Live From the US Open: ESPN, Gearhouse Broadcast and a New Day for Tennis Coverage

The US Open technical facilities are the culmination of a solid year of work on the part of both ESPN and Gearhouse Broadcast, the internationally renowned provider of production services that is also no stranger to tennis majors given its role at the Australian Open. For more than a decade it has provided the technical backbone for that event (first on behalf of Channel Seven Australia and now for Tennis Australia) and has also worked with ESPN there in recent years as well.

Kevin Moorhouse, Gearhouse Broadcast, COO, inside the ESPN US Open technical facility.

We used our Australian Open template as the basis for this project, says Kevin Moorhouse, Gearhouse Broadcast, COO. Part of our pitch was that we have done this before.

That successful pitch changed the very nature of the technical facilities that are the heart of the US Open production this year. This is the first year that ESPN is the sole domestic U.S. rights holder and the company is also responsible for the host coverage from the seven courts that have TV coverage. Taking on the entire project allowed for a refresh of the technical infrastructure that previously was a mix of cabins, flypacks, and remote production units. But this year the facility is enclosed within a two story structure that sits behind Arthur Ashe Stadium (some operations, like the four courts that are produced using the HawkEye automated camera system, however are located inside studio 4 located in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

For these big events the flypack solution is a good one, says Moorhouse. You can be really flexible and built it bespoke and have a massive production gallery that could never fit in a truck unless it was a super, super, super truck.

The two-story structure includes a lower floor that has a massive Central Apparatus Room that is home to camera control units, 32 EVS XT[3] replay servers, two large Snell Sirius 850 routers (one for the host broadcast needs with 576 1200 inputs and outputs and a second for ESPN's domestic needs (576 880), and more. The Centeral Apparatus Room (CAR) allows ESPN to easily reassign signals around the plant and redeploy resources where needed. As a result, once outer courts go dark, ESPN can move cameras to the main courts for additional coverage at the push of a button. In addition, any host control room can switch any court with minimal effort should a router go down.

With all those resources, as we move along, the inputs can be repurposed and added, so you're not wasting resources, says Terry Brady, ESPN, director of remote operations. When [the first] five days are done and court 13 is done, we won't a bunch of machines sitting around. How aggressive we're going to be with that remains to be seen, but the possibility remains.

There are also two small Snell 128 128 routers for backup in case a router fails.

We can lose both big routers and still generate clean and dirty feeds for the world, adds Moorhouse.

The building is powered by existing shore power through a massive UPS (uninterruptable power supply) with a twin pack generator on stand by in case of power failure. Should ESPN lose shore power the UPS will pick up all technical power for a half hour until the twin pack is up and running and takes over.

Next door to the engine room is master control, the first area where any of the rights holders will come to solve an issue and get assignments for different feeds.

The EVS operators for the US Open TV coverage are all located in one area.

If there is a problem you don't just want to find an engineer on the street but rather have a centralized room that is always staffed, says Chris Strong, ESPN remote operations, technical manager who played a key role in designing the structure. We have all the tools here necessary to check the quality of the signal, look into the streams, and fix a problem.

Next to master control are two other critical areas: a large EVS replay area where all of the EVS operators for all of the courts are located as well a camera shading area where, again, all of the camera shaders for all of the courts are located.

Having camera shading for all the courts in one location has a couple of obvious benefits but the most important is that it is much easier to have a consistent look from one court to the next.

The control room for Arthur Ashe Stadium matches has plenty of room for the ESPN production team.

The upstairs of the facility includes nine control rooms with four of them (Arthur Ashe, Armstrong Stadium, ESPN Domestic and ESPN International) using Grass Valley Kayenne production switchers with five mix effects and then five control rooms for the outer courts using Sony MVS6530 production switchers with 3.5 mix effects.

The control rooms are all set up exactly the same with the same button mapping on the switchers and monitors stacked the same way, adds Moorhouse. Any director can go to any room and know where camera one is or an EVS replay device is [on the monitor].

Something not always found in a U.S. broadcast production facility in the U.S. is the presence of Lawo audio consoles in the form of seven Lawo mc2 56 consoles (coupled with two Lawo73 routers and 16Lawo Vpros for glue applications).

Lawo audio consoles play a key role in ESPN's US Open audio operations.

Lawo is a very good product and we have Lawo engineers who gave the audio guys trainining so that they A1s could get familiar with working on a Lawo console, says Moorhouse. There is also an engineer on call who is an expert.

Gearhouse has also expanded the RF presence on the grounds with the installation of diversity antennas across the ground (and within the tunnels of Arthur Ashe Stadium). The antennas are allowing ESPN, Sky UK, Eurosport, and Wowwow deliver RF camera signals from across the grounds.

Getting it Done

The project involved a lot of meeting

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