
Live From THE PLAYERS: NBC Sports Tees Up Drone Tracing, Taps Into NEP Compound Connect In a new wrinkle, NBC will start its telecast on Saturday from PGA TOUR Studios new Studio 1A By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, March 14, 2025 - 12:21 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It's day two of THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, and this year's event is surrounded by a lot of excitement, most notably about the new PGA TOUR Studios building. That massive building, located about 500 ft. from the TV compound, is a hotbed of next-generation broadcast technology and workflows and will be front and center on Saturday afternoon when NBC begins live broadcast coverage from the building. It's all part of a production that continues to see NBC Sports and the PGA TOUR working more closely together every year.
This weekend, NBC Sports broadcasts THE PLAYERS Championship from TPC Sawgrass. (Photos: Carrie Bowden, SVG)
Our relationship with the TOUR gets stronger every year, says Bridget Cugle, director, golf operations, NBC Sports. They are a great partner. PLAYERS week has been a true testimony to this, with everything going smoothly.
The production effort on Saturday will take advantage of something else new this year: NBC will start the telecast from PGA TOUR Studios' Studio 1A. NEP's TFC Compound Connect system connects the building to NEP PGA TOUR, ND2, and Sharpshooter CBS trucks and NBC's IP NEWBERT flypack. Compound Connect allows signals to be shared via NEP TFC technology and SMPTE ST 2110 workflow.
In addition, nine intercoms are trunked, explains Marc Caputo, senior director, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, and comms are seamless between the onsite trucks, PGA TOUR building, and NBC Sports Stamford.
A PLAYERS first this year is drone tracing, he adds. It is one of three drones covering the course. PGA TOUR introduced drone tracing during the 2023 season, and the solution is a joint effort by the TOUR, Kaze Aerial, ARL, Bolt 6, and Trackman. It has revolutionized golf coverage.
On the 18th green, NBC also has an incoming trace provided by RoboVision and ARL using Trackman data. On holes 16 and 17, the broadcaster is taking the feeds from a Cosm cam installed in the water next to each green.
The TV compound for THE PLAYERS continues to evolve and is centered on NEP's PGA TOUR mobile units.
At the heart of the compound is NEP's multi-unit PGA TOUR fleet, which debuted last season and is home to both NBC Sports and CBS Sports golf productions. The Production Control Room unit is the main production area; Field Acquisition Units 1 and 2 houses the EICs, fiber patching, video shading, the A1 area, submix, and the majority of QC for audio; and a Record Flex truck comprises EVS operations, editing, and rules review. Also onsite are two BSI trailers: a main truck, which is now a double-wide, and a hauler providing up to 36 RF camera paths. NEP Supershooter CBS is on hand for Every Shot Live coverage.
More than 70 cameras have been deployed for the tournament, including the aforementioned live drone tracing, drone coverage of the 16th and 17th holes (which will also have bunker cams), and a FlyCam once again running between the 9th and 18th holes.
With the PGA TOUR trucks, says Jason Abrams, director, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, we were able to have them parked on Monday and build out 76 cameras in 72 hours so that we could be on air by Wednesday.
More from Sports Video Group
08/05/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundarie...
08/05/2025
Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta...
08/05/2025
PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are...
08/05/2025
Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Produ...
07/05/2025
Tech Focus: Venue Sound, Part 1 - Chasing the Fan Experience Balancing audio quality and noise is a constant struggle By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, M...
07/05/2025
Tech Focus: Venue Sound, Part 2 - For Multi-Use Spaces, the Gear Makes the Diffe...
07/05/2025
Snow Sports Offer Opportunity for Edgy and Aggressive' Audio Natural Selection Tour, Shawn White's The Snow Leagues emphasize athlete sound By Dan Da...
06/05/2025
SVG India Summit Draws 140 for a Day of Learning, Networking Global perspectives coupled with India perspectives made for informative discussions By SVG Staff ...
06/05/2025
The CW Benefits From NASCAR's New XR and Volumetric Studio at North Carolina...
06/05/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Blackmagic Design's Dan May on the Company's Wide Range of...
06/05/2025
The FAST Factor: What's Happening in Sports' Latest Streaming Party Leaders from the NBA, NBC Sports, and Amagi discuss the latest trends in free ad-sup...
05/05/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Kiloview's Judy Zuo on Ensuring Reliable AV Over ...
05/05/2025
In NAB 2025 Afterglow, Grass Valley Touts New Imagers, Production Switchers, AI ...
05/05/2025
Inside ATP Media's remote revolution in tennis broadcasting By George Bevir
Friday, May 2, 2025 - 13:50
Print This Story
From a single London hub, ATP...
02/05/2025
Ratings Roundup: 2025 NFL Draft Viewership Slots Event at Second Most-Watched Ev...
02/05/2025
Behind the Mic: MSG Networks' Joe Micheletti Set to Retire; NBA on NBC'...
02/05/2025
SVG Esports Production Summit Examines Impact of Remote, Cloud-Based Workflows o...
02/05/2025
Alternative Broadcasts With the Bucs: SportsNet Pittsburgh Provides Unobstructe...
02/05/2025
New possibilities: Creating a new production company with a difference at Moment...
02/05/2025
NBC's 25th Kentucky Derby Production Features Two Live Drones, RED Cine-Broa...
01/05/2025
Telling the story: Extensive technical set-up delivers comprehensive Special Oly...
01/05/2025
Just Around the Bend: Olympic Broadcasting Services Readies for the Milano-Corti...
01/05/2025
Wireless Microphone Spectrum Alliance Gets Going With Lobbying To Ensure RF Acce...
30/04/2025
With Back-to-Back PBR, UFC, and WWE Events in KC, TKO Takeover' Proves To B...
29/04/2025
Fascinating characters: Behind the Grand Slam Track partnership of Momentum Broa...
29/04/2025
Big package: Groundbreaking AR for live athletics comes to Grand Slam Track By ...
29/04/2025
High benchmark: Inside the inaugural Grand Slam Track production from Jamaica B...
29/04/2025
Engagement in the Live Stream: The New Age of Delivering the Game A conversation of streaming leaders dissects the feature sets that are winning in live sports ...
29/04/2025
Conveying emotion: BBC Sport on bringing the 45th London Marathon to viewers By Heather McLean
Monday, April 28, 2025 - 14:35
Print This Story
BBC Sport l...
28/04/2025
Joe Cohen Inducted into Cable Hall of Fame By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, April 28, 2025 - 5:19 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story H...
28/04/2025
LiveU Inks Deal to Acquire Actus Digital, Boost Video Monitoring and Analytics C...
28/04/2025
Small Van, Big Story: Changing the Game in Sports Broadcasting with Obvious C By SVG Staff
Monday, April 28, 2025 - 10:51 am
Print This Story | Subscribe ...
28/04/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ESPN's Chris Calcinari on New Flagship Mobile Unit, Cloud and ...
28/04/2025
A Swiss Soccer Summer: Previewing UEFA Women's Euros 2025 with BBC Sport and...
25/04/2025
Super Bowl Streaming Success: A Conversation with Tubi's Chief Product & Tec...
25/04/2025
Tariff Turmoil: Trump's Trade Policy Sparks Uncertainty at NAB and Increases...
24/04/2025
Live From NFL Draft 2025: NFL Media Splits Sprawling Production Between Green Ba...
24/04/2025
Live From NFL Draft 2025: Van Wagner Turns Titletown Into Center of Fan Entertai...
24/04/2025
Live From the NFL Draft: NFL Media Splits Massive Production Between Green Bay a...
24/04/2025
Comcast Fills SpinCo Sports Executive Ranks With Matt Hong as President, Jeff Be...
23/04/2025
Audio Helps Chess.com Checkmate Cheating Matches are produced using REMI workflows By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print Th...
23/04/2025
Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 1 - Key to Onsite, REMI, Hybrid Operations Intercoms keep increasingly disparate production locations together By Dan Daley, Audio ...
23/04/2025
Speaking my language: Bringing AI to the fore with real time audio translation f...
22/04/2025
Pushing the game: Growing the popularity of the 2025 Women's Six Nations thr...
22/04/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: RedFlag AI CEO Max Eisendrath on Creating a One-Stop Shop...
22/04/2025
Live from The Crucible: BBC Sport's Phil Bigwood discusses transitioning the...
22/04/2025
Live from The Crucible: Sunset Vine makes the first subtle changes of many for i...
22/04/2025
You Are There': FOX Sports, Sony, Hawk-Eye Innovations Break Down the Latest...