Inside ATP Media's remote revolution in tennis broadcasting By George Bevir Friday, May 2, 2025 - 13:50
Print This Story
From a single London hub, ATP Media is transforming how the ATP Tour is seen around the world-scaling production, embracing hybrid workflows, and delivering thousands of live feeds remotely. Director of technology Tom Copeland took SVG Europe on a tour and explained all.
Far from the clay courts of Madrid, ATP Media is redefining live tennis broadcasting. ATP Tour tennis' move from traditional, on-site production to a fully integrated, remote-first model has been led by ATP Media, the broadcast arm of the ATP Tour.
Tom Copeland, director of technology at ATP Media, explains that the transition wasn't just about embracing new technology. It was about responding to a relentless, back-to-back tournament calendar, scaling operations, improving quality, and building a sustainable future for tennis broadcasting.
Over the last 20 years we have evolved from covering just quarterfinals to producing every single court at every ATP Tour tournament, with at least four cameras. That evolution required a fundamental shift in how we operate, he says.
Scaling up
In just a few years, ATP Media has expanded from a lean staff of 25 to a workforce of over 100, including teams of producers, engineers, non-live specialists, social media specialists, broadcast operations specialists, commercial rights sales personnel, media and fan data services persons and many more.
Our production demands have grown exponentially, says Copeland. We're now handling simultaneous ATP 250, ATP 500 and ATP Masters 1000 events, often in back-to-back weeks. Without a remote model, this wouldn't be feasible, he says.
The backbone of this evolution is a partnership with EMG / Gravity Media, with ATP Media based at Gravity's west London production hub since 2023. The facility, which is based on Sony HDC series camera channels, EVS XT Via servers and Calrec audio core and consoles, includes two large production galleries for ATP Masters 1000 events, two midsize setups for ATP 500s, and a flexible control room space for the 30 annual ATP 250 tournaments. In North America, EMG / Gravity Media also supports broadcasts via its Aspen and Columbus OB trucks.
EMG / Gravity Media ATP client account manager Paul Lawlor describes the ATP Media Studios production model as fully integrated within EMG / Gravity Media's remote production facility. It now serves as the central hub for all of ATP's live event feeds on the 250s, 500's and 1000s, which supports both on-site and distributed remote production workflows.
With up to 90 outgoing video and audio lines and over 160 feeds coming into our facility for a single event, the system delivers unparalleled efficiency to ATP's programming, allowing the production team to oversee multiple courts simultaneously, whilst being able to stay versatile and reliable.
At the heart of ATP Media's approach is a hybrid production model. For example, Court A (ATP Media classifies the main court, where the top tier matches are played, as A',) features 25 cameras and a director/vision mixer on-site, while camera racking and EVS replay operations are done remotely. Courts B, C, and D, each equipped with 10 cameras, are fully remote, with all camera feeds coming back to ATP Media Studios where they are directed and cut.
We've built every system with full redundancy-key cameras are double-encoded, critical operations have backups, and everything is monitored in real-time by our broadcast operations centre, Copeland says.
The director and vision mixer may still be on the ground for the main court, but nearly everything else-from camera control to graphics and replays-is managed from London, says Copeland.
SVG Europe together with event partner GRUP MEDIAPRO will host the Sports Production Innovation Summit in Barcelona on 12 June. The Summit will explore cutting-edge advancements in sports production, focusing on the latest innovations in AI-driven production, cloud-based workflows, content creation for emerging and challenger sports and the future of centralised and remote production.
For more information, visit svgeurope.org/sports-production-innovation-summit-2025
Communication across all teams is maintained using RTS intercom systems, customised per venue setup, and integrated across all control rooms for seamless coordination.
Director of ATP Media Studios and Live Operations Rachael Watson describes ATP Media's remote roadmap as extremely ambitious . She says: It's a huge credit to both our technical and production teams that we have been able to deliver an accelerated roadmap across the board.
We now have 70 people operating remotely from Westworks who had previously been carrying out their roles on site. From directors, producers, editors, social media teams to CCU and EVS operators, sound supervisors and broadcast engineers, we have worked closely with each department to establish the best workflows that we will continue to refine.
ATP Media Studios has a real buzz around it as we continually look to innovate for our broadcast partners, whilst not compromising on the core values of quality and reliability that underpin everything we do.
On top of the court feed directing, the World Feed Production is also based at ATP Media Studios. The World Feed can access any camera on site, moving seamlessly between the best of the ATP action, be that on court, or behind the scenes.
Multiple edits create content round the clock for World Feed and ATP Media's broadcast partners, delivered via its media portal.
It was fundamental for us that we approach every challenge keeping in mind we wanted to retain the key working benefits of being on site, says Copeland. Being able to access every feed and
