Live from The Ryder Cup: NBC Sports Production Team Spans Globe via Fiber By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Saturday, September 29, 2018 - 3:03 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
NBC Sports is on hand at The Ryder Cup with a team of 250 but at the same time a team of hundreds more back home in Orlando are working hard on the Live From studio show as well as pre- and post-match coverage and press conferences. That team is leveraging fiber connectivity, the NEWBERT flypack, and a new transmission kit, three operational changes since the last Ryder Cup was held in Europe in 2014 at Gleneagles, Scotland. The other big change? This is the first Ryder Cup where NBC Sports has tapped into CTV OB as the provider of its remote production facilities.
(l-to-r) Ryan Soucy, Keith Kice, Allison McAllister, Marc Caputo, and Ken Goss are working closely from the Ryder Cup with a team in Orlando.
CTV is doing a great job and it's worked brilliantly again, and it just feels like home, says Ryan Soucy, NBC Sports, VP, golf operations. It's unbelievable how well they've done.
Keith Kice, NBC Sports, technical manager, says that the NBC Sports Ryder Cup production team has feeds from 80 cameras at its disposal: 41 unilateral cameras as well as 39 from ETP's world feed. It also has access to 128 channels of EVS replay with nine EVS servers under the control of NBC operators and seven others handled by ETP staffers. Soucy says that key to the efforts of those operators is the work done by the five RF cameramen on the course as one is assigned to each of the four groups on the course with a fifth roving.
Sharing is important, says Kice. You don't want the course swamped with too many RF and Steadicams so ETP covers the Europeans and we cover the Americans.
Like at the Open Championship this past July, the NEWBERT flypack is playing an important part in tying the TV compound at the course to the Golf Channel's production facility in Orlando, FL.
The Open showed the flexibility of NEWBERT and the transmission kit we also debuted at the Open uses fiber and IP delivery [between Orlando and here] so that the two sides can interact seamlessly, says Marc Caputo, Golf Channel, senior director, remote technical operations.
NEWBERT provides the team in Orlando with integrated tally and router control and they have 14 traffic paths dedicated to Live From. There is also a primary and backup of the match coverage and then nine fiber paths return for closed circuit needs and also to ensure that the two reporters on site at the Ryder Cup are as in sync as possible with the team in Orlando.
We also have our social media team in Orlando instead of travelling someone here and that is working out very well, says Caputo.
Eric Gardner, Golf Channel, VP, Operations and Technology, is back home in Orlando overseeing the operations and he says that the use of fiber makes latency almost non-existent and less than two frames roundtrip.
We want to prove out the ROI over the next few years and we don't want to leave the transmission kit waiting for another Open or Ryder Cup, he says. We want as much utilization as possible.
Each event is also allowing for the team to figure out new ways to connect and also get familiar with new levels of signal access.
We have visibility from Orlando into the Magnum routing control system, so we can see and peer into the router [in the compound] and can route signals based on their source names, he explains. And we have six routable paths so that we don't have to call anyone at the compound. We can just route it.
The tally connection is an important one in terms of communication and Gardner says the RTS RVON intercom over IP has been very solid. An investment in RVON cards has paid off with better clarity, according to Gardner.
Gardner says Golf Channel will be looking to do more roadshows and more Live From shows using NEWBERT and the transmission kit. Redundancy is a big part of the equation as well with two IPX routing cards, dual and diverse circuits, and dual streams for every path.
We also worked with Evertz on hitless merging so that if the primary streamhas bandwith issues we don't have to do a manual cut over, says Gardner. It's very cool.
Another improvement to NEWBERT since the Open in July is that it now has Sony HDC-1700 cameras.
Ken Goss, NBC Sports, Senior Vice President of Remote Operations & Production Planning, credits the cohesiveness of the NBC team for the production success.
I am extremely proud of our team who continue to build on past experience and relationships, which we see as the key to our success, says Goss.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Live from The Ryder Cup: NBC Sports Production Team Spans Globe via Fiber By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
