
Turner Sports Looks To Transport The Match' Viewers Onto the Course With Cart Cam, Drones, and More TNT brings All Access' mentality to DeChambeau-Koepka broadcast By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 - 2:43 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
In what has become a Thanksgiving tradition for golf fans, Turner Sports will produce the next installment of Capital One's The Match on Friday live from Wynn Las Vegas. The latest edition, which features bitter rivals Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka facing off head-to-head, will bring back plenty of the production-tool staples of The Match, including Cart Cam, aerial drones, miked-up players/caddies, and Toptracer shot tracking.
What makes this event special and what we're really looking to capture is that intimacy with the golfers, says Chris Brown, VP, operations and technology, Turner Sports. That's what The Match is all about. Between the Cart Cam, the RF mics [on players and caddies], and everything else, we feel like we're ready to make fans feel like they're right on the course [with DeChambeau and Koepka].
All About Access: Cart Cam, Golfer Mics Back on the Fairway As an exhibition match for charity, The Match offers a breeding ground for production-tech innovation, and Turner has leveraged the event accordingly. Most notable among its innovations is the Cart Cam, which captures competitors as they travel from shot to shot in their golf carts.
If I put together a list of [our] top innovations during COVID, the Cart Cam would be right up near the top, says Brown. I think getting to see and hear that intimate time inside the golf cart with the players is pretty special. Cart Cams are definitely back [this week], and they are here to stay.
Both player carts will be outfitted with three BSI camera systems: one robotic and one POV on the front left/right of the cart, a third over-the-shoulder POV behind looking out onto the course. BSI provides Turner Sports with the same high-tech systems (with a few minor tweaks) used for in-car cameras on NASCAR and other auto-racing broadcasts.
It was lightning in a bottle that we were able to do it at all at first, says Brown. When we did The Match in [May] 2020, essentially all production was halted at the time [due to the pandemic]. When we did that show, we could literally have almost anything we wanted in terms of equipment. And, since the NASCAR season had been halted, all of that equipment was available.
So we actually have the same BSI POVs and robotics used for NASCAR in those Cart Cams, he continues. Since then, we have managed to schedule The Match during times when that gear is available and BSI has enough of those systems [to serve us]. They know we love doing the Cart Cam, so they make sure they are available for us.
Besides using Cart Cam, Turner's production team will look to capture intimate all-access moments with DeChambeau and Koepka via wireless RF mics on both golfers and caddies. Turner is also deploying a Unity IP-based intercom system to provide golfers with a mix-minus audio feed so that they can hear each other as well as the announcers.
We're hoping to capture that caddy/golfer conversation in the cart and on the course with the mics and the Cart Cams, Brown explains. It's every scratch golfer's dream to hear what Brooks and Bryson are talking about with their caddies.
Capturing The Match': Drones, Tracer Cams, More Given the Wynn Golf Course's close proximity to McCarren International Airport, Turner is unable to use a traditional aerial shot. Instead, TNT's coverage will feature live overhead feeds from a drone (provided by Kane Aerial Production) as well as a live shot from the roof of the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel.
In addition to Cart Cams and the drone, Turner's 27-camera complement includes three Tracer Cams for Toptracer shots (two RF, one wired), one RF Steadicam, one RF jib, and four additional RF handhelds.
We're very heavy on RF [mics and cameras] for these shows, notes Brown. The key is being able to have that seamless [RF] coverage across the entire golf course. Here, we are helped by the fact that it's a 12-hole golf course that is all relatively flat, so it is a lot easier to cover from an RF standpoint - unlike in some [previous versions of The Match] where we've had severe terrain that we had to conquer.
In the Compound: ND7 Serves TNT; Atlantic Handles B/R NEP ND7 (A and B units) is onsite to serve as the home of The Match production. Without an official pregame studio show this year, Turner was able to locate the entire production in ND7 rather than across multiple trucks.
Instead of a traditional studio show, Bleacher Report is live-streaming Brooks & Bryson: Hot Seat Press Conference prior to The Match. Beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET, the interactive Q&A will feature inquiries from fans across B/R social channels and the B/R app, along with questions posed by a handful of special guests leading up to tee time at 4 p.m. ET.
In addition to rolling out NEP Atlantic mobile unit onsite, the live stream will be produced with the multi-site/REMI workflows Turner developed during the pandemic to unite Vegas, New York, and Atlanta.
The Bleacher Report [press conference] is going to be a unique combination that connects the remote site [in Vegas] and B/R headquarters in New York with a production crew sitting in Atlanta to produce the event, says Brown. All work we did during the pandemic and technology that we acquired to do those [remote] productions have allowed us to turn that technology around and produce this live press event as efficiently as possible. We'll look for more opportunities like this in the future.
Building a Legacy: The Evolution of The Match' Since the first chapter of The Match in 2018,
More from Sports Video Group
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...
10/07/2025
FOX Sports Reboots Small Control Room in Los Angeles as Hub for Vertical-First P...
10/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: MSE's Zach Leonsis, ViewLift's Rick Allen Go Deep on Joint...
09/07/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, ViewLift Unveil Broadcast/Streaming Joint Ven...
09/07/2025
SVG Europe Audio State of Wireless Mics Forum: If we lose the spectrum, it...
09/07/2025
Tech Focus: Athlete Audio - Venues Provide Sound Just for the Players From locker room to field of play, personalized systems help rev up the athletes By Dan D...
08/07/2025
Groundbreaking Gamecocks: Inside University of South Carolina's Four-Control...
08/07/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment's Samantha Brady on the Power of the RSN...
08/07/2025
Live From 2025 FIFA Club World Cup: FIFA, HBS Focus on Tournament Wrap, With an ...
08/07/2025
SVG Rewind: NESN Goes Behind the Scenes of 1975 Red Sox Retro Broadcast NESN is following up the retrocast with a week-long celebration of the Green Monster By...
07/07/2025
1-2 Punch: The Cloud, Generative AI, and the Future of Sports-Content Distributi...
07/07/2025
Tests and decisions: Formula E host broadcaster Aurora on launching new AR graph...
07/07/2025
Building tension: Using new AR graphics for storytelling at the Formula E penult...
07/07/2025
Altitude Sports' Matt Krol on the Success of the RSN's In-Arena Postgame...
07/07/2025
SVG Rewind: Four NFL Clubs Bring Us on Set of Respective Media Day Shoots An in-depth conversation with 49ers Laura Johnson, Ravens Jay O'Brien, Las Vegas R...
07/07/2025
Cosm To Build Fifth Shared Reality Venue in Cleveland as Part of Bedrock's ...
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...
01/07/2025
Cherry on the cake: Inside the technical production of the Tour de France 2025 w...
01/07/2025
NESN's Josh Jun on Keeping Alternative Broadcasts Fresh for Boston Red Sox, ...
01/07/2025
TNT Sports Races Back Into NASCAR With Fresh Look, Familiar Edge Production approach emphasizes creative freedom, bold storytelling, casual-fan-friendly tone B...
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...