Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Broadcast RF Supports Sky Sports at the Open Championship With On-Course Coverage

23/07/2019

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
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/live-from-the-open-broadcast-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

06/10/2025

France Tlvisions Wins Prestigious 2025 EBU Technology & Innovation Award in Groundbreaking Collaboration with Dalet

France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...

04/09/2025

Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Dalet Win Prestigious 2025 NAB Show Project of the Year Award

Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...

31/08/2025

Legrand AV to Showcase Latest Residential AV Innovations...

Legrand | AV, a global specialist and industry leader in audiovisual solutions, returns to CEDIA Expo 2025, taking place Sept. 4-6 in Denver, with a powerful li...

31/08/2025

Backlight adds real time collaboration to Iconik as well...

Global media technology company Backlight will unveil new capabilities in its Iconik, Wildmoka, and Zype product lines at IBC2025 (booth #1.D09), September 12 1...

30/08/2025

FCC Slightly Raises Regulatory Fees for TV Stations

WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...

29/08/2025

Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight against Modern Slavery

Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...

29/08/2025

Call for entries is now open for the 19th Annual South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTAs19)

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...

29/08/2025

L3Harris Launches Counter-Unmanned Systems Initiative

L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...

29/08/2025

The CW Network Extends Pac-12 Deal Through 2030-31 Season

BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...

29/08/2025

Global FAST Channel Count Continues to Spike

NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...

29/08/2025

Harmonic Unveils New Capabilities for Its Live Sports Streaming Solution

SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...

29/08/2025

Youtube TV, Fox Settle Differences, Renew Carriage Agreement

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...

29/08/2025

Lightware MTR integration brings advanced flexibility and...

Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...

29/08/2025

Frequency Launches Studio Live - a Unified Platform to Br...

Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...

29/08/2025

Scality Day 2025 Celebrating 10 years of global innovatio...

In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...

29/08/2025

Disguise Drives New Immersive Racing Experience - F1 Box

Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+ Technology solu...

29/08/2025

Disguise Supports Fellow Entertainment Tech Leaders at IB...

Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show Disguise, the industry-leading tech...

29/08/2025

Accedo to Highlight Compose AI-Agent Enhanced Orchestration Layer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...

29/08/2025

Cineverse Launches Streaming Apps for In-Vehicle Video Streaming

LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...

29/08/2025

Gray Media to Simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL Games

DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...

29/08/2025

Comcast NBCU and Amazon Ink New Distribution Agreements

NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...

29/08/2025

RED Digital Cinema To Highlight Cine-Broadcast Module At IBC2025

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...

29/08/2025

Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and Highlighting Ukraine's Investment Case

29 Aug 2025 Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...

29/08/2025

Sky Sports to show more NFL games than ever as part of new rights agreement

More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025 Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...

29/08/2025

'RIV4LRIES': The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino Only on Netflix October 1

Back to All News RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...

29/08/2025

Steps ahead: RT to air inspiring documentary on 12-year-old Irish dance star

Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...

29/08/2025

TODAY WITH DAVID MCCULLAGH TO AIR ON RT RADIO 1 WEEKDAYS AT 10AM

RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...

28/08/2025

Meet the 2025 Sundance Institute Documentary Edit Residency Artists

By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...

28/08/2025

Watch These 9 Sundance Institute-Supported Documentaries That Spotlight Workers' Rights

Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...

28/08/2025

Motivational Corridos: The New Sound of Resilience in Msica Mexicana

Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...

28/08/2025

Corridos Motivadores: El Nuevo Sonido de la Resiliencia en Mxico

Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...

28/08/2025

Verano Forever Brings Myke Towers, Bele, Elena Rose, and More to Miami for an Unforgettable Latin Summer Celebration

Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...

28/08/2025

Poland Selects L3Harris Electronic Warfare System for F-16 Fleet

L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....

28/08/2025

AgileTV consolidates its technological leadership with the development of Lowi TV in Spain

Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...

28/08/2025

Craft Interview: Ken Wilkinson, Audio Engineer

Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...

28/08/2025

Fubo to Launch Fubo Sports Skinny Bundle for $56 Per Month

NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....

28/08/2025

Telestream to Launch 'Global Ingest Workflow at IBC2025

NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...

28/08/2025

Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Education

Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...

28/08/2025

TAG Strengthens Regional Presence with Appointment of Oli...

TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...

28/08/2025

DHD to Demonstrate AI-Based Voice Enhancement at IBC 2025

AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...

28/08/2025

Telefonica Servicios Audiovisuales Hit the Back of the Ne...

Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...

28/08/2025

Optical Media Anchors LiveU IQ into its On site Productio...

To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...

28/08/2025

WNED Adopts Calrec Type R console to weather any storm an...

Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...

28/08/2025

Cleeng unveils first ever free D2C subscription platform...

Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...

28/08/2025

Zixi and OKAST Partner to Power Scalable Global FAST Chan...

Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...

28/08/2025

Nixer to unveil CV1 AoIP monitoring tool to address evolv...

Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering Nixer Pro Au...

28/08/2025

Cinegy Announces Strategic Partnership with One Touch Pro...

Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...

28/08/2025

Telestream Global Ingest Workflow Powered by Vantage Open...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...

28/08/2025

Telenor partners with Broadpeak for multi-country content...

Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...