Live from Wimbledon 2023: Mic'ing up players and boosting behind the scenes access By George Bevir
Friday, July 14, 2023 - 10:27
Print This Story
From mic'ing up players to rolling out new GFX and boosting behind the scenes access, Wimbledon Broadcast Services head of broadcast Paul Davies speaks with SVG Europe about the changes to this year's Championships.
Visitors and viewers alike will have noticed some changes to this year's Wimbledon Championships. While the annual tennis tournament is steeped in tradition, the approach taken to covering the action in SW19 is always under review and subject to revision, an approach perhaps best summed up by this year's tournament tag line of Always like never before'.
As part of an overhaul to its editorial offering, one of the most significant changes for this year was the appointment of Whisper as Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) production partner for the Championships for 2023 and 2024. The deal includes production of the world feed, international highlights, a creative preview film and an official film of The Championships.
And, says All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) head of broadcast, production and media rights Paul Davies, the process of appointing the production company made us think harder and smarter about what we should be doing .
Speaking with SVG Europe on day nine of the Championships, Davies says Whisper is working across multiple strands of content, pointing to the off-court coverage as one of the areas that has seen the biggest change this year.
(L-R) James Muir, broadcast technical manager; Paul Davies, head of broadcast, production & media rights; Georgina Green, broadcast & production manager
We used to have a service called the Wimbledon Channel, which was our own, daily linear programme that sat on our own platforms. A couple of our broadcasters took it, but they found it slightly competitive in terms of what they were offering to viewers.
They were doing their own Wimbledon coverage, and we were offering an alternative, slightly different service. There were some reserved rights that meant we could show one game per match per hour, so they didn't particularly like it. It had served us well over I think the eight or nine years that it had been running, but we looked at it and thought, is this the best service we can provide for both ourselves and to our broadcasters? And we felt could we actually provide something a bit different, which they could integrate into their coverage.
In response, Davies and his team worked with Whisper to create Access all England', a daily, linear offering of behind the scenes content that runs from 9am to 5pm.
It's a production of the very best of the behind-the-scenes cameras, all the beauty cameras as well probably up to 35, says Davies. He explains that previously, broadcasters lost the players once they arrived.
We didn't see them again until they walked on the court. So we wanted to offer the broadcasters, and on our own platforms, that unique experience of coming to Wimbledon and seeing all of this for themselves.
One of the new robotic cameras, operated by ACS, that provides greater behind the scenes access
So we now see the players getting out of their cars, going through the beautiful new Indoor Tennis Centre where we have installed five robotic cameras, under the tunnel into the Millennium Building and in these new environments that we didn't have covered before, like the players lawn where we now have a new robotic camera, the restaurant and corridors of the clubhouse. All these images people won't have seen before.
In addition to the robotic cameras, coverage is supplemented by handheld cameras following the players.
It all means that broadcasters are getting ever changing images of all the players in different environments, which the broadcasters are absolutely loving. They can also put requests in through our Quality Control Centre there to cover a particular player. So, if a broadcaster has no facilities on site, then by taking all the court feeds and Access all England, they can still create a really rich offering.
Davies says that shift was driven, in part, by documentary series such as Box to Box production Break Point gaining greater access to players while broadcasters looked on and questioned their own access.
Fighting the pirates
Piracy is another area of focus for WBS this year, with LaLiga Tech recruited to help counter illegal stream.
Their numbers are extraordinary in terms of what they've already taken down, says Davies. During the first eight days of the Championships, it matched the previous seven years of what we had taken down. What they're finding, and what they're taking down is, is extraordinary which is very reassuring for us, but also for our broadcasters who need their assets protected.
Broadcasters are paying very decent rights fees, and perhaps not being afforded the same privileges, which WBS and wider AELTC is very sympathetic to. That easing up of access, which had been quite guarded in previous years, I think the club is getting more comfortable with, and the players are more familiar with cameras behind the scenes, but in a respectful way.
And the beauty of us doing it in house as WBS is we can work with, obviously the club, but also with the players and their representatives. There's certain environments and situations, where we're cautious; we don't show big close ups of people eating, for example.
Other strands developed by WBS and Whisper include a one-hour linear programme called the Aorangi Hour, presented from the Aorangi practice courts 12-1pm, plus bite-sized content such as daily fashion show Wimbledon Threads' and interviews on the purple carpet as players and VIPs arrive. The aim, says Davies, is to create co
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech
Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...
20/08/2026
Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club
Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...
20/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...
20/08/2026
Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026
Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R)
By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...
20/08/2026
How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image displays a student about to mix be...
20/08/2026
Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
Live from Wimbledon 2023: Mic'ing up players and boosting behind the scenes access By George Bevir 
