Live from The Open: Broadcast RF in close support as Sky pres heads onto the golf course By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe
Sunday, July 21, 2019 - 11:28
Print This Story
View of 16th green at Royal Portrush with two camera hoists in the background
For the first time at an Open Championship, the Sky Sports Golf team is not using a glass studio by the 18th green as its main presentation platform. Instead, anchor Sarah Stirk and guests can be found out on the golf course during coverage, using a return vision monitor and control system supplied by Broadcast RF to retain contact with the production team as they conduct stand-ups around the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush.
The commitment to drop the glass studio in favour of live presentation on the course was rewarded in spectacular style when Sky Sports came on air at 06:30 on Thursday morning for the first shot of The Open.
Head of directors & creative Duncan East told SVG Europe, When we came on air the first day of The Open last year, we were in a studio behind glass. When we came on air on Thursday morning this year with Sarah Stirk, Rich Beem and Paul McGinley, at 6:30am, we were on the first tee with Darren Clarke teeing off behind the presentation position.
When Darren had teed off, he walked over to have a chat with his old friend Paul McGinley at our pres position, whilst we were live.
We made a decision to leave the studio because we wanted to get closer to the action. Nothing proved more that that was the right decision than after two minutes of being on-air, when Darren walked over for a chat, straight into our position.
When people tune into golf they want to feel like they're part of the course: who's leading, what's the weather like? This year we're just out on the course, at the relevant tee or green, or back at The Zone: it's flexible, relative to the narrative of the day, said East.
You would never have got that sequence on Thursday morning if you had been in the studio sitting behind glass. And that's TV magic.
Broadcast RF project manager James Halliday told SVG Europe, Sky have got a wireless return vision monitor that's got course-mic coverage. That's added an extra level of complexity to our coverage.
We have three transmitters out on the course that we can turn on or off, depending on where the monitor is, so that Sky can go anywhere with this monitor.
They're doing their stand-up studio positions in various locations around the course. They have ditched their main studio this year, and instead have two cameras, a monitor and a presenter completely roving. They're not using the entire course - they could if they wanted to - but they're just letting us know where they want to be and we can pre-select the right transmitter.
This does add some complexity for us. The three transmitters are IP controlled and there are more fibre lines required to get the video to the transmitters. We've got IP to the transmitters to control them remotely, so we can sit here on a laptop. There is quite a lot of work involved in getting all that up and running in the first place. But it's working well now, and seems to be delivering what they want.
This year Broadcast RF is supplying 29 RF cameras to its various clients, an increase of four over last year in Carnoustie. The breakdown is: 6 x European Tour Productions handhelds; 1 x ETP Steadicam; 4 x ETP marquee group cameras; 1 x ETP Toptracer; 5 x NBC handhelds; 1 x NBC XMO camera; 1 x NBC Toptracer; 3 x Sky Sports handhelds; 1 x Sky Sports return video RF monitor system, course wide; 3 x TV Asahi handhelds; plus 4 x CTV RF cameras.
The receive infrastructure consists of 28 antennas around the course, with an equally large RF router setup capable of receiving 32 antenna inputs, and distributing 96 outputs.
Another key development is that Broadcast RF has moved its racks and receivers out of its own dedicated cabin in the TV compound and into CTV's TOSCA central apparatus area.
Traditionally we've kept all our racks and our receivers and control system in one room, but this year the cabins available to us were smaller and also the amount of kit we needed was greater, said Halliday. So we thought if we move our racks and receivers and put them in with TOSCA we can control them remotely over IP.
Broadcast RF project manager James Halliday in RF racks area of CTV's TOSCA
That solves a number of issues, space being one and noise being another, with temperature control being another one as we needed lots of air-con in the cabin - and again that is noisy. Great for the kit but not so great for the people sitting operating that kit. Now our cabin is nice and quiet and there's a pleasant temperature.
Also we've got shorter cable runs between ourselves and TOSCA and TOC, because all the kit is very close by. That saves on a number of fronts including critical cable length.
So the only thing we've got between TOSCA and our cabin this year is a handful of lengths of fibre optic cable which bring some video signals back to us and then we've got the IP control system that we are running. It seems to be working very well.
How does the topography of the Royal Portrush course present challenges this year, compared to other courses on The Open rota?
Well this year we've got a lot more antennas. We're up to 27. We have four hoists up with two antennas per hoist plus a lot of ground-based. There's quite a lot of overlap this year, so it seems to be easier for us to manage, said Halliday.
It is a hilly course; compared to last year at Carnoustie it's quite lumpy. A proper sand-dunes links course. We've strategically positioned a number of antennas around the course at a lower level which are filling in the holes and then the hoists are doing the bulk
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Live from The Open: Broadcast RF in close support as Sky pres heads onto the golf course By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe 
