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.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
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 
