
Live From the US Open: ESPN's Successfully Serves Up Immersive AR on the Domestic Front, HDR for the World By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, September 9, 2024 - 9:57 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The 2024 US Open concluded yesterday afternoon with Italy's Jannik Sinner defeating American Taylor Fritz in the mens final and it also wrapped up a championship that saw ESPN's US Open coverage enhance its on-air graphics look with both Hawkeye virtual graphics as well as more dramatic AR graphics powered by Girraphic who also provided AR graphics for the Australian Open tennis tournament which kicks off the Slam season every January.
(l-to-r) ESPN's Brett Jackson, Isabel Bristol, and Joe Durante outside the ESPN production center at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center.
While Girraphic has worked with ESPN on other sports and platforms this is the first they have lent their expertise, their skill, their vision of what they can do to the tennis atmosphere, says ESPN Tennis Executive Producer Jamie Reynolds. They're already working with TA in Australia, so we've seen this integration before and now we're taking advantage of that relationship and experience and figuring out how to use it here in New York. And that was a benefit because they've already been embedded with our coverage going back to the Australian Open courtesy of Tennis Australia.
Reynolds says that a big difference between the Tennis Australia philosophy and ESPN's is that Tennis Australia was looking to use AR graphics to shape how they wanted the Australian Open's brand to be looked like for a world-wide audience.
But for us we already have this sort of AR functionality in primetime for football, basketball, and baseball and for tennis we are using it to give a demonstrative, larger brand feel that also gives a little bit of sparkle and primetime appeal, he adds.
Isabel Bristol, Manager Animated Graphics Innovation & Production Design, says the creative development began last spring in house, taking inspiration from the current animation package. ESPN then took the design concepts to Girraphic to bring the package to life.
We were looking for a blend of what complemented our current look and identity and in August, we fine-tuned the creative with a nod to some of the design elements the USTA was using in their marketing campaign, she says.
The AR graphics are tied into images captured with the Spidercam and Joe Durante, ESPN, associate director, product engineering, says that from a movement standpoint the Spidercam is the best do those sorts of graphics.
Spidercam is the most stable camera for it, and it was an easy transition for them as they work with our team to create the moves for it, he says. It's been a success and also one of the most talked about pieces of the production.
Brett Jackson, Managing Producer, ESPN Production, credits Charlie Collin, ESPN, motion graphics design, manager, and the ESPN Creative Department with playing a big part in the effort.
They helped bridge the communication [between Girraphic and Spidercam] and design a new look for the US Open, he adds.
Jackson also points to new Hawkeye graphics as another great addition to the production as they have added a new layer of creativity to animations and graphics.
They have been a part of this for multiple years and is constantly amplifying their technology and giving us new options for coverage with different styles of tracking and different information planning, he says. Now Hawkeye is in a cool, virtual setting with it that takes the graphic look to the next level. We first saw it at Wimbledon and now it's here.
ESPN's other big lift this year was working with the USTA to make HDR a reality for the world feed. The HDR production at the US Open used the same BBC-created LUT (look-up-table) that was used at Wimbledon, allowing the production team to get used to that HDR workflow. The HDR coverage included matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, and then courts 5 and 17 (he outside courts (or ACE courts) were produced in SDR using Simplylive ViBox).
Olsen says one of the challenges was the mix of HDR and SDR sources as while most of the cameras operated in HDR mode there were some POV-style cameras that still had to operate in SDR mode. All graphics and archived material were also in SDR and needed to be converted to HDR.
Some consuderations in the workflow were monitoring it as you can't switch out 500 SDR monitors, he adds. We also had to handle conversion between SDR to HDR and apply the correct LUT to the SDR graphics, so you are maintaining the integrity of the colorimetry of brands and sponsors. The hardest part is handling the archive, post-production, and frame rate conversion involved in the SDR/HDR workflows. We have found a lot of people have compared this like going from SD to HD when there was a lot of learning curves.
Steve Raymond, ESPN, senior technical specialist, adds that it took a lot of work to lay out the ecosystem.
We had to a diagram of all the moving parts and where the conversion was required so we could assign devices to the signals, says Raymond. And we also took a fairly conservative approach to HDR as we've seen some stuff that pops too much.
Olsen says the effort has paid off as the images are much improved over SDR.
Arthur Ashe Stadium is unique in that you have shadows that go from north to south in the morning and then from east to west in the afternoon, he says. It's a double whammy but the HDR images show a huge improvement aside from the colorimetry which also allows you to see how vibrant the subject colors are.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
25/04/2026
Mediagenix Sweeps 2026 NAB Awards With Wins for Product of the Year and Best of ...
25/04/2026
SCHOEPS Microphones Announces Desert Island Boom Set for NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 24, 2026
0 Comments
Compact modular set ideal for location sound ...
25/04/2026
Berklee Africana Studies Hosts Gospel Extravaganza 2026 The Signature Series event will honor three new inductees to the Berklee Gospel Hall of Fame and celeb...
25/04/2026
Student Spotlight: Siva Maja Gierszewska, who performs under the artist name Siva, shares how she found her songwriting confidence at Berklee.
April 24, 2026...
25/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/04/2026
Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire the intellectual property of the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes from 1/...
24/04/2026
Daktronics has partnered with DCL (Design Communications, Ltd.) to design, manuf...
24/04/2026
Chyron has announced PRIME Translate, a workflow solution that produces live content simultaneously in multiple languages within the PRIME platform. The system ...
24/04/2026
Eutelsat has announced a new partnership with Co-op Cable, introducing an expand...
24/04/2026
Pitch Dublin, an indoor golf simulation and hospitality venue on Dawson Street i...
24/04/2026
G&D and VuWall have announced two senior leadership appointments, effective Apri...
24/04/2026
Victory , the free sports streaming service from A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC), has announced a multi-year agreement to become the exclusive local streaming ho...
24/04/2026
The former business major from Massachusetts has found his home in graphics and bug operation while contributing to live ESPN productions
In the live-sports-vi...
24/04/2026
The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and Spectrum have announced a multiyear carriage agreement making MASN available to Spectrum customers in areas of southe...
24/04/2026
The NFL Draft is rebuilt from the ground up in a new city every year. The three-day fan festival is expected to draw 500,000 or more attendees, with millions fo...
24/04/2026
Diversified has continued expansion of its sports and media capabilities to supp...
24/04/2026
NAB reports that the 2026 NAB Show wrapped with more than 58,000 registered atte...
24/04/2026
Clear-Com has announced significant updates to its Arcadia Central Station and E...
24/04/2026
NAB reports that the 2026 NAB Show wrapped with more than 58,000 registered atte...
24/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
24/04/2026
B/R NFL Draft Live' refines the digital giant's productions around footb...
24/04/2026
Study highlights five pillars shaping modern fan engagement as broadcasters reth...
24/04/2026
The 2026 event, the first Draft with NFL Network under the ESPN umbrella, will b...
24/04/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
24/04/2026
Integral to the Draft production for three almost decades, the company tells the...
24/04/2026
Championing documentaries that illuminate and expand the artform is at the core ...
24/04/2026
The Peabody Awards spotlight excellent work that endures. This year's winner...
24/04/2026
Earth Day is a chance to reflect on our connection to the natural world. To mark the 57th Earth Day on April 22, Spotify's editors have pulled together a co...
24/04/2026
This past weekend, Spotify was at the heart of the largest literary event in the...
24/04/2026
All data tells a story, and in our case, that story is written by you. To celebrate 20 years of Spotify, we're sharing bite sized moments that capture how t...
24/04/2026
Over the past 20 years, Spotify's look and feel has evolved with the way people use our platform, while ensuring we preserve an intuitive, personal, and fam...
24/04/2026
It's been 20 years since Spotify began, but the real story is what the world chose to play. For the first time, we're unveiling the most streamed artist...
24/04/2026
Whether you're relaxing at home or on the go, Spotify is there across more than 2,000 devices, ready with your favorites or something new to discover. Now, ...
24/04/2026
Nintendo and Spotify are welcoming fans to the Super Mario Bros. 40th anniversary and the release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie with new playlists and a speci...
24/04/2026
30 October - 1 November 2026
The Audio Engineering Society (AES) have announced that the AES Show 2026 will be held on Halloween weekend - Friday 30 October...
24/04/2026
New closed-back design promises honest' low end
Sennheiser have just announced the launch of a new pair of flagship closed-back headphones which they s...
24/04/2026
Powerful 12-channel hardware sequencer announced
Cre8audio are renowned for their innovative, and often visually striking designs, and although their latest...
24/04/2026
Room correction now supports full 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos setups
The software element of IK Multimedia's room-correction system has just received an update th...
24/04/2026
New content for BBO Tutti & BBO Riffs
VSL have recently introduced some new free content expansions for two of their most popular Big Bang Orchestra Packs: ...
24/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to highlight its R&S EVSD1000 UAV-based navigation analyzer at I...
24/04/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
24/04/2026
ITV's Director of Drama Polly Hill has commissioned six part propulsive, lun...
24/04/2026
The NASA 777 aircraft departs the L3Harris facility in Waco, Texas....
24/04/2026
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has closed a $1 b...