Live from the 2023 Ryder Cup: Sky Sports Virtual Studio in UK Plays Big Role in Remote Production By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Saturday, September 30, 2023 - 3:08 am
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It's been a busy run of top golf events for the team at Sky Sports and this week's Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club outside of Rome, following quickly on the heels of last week's Solheim Cup in Spain, the women's equivalent of the men's Ryder Cup.
The components of our Solheim and Ryder Cup coverage are fairly similar, with a World Feed plus commentary plus a studio on site, says Jason Wessely, Sky Sports Golf, executive producer. And then there is a gallery and master control operation back at Sky that brings it all together.
Jason Wessely, Sky Sports Golf, Executive Producer (left) and Katie Harrison, Sky Sports, Production Manager in the 2023 Ryder Cup compound.
This Ryder Cup marks the first time at any tournament where Sky Sports and The Golf Channel are sharing a studio location. Located on the first tee, it gives both production teams a chance to leverage the same facility during dayparts that are optimal for their audience back home. Sky is on air in the morning and during the day while The Golf Channel takes over at the end of the day.
Timing wise in the U.S. it's much better to use it after the match is finished while in the morning, we can build up on the first tee with a lovely studio set looking into the crowd and the energy of that crowd, adds Wessely.
While The Golf Channel is wrapping up the day's action on the studio Sky Sports switches over to a standup position with an RF camera on the side of the 18th green. Sky also rebroadcasts The Golf Channel Live From show, giving viewers in the UK a bonus two-hour recap.
We'll manage that two hours from a smaller gallery at Sky, so we can deal with any non-compliant stuff that we want to edit out on the fly, explains Wessely. We could also run in our content to replace their content if we feel it's not quite right for our audience, but it is quite light touch.
The studio operations back home is also busy during the Ryder Cup as a virtual green-screen studio in Osterley Park is handling a variety of coverage elements. A camera at the Ryder Cup course shoots backdrops at different times of the day and those images are then dropped in the back screen projection as the goal is to make the viewer at home feel that that the virtual set is an extension of the real studio set on site.
Our player avatars, virtual course, and touchscreen are all presented from there and it's designed to look as though it is here at the course, says Wessely. As soon as the player pairings are known the team there gets to work on building the players and building the editorial. Then they record the head piece in the virtual set and when the time comes, they run that into the program with a throw from the real studio here to the 3D virtual studio.
Building out the player avatars is a process that began with player recordings last Tuesday and Wednesday. The recording process requires the players to stand on a rotating plank so that cameras can capture them from all angles.
We'll get some still photography, a few questions, and have some fun with them so that process is really important to us, adds Wessely. We then map their 3D images, which is crucial to our virtual presentation.
The storytelling rhythm of a Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup is very different from a major golf tournament as matches can end prior to 18 holes (and often do). The Ryder Cup, ideally, has very little time between sessions but if needed on-course RF kits and on-course reporters can do reports or interviews.
Plus, we have the virtual studio back in Sky recording the pairing for the afternoon and we play that into the break section to reveal to the viewer who was going to play in the afternoon, says Wessely. The time goes by pretty fast.
Next week the Sky golf team head to Scotland for another unique event: the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship which is played across three courses: Old Course at St. Andrews; Carnoustie; and Kingsbarns.
We choose one course to focus on each time, but we have remote OBs at every location for each day and then we try and lean into the celebrity aspect and do interviews with the celebrities while playing and have some fun with it because it is a different event.
Key to keeping spirits high for the team is having good golf and that is what they have had for the past couple of months, from the Open in Liverpool to the BMW Championship in Wentworth, the Solheim Cup in Spain, and now the Ryder Cup.
As long as the golf is good, it keeps the spirits going, and weather is the other thing that can dampen the spirit, says Wessely. The trick is keeping the remote team back at Sky motivated and we find clever ways to get them out to the golf course during the year. Yes, they can sleep in their own beds but it's also hard to gauge the event when you're working at home. So, a mixture of OBs, remote, and clever ways of getting them to venues is the secret to remote broadcasting because it's here to stay.
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Live from the 2023 Ryder Cup: Sky Sports Virtual Studio in UK Plays Big Role in Remote Production By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
