SVG Sit-Down: ESPN's Jamie Reynolds on US Open Production in the Age of COVID-19 By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 - 2:40 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
When it comes to understanding the challenges of producing tennis, there is no better person to chat with than Jamie Reynolds, VP, production, ESPN. He is at the helm of ESPN's coverage of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, and, this week, he and the ESPN team are hard at work wrapping up a busy few months at the US Open tennis tournament. Reynolds took some time away from the court to chat with SVG.
ESPN's Jamie Reynolds: I think the policies, the procedures, the protocols have been good pointers on how the world might look moving forward.
Let's start with a simple one. As a viewer at home, I have really enjoyed the coverage, and it is always a big part of my Labor Day Weekend plans. What's your take on the show that you and the team are putting together?
We know that we can cover the event and cover the actual field of play as well as, if not better than, what we've historically done it at a major. And that really is because the field of play, the competition is wide open right now, and we also are not encumbered by fixed camera positions or our ability to move around the grounds or the venue and capture the essence of the competition. We knew that 90% of our coverage was going to be as robust and as strong as possible, assuming that the players showed up, were fit, and ready to go five sets or three sets.
When you knew that there were not going to be fans, how did that affect the camera plan?
We spent the last three months with the USTA effectively pushing all our camera heads down lower into the bowls, closer to the action. We wanted a more dynamic, robust coverage scheme that could accent the physicality and the tenacity of these players on court. We also brought up the number of isolation cameras that we could dress around Ashe and Armstrong to give unique perspectives.
When fans return next year, is there a way to use robotics to capture those angles?
I still think that the manned camera strategy is demonstrably different. The reaction time, the versatility, the ability to react with a pan, tilt, or zoom and use the glass still needs [manned-camera] coverage.
Right. Many of the handheld cameras are looking for artistic shots, and I guess those are harder to get with a robotic.
It really is. With a manned camera, you can get moves off of the coach to the player. You can follow the dynamic of a visual cue that only a camera person who's actually in the arena can get, because they can see activity on the perimeter that you wouldn't necessarily get from a robotic position.
I wanted to talk about the enhanced audio and crowd noise a bit. How has that evolved?
This was an initiative that we had gone back and forth with the USTA on as to the best strategy to convey the event. You have to begin with the perspective that tennis is an individual sport and any enhanced audio would really be playing to an audience of two. But, at the end of the day, because of the restrictions and no fans, the loudest voice, the loudest customer in our opinion, is really the at-home audience and what they are experiencing. We debated and went through a variety of different audio strategies, [such as] pouring the audio into the arena like what is [being done with] baseball or hockey versus customizing it farther downstream in our own audio positions. So we started from the premise that the authentic on-court audio was the priority.
We decided to harvest that [authentic on-court audio] as best we could and supplement it with our own broadcast-quality tracks of audio that were automatic in nature. We went back and harvested original sounds from Ashe and Armstrong in 2019 and mixed it down to the most basic level of crowd-murmur noise that was authentic. And then we have submix stations for each court to, as I call it, feather the edges after every point to be responsive to the action on the court. It's the most tactile dynamic approach to give an authentic audio base to the live action in real time.
One of the challenges to me seems to be that a tennis match is unique in terms of how fans respond. Their allegiance can ebb and flow, and they can find themselves rooting for the underdog at the beginning and then the favorite at the end. It seems it would be hard to replicate that without making one or both players upset.
Right? And New York can be a very polarized audience. That's a very important factor of this. I was more concerned that I was going to get calls from agents asking me why I'm cheering for the opposite side. But the mixers we have found are unequivocally strong tennis fanatics who know the game and know the rhythm of when a ball is mishit so they can anticipate and know if it's going out or not. You need something tactile that can anticipate and create that swell of emotion and anticipation in real time. That gives it the realness.
Without fans in the stands, are you picking up new things audio-wise? During Serena's match. you could hear how loud she could really yell, and the announcers also mentioned they could hear how heavy she was breathing.
There are really only four voices on the court, right? You've got two players, the chair, and then a linesperson. Those are the only four voices in an arena for 25,000 people, which is fascinating.
And then you start thinking about the air-conditioning systems. You think about the planes, the sirens; I hear cars out on the Cross-Island Parkway. You do get a lot of audio spillage into the arena that you probably were not cognizant of when there were 25,000 people there. We figured out a way to neutralize that and have the parabolics on court pushing authentic r
Most recent headlines
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
12/12/2025
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, in conjuncture with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Entertainment Technolog...
12/12/2025
Keepit, the vendor-independent, cloud-native data protection provider, today announced a strategic go-to-market relationship in Poland with Ingram Micro, a lead...
12/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking Open Gate 48P RAW recording w...
12/12/2025
Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) once again played a critical role in delivering flawless wireless coordination and support at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards a...
12/12/2025
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), together with the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadc...
12/12/2025
DHD audio will demonstrate the latest additions to its range of digital audio production solutions on Booth 321 in Hall B6 at Hamburg Open 2026. The show will b...
12/12/2025
Chaos today announces the release of V-Ray for Blender, update 2, bringing its award-winning rendering technology to even more Blender users by adding support f...
12/12/2025
Lighting specialist UltraLEDs has launched Precision LED Tape, a high-CRI lighting solution designed specifically for professional film, TV, and studio use.
P...
SVG Sit-Down: ESPN's Jamie Reynolds on US Open Production in the Age of COVID-19 By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
