Raising profiles: Sunset Vine delivers comprehensive World Indoor Bowls Championships coverage By Kevin Hilton
Friday, January 24, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
The World Indoor Bowls Championships took place at the Potters Resorts venue in the seaside village of Hopton-on-Sea on England's Norfolk coast (10-26 January 2025). While based on outdoor lawn bowls, which is played and followed mostly by older age groups, the inside version has gained massive popularity among people of all ages and has become a competitive sport with a worldwide following.
As with many other less mainstream sports, indoor bowl's profile has been raised considerably by comprehensive broadcast coverage. As in past years, host coverage for the 2025 World Championships is from BBC Sport, working in conjunction with production company Sunset Vine, with daily live programmes on BBC Two as well as full matches and highlights on BBC iPlayer and Red Button and the World Bowls Tour YouTube channel.
Grant Philips, executive producer for S V, explains that the Red Button option on digital TVs offers additional programming to the main BBC Two afternoon coverage between 1pm and 5.15pm. We're on the Red Button in the mornings from 10:00-11.35am and in the evenings 7.30-9.30pm, he says. It's a compelling game to watch and a compelling one to work on as well. Because of that we've been able to gather a consistent team that enjoys coming back every time.
Among the technology and equipment suppliers working with S V on the championships are OB truck and camera hire company Cloudbass, graphics developer MOOV TV and specialist rental house Rugged Earth, which provided the Piero 3D analysis system. The production scanner is Cloudbass's OB1, a 24-camera, double-expanding vehicle featuring a Sony MVS 7000X 80-input vision miser, Calrec Audio Alpha mixing console and an Evertz 1080i/50 576 576 hybrid embedding router.
The playing area, or rink', being used is a long rectangle bounded by a gully known as the ditch, with the audience behind that on all sides. Bowlers toss a coin to decide who plays first, with the resultant lead player rolling a small target ball, the jack, from one end of the rink towards the other. Each player then takes turns to send their bowls down the rink with the intention of landing as close to the jack as possible or bowling faster and harder to knock a competitor's bowl out of the way. When all bowls have been played the competitors switch ends and start again.
The rink at this year's championships is covered by 11 cameras, with two set-ups for each end. We've got a couple of jibs, which are very important cameras as they provide the overhead shots, comments Philips. That's because it's a portable rink, not a permanent one and it would take a lot more rigging to put up a wire system. But for our purposes the jibs are absolutely perfect. There are also two low end cameras and two high end cameras, mounted on Sheffield plates, along with handhelds around the venue and a couple of mini-cams in the ditch. They're all standard models but have been positioned very carefully to maximise the visual impact of the sport and ensure we can tell the story of the game. Cameras include a mixture of Sony HDC-2500s and HDC-1700s fitted with a variety of lenses, including HJ 14s, HJ 22s, HJ 40s and UJ 90s
Miked up
Indoor bowls has also embraced the trend for bowlers and officials to wear radio microphones, particularly, Philips says, for the pairs competitions. The players are all miked up, but they do have the chance to either leave the mic on or turn it off if that's their choice, he explains. But the effects mics around the rink do pick up a lot of the chatter because the players talk to each other at either end and if they raise their voices we pick that up as well.
Both the commentary position and the main presentation studio are close to the rink but isolated so neither the players nor the spectators can hear what is being said. We've got an enclosed commentary booth and the commentators are behind glass, Philips says. But the great benefit of having them on-site and close to the action is that their expertise can be used within the punditry segments of the show. They can open the coverage with our presenter, Rishi Persad, and then pop up through the day. Having the presentation studio rink-side means it is at the heart of the action and we're rubbing shoulders with the players.
The commentary team for this year is led by former player David Corkill alongside current bowler and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sian Honnor. Their expertise and knowledge of the sport is augmented by graphical tools, primarily Ross Video's Piero analytical system. This works in conjunction with the jib cameras, which provide overhead shots of the playing area. They can determine which bowls are closest to the jack and the Piero can be used by the experts to anticipate visually where a shot might end up, Philips comments.
The live broadcasts and highlights packages, which are edited on-site, are distributed back to the BBC over satellite uplink as the main connection, with a LiveU IP video over bonded cellular circuit via the BT Tower as backup.
Now nearing its conclusion, the World Indoor Bowls Championship began on 10 January and has already seen Scotland's Julie Forrest beat fellow Scot Beth Riva to win her third women's singles title. The men's singles will round off the competition on Sunday 26 January.
Most recent headlines
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Inducts 10 Industry Icons During Unforgettable ...
17/12/2025
ESPN to Debut MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, a New AI-Driven NFL Data-AltCastThe series, powered by Adrenaline TruPlay AI, launches Dec. 22 and runs through ...
17/12/2025
Inaugural Optum Golf Channel Games Debut Under the Lights' in Primetime on ...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Inside The Unseen World Of Indian Customs: Netflix Reveals The...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix announces PAPARAZZI KING: the docu series coming to Ne...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First Look at Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole Pr...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Welcomes Warner Bros. Discovery Board Recommendation
Business
17 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
After Careful Revi...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
The Hao AI Lab research team at the University of California San Diego - at the forefront of pioneering AI model innovation - recently received an NVIDIA DGX B...
17/12/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
Raising profiles: Sunset Vine delivers comprehensive World Indoor Bowls Championships coverage By Kevin Hilton 
