Live from The U.S. Open: Mike Davies on the Massive Production Efforts for the Open, World Cup, and 5G Tests By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Friday, June 15, 2018 - 1:31 pm
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This weekend has been circled on the Fox Sports calendar for four years as its production team is producing two major events, the U.S. Open and the FIFA World Cup. And when Mike Davies, Fox Sports, SVP, Technical and Field Operations, says this is the biggest undertaking Fox Sports has ever done it is not hyperbole.
Mike Davies and the Fox Sports production teams are in overdrive at both the U.S. Open and the World Cup.
It's been a long road leading up to this day and now we're into it, he says. There was a big part of us that just wanted to get started on this and here we are. It took an immense amount of planning and forethought and you always get bit by one thing or another, but I am just impressed with the amount of forethought that went into both projects.
It was three years ago that Fox Sports took to the air with its first year of U.S. Open coverage at Chambers Bay outside of Seattle and that effort coincided with the FIFA Women's World Cup which was based a couple hours up the road in Vancouver.
Three years hence we are doing the same thing but this time in Shinnecock Hills and Moscow, says Davies. And since then there has been a tremendous amount of work for Kevin Callahan [director of technical operations who is overseeing the World Cup operations], Brad Cheney [VP, field operations and engineering who is overseeing the U.S. Open], their teams, and all of our vendors.
Today is day two of the World Cup and there are three matches on tap but tomorrow the challenge for the Fox Sports production teams picks up as there are four matches plus a full slate of golf coverage.
That is when the system is going to be on full load, says Davies. For the people on the road [in Shinnecock Hills and Russia] they can focus on their own project but back our broadcast operations back in Pico is a point of convergence and people there need to follow the ball on both events.
The U.S. Open operations, he adds, are run very much as an independent operation with the vast majority of production done on site to help lighten the load on the production team in Los Angeles so they can focus more energy on the World Cup which relies heavily on the broadcast center in Los Angeles.
The editing is done there, our match control rooms are there, and an awful lot of voice overs and other integration is done there, he says. And the World Cup production is taking place at the IBC in Moscow, the studio in Red Square, and then at the venues and in Pico. Getting the overall scheduling for that has been interesting.
For example, World Cup Tonight is shot in a studio at Red Square, but the control room is in Los Angeles while camera shading takes place in the IBC in Moscow. Like in Vancouver Rod Conti, Fox Sports, director of operations, is once again in the role of World Cup studio set landlord while Callahan is the engineer for the entire project and also primary liaison with HBS, the team at the center of the host broadcast operations for the World Cup.
They are doing really well over there, says Davies of the massive effort, planning, and countless trips to Russia it took for Callahan and the team to get in the position they are this weekend.
Before the World Cup team kicked into overdrive with the actual coverage of the event they, and the rest of the Fox Sports family, got an extra boost of adrenaline when it was announced on Wednesday that the 2026 World Cup would be held in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
It was tremendous news as we have the rights, we can look forward to it being in our backyard, and it gives soccer some upward trajectory, says Davies. And eight years is a long time but it's hard coded into the future of the World Cup. To be able to cover that on our first day of being on air from the World Cup was great.
Both events are the most technologically advanced World Cup and U.S. Open productions ever for a number of reasons. There is coverage in UHD and HDR, new production workflows, new viewer enhancements, and, most notably, the use of 5G technology to deliver 4K HDR camera signals wirelessly. Fox Innovation Lab worked with Intel, Ericsson, and AT&T on the project that uses two 5G cell sites on the 7th hole (one on the tee and one at the green) to help deliver the signals.
It's helping us get our heads around the opportunities and limitations around 5G and to also give the broadcast industry a seat at the table as this technology is being developed, says Davies. The sky is the limit and I don't think I have run into a technology that is as overarching as 5G.
To date 5G is seen as a next-generation technology for cellular phones but its potential use as a way to deliver camera signals wirelessly cannot be understated. Cheney says that at the U.S. Open data rates are 880 Mbps down and 690 Mbps up.
All involved see the workflow in use at the Open evolving and becoming streamlined quickly.
Right now, it's a bit like two cans and string, says Davies.
The 4K cameras are wired into an Ericsson AVP encoder which then sends an IP signal to an Intel 5G MTP (Mobile Trial Platform) which then transmits the signal in millimeter wave spectrum via a 28 GHz link to a 5G cell site where an Ericsson AVP then converts it back to IP and then onto the fiber network for delivery to the truck, into a truck, and then back to 4K.
The other potential use case for 5G is customization of broadcasts and taking some of the cool things we are doing on the OTT service, like featured groups and holes, and make a more customizable offering, he says.
Davies is in Shinnecock Hills for the Open and will head back to Russia for the World Cup in the coming weeks.
