Live From the 152nd Open: EMG/Gravity Media's Hamish Greig on How Little Novas' Play Big Role in 150+-Camera Production Wirecam gets an upgrade; Matrox gives new insights into complex network topology By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Friday, July 19, 2024 - 10:47 am
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The 152nd Open Championship has returned to Royal Troon in Scotland after having last been played here in 2016. The return signals a new era for the event, with NBC Sports and Sky Sports taking over as rightsholders in the U.S. and UK and ETP taking over as host broadcaster.
From left: EMG/Gravity Media Technical Producer Alan Jessop; Head of Golf Jackie O'Shea; and Director, Golf Operations, Hamish Greig in the Open Championship compound
The relationship between all of us has evolved greatly since 2016, says Hamish Greig, director, golf operations, EMG Live. In that first year, we still had a lot of side-by-side operations, and, because ETP, NBC, and Sky have such a good relationship, we all work really well together.
In 2016, the Open was the first to benefit from the installation of a new-specification course-wide fiber network. It all still works, which is incredible considering it has been eight years, says Greig. But it's a testament to why getting a fiber infrastructure installed underground at all the Open Championship venues makes complete sense.
Those new relationships in 2016 inspired a new concept in Open production that was launched in 2017 and continues to this day. The core of the compound for the Open Championship is a large IBC building comprising production-control rooms, replay areas, and audio rooms (and equipment racks). It is home to both the world-feed production team and the NBC Sports team, working at maximum efficiency. That core IBC building is one just part of a large compound that also houses EMG Live production units and portable cabins and facilities.
On one side of the compound is the world-feed operation; on the other, the unilaterals. According to Greig, Nova 125 was the first truck to turn up for the host-feed build-up and serves as main communications hub for the ETP and world-feed team. On the unilateral side of the compound two trucks: one (Nova 109) for NBC Sports, one for Sky Sports.
At the Open Championship, Nova 05 is handling Live at the Range production for Sky Sports.
Sky Sports is deploying remote operations similar to those it used for the Ryder Cup in Italy last October. The operations rely on what Greig calls one of the two little Novas, the small remote trucks that are onsite at Royal Troon. There are two generations of them here: the smaller, powered Nova 05 has room for five people, can handle eight cameras, and is being used for Live at the Range; the newer one, a member of the Nova 50 series, can handle up to 16 cameras and 60 transmission lines and houses a 256 256 matrix router, Artemis audio console, Calrec RP1s for IFBs, and an EVS replay system. With room for nine people, the unit here houses four vision operators, two audio operators, and an EVS operator.
Nova 53 is being used by Sky Sports for its remote production.
The beauty of [Nova 53] is, it's completely powered via a UPS, notes Greig. It will last for about 15 minutes if you lose shore power, affording plenty of time to find an alternative or solve the issue. That truck can also lift off the chassis and be placed on another chassis. So, when we're happy with electric-powered trucks, we can just move the unit from the current truck to an electric truck.
In terms of cameras, 151 are deployed. Besides the world feed's 106, there are the unilateral and dedicated cameras: NBC Sports has 17, Sky Sports has 12, Golf Channel is using 10 for Live From and at the practice area, Live at the Range for R&A is produced with eight, BBC is deploying an ENG facility, and the Featured Groups are covered by four. Thirty-eight of the cameras are RF. As for microphones, there 52 high-power on-course radio mics, about 50 low-power mics, and about 120 FX mics.
A new gimbal provides increased stability for Wirecam coverage of the Postage Stamp green.
The 2016 Open Championship marked a second major milestone: it was the first time a cable cam was used for on-course coverage at an Open Championship. That Wirecam, provided by ACS (Aerial Camera Systems), is back again at the famed 8th hole with its Postage Stamp green, but it has a new gimbal: the GSS-512X stabilized gimbal with a Sony P50 camera.
The new gimbal is much more stable, says ACS Operations Director David Whitlock. It can also handle the UHD camera, which is required here as the 8th hole is part of the UHD HDR par-3 coverage, along with Hole 5.
The Postage Stamp green is surrounded by five bunkers, each of which has bunker cams. Those are set to 50p HDR so they can match the UHD production, Whitlock explains. UHD minicams are available, but the required infrastructure to get those signals back is tricky. So we've gone 50p HDR and upscale them in the truck to match the UHD signals.
A bunker camera located in the forward bunker also has high-frame-rate capabilities. According to Whitlock, its location at the bottom of a slope from the green, which feeds balls into it, has offered many opportunities to show, in super-slo-mo replay, players hitting at least one and sometimes two (if the ball rolls back into the bunker) shots out of the bunker.
As for other specialty cameras, because the first tee is so close to the practice area, there is no need for bridges to get players to the tee box, and, thus, there is less need for the lipstick cameras or robos that capture that walk.
We still have cameras in the tunnel for the walk on the first tee and a couple of robos on the first and 18th greens, notes Whitlock. There are five robos for NBC, incl
