focus on one golfer and then move with them to the next hole and then PinPoint for winds and fairways, says Soucy.

NEP had a big presence with ND4 (A, B, and C units), SS25 (A and B units), and ST25 and Fiber 2 supporting live tournament coverage for NBC Sports. And NEP Atlantic supported the World feed production by PGA Tour Productions, ND5 supported Sky's U.K. feed, and NCP14 was used by The Golf Channel for production of its Live from the Presidents Cup coverage. More than 30 cameras were used and NEP also had 16 engineering and technical staff on site.

RF cameras also played a major role as for an event like the Presidents Cup, where conversations between players are integral to the competition, including an RF Top Tracer and RF Steadicam that used for introductions and elsewhere on the course. CP Communications was on hand providing five RF mini cameras for NBC's coverage.

Soucy's new role at NBC Sports has him overseeing operations of both the coverage on NBC Sports and the Golf Channel, helping drive more efficiencies between the two entities.

We have been working as a team for years but now we are more centralized and I spend a lot more time going back and forth to Orlando [where the Golf Channel team is located], says Soucy. I am really excited about it. And working with an experienced team such as Keith Blachly, Nick Cap, Marc Caputo and Allison McAllister made the event a huge technical and operational success.

Ken Goss, NBC Sports, SVP, remote operations and production planning, says that Soucy's experience over the years has seen him work in many of the roles and up through the system.

It's a great team effort and Ryan will oversee it from a macro level and lead a team in the hundreds to be efficient and continue to look at new technologies, adds Goss.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/10/03/nbc-coverage-of-presidents-cup-...
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