Live From US Open 2023: ESPN Boosts Player Access, Tech Tools in Second Year of 1080p Domestic Broadcasts Arthur Ashe Stadium matches are back in UHD, with Dolby Atmos audio added By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor Sunday, September 10, 2023 - 3:02 pm
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Since taking over full control of both the host feed and the domestic feed for the US Open in 2015, ESPN has worked with the USTA to augment the technology toolset with each passing year. After a monumental leap forward in 2022 with the implementation of 4K UHD at Arthur Ashe Stadium and 1080p broadcasts standard across all courts, this year's efforts are centered on refining those workflows even further.
From left: ESPN's Larry Wilson, senior manager; Stephen Raymond, senior specialist; Brian Sanders, senior remote traffic operations coordinator; Eric Grossman, operations producer; Joa O'Connor, senior operations producer; Traci Flohr, senior operations producer; and Sam Olsen, senior specialist
It's a testament to the support that we get from the USTA and [facilities provider] Gravity Media, as well as the planning of the ESPN operations team, that these [1080p and UHD] systems came together last year, says Larry Wilson, associate director, remote production operations, ESPN. We're continuing to [enhance] them this year. The US Open continues to increase in size and scale every single year, and we're thrilled to be able to support that and bring it to fans.
To level-up the 1080p workflow this year, all EVS replay servers for both host and domestic feeds have been upgraded to EVS XT-VIA live-production servers, and a new high-speed file-transfer system has been established to accommodate the flood of content running between the Flushing Meadows venue in Queens, NY, and ESPN facilities in Bristol, CT, over the two-week tournament.
At Ashe, Dolby Atmos sound has joined the party. In addition to UHD for the host feed, all Ashe Stadium matches are also being produced with enhanced 5.1.4 surround audio. Although ESPN does not distribute them domestically in UHD or Atmos, the host feed is provided to USTA, which supplies it to interested rightsholders (including DirecTV in the U.S.).
1080p Takes the Next Step: XT-VIAs, File Transfer to Bristol, Graphics Effects Gravity Media, which handles all technical integration for ESPN's double stack production facility at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center, upgraded the massive EVS ecosystem to XT-VIA live-production servers alongside associated upgrades to the XHub-VIA and Xsquare-VIA suite of tools. The full EVS VIA server and infrastructure comprise more than 30 servers, as well as 15+ XTAs and 20+ IPDirectors.
The massive EVS ecosystem at the US Open has been upgraded to XT-VIA live-production servers.
Having VIAs across the board provides us with more 1080p input channels and allows us to maintain the quantity of phases we need on our super-slow cameras in 1080p, says Sam Olsen, senior remote operations specialist, ESPN. It also allowed us to connect our XHub-VIA network directly to NEP's Supershooter 9, [which is] supporting our dual-network and DirecTV productions so that we're all looking at the same XNet network. That wasn't the case last year, so it has been a nice upgrade.
To accommodate 1080p, ESPN also had to bulk up its file-transfer backbone between Queens and Bristol. This year, ESPN enlarged its transfer-system storage unit and moved from spinning disc to solid-state-drive infrastructure to increase speed and robustness. ESPN now has a 2-Gbps file-transfer pipe incorporating Signiant workflows, hot folders, and priority traffic lanes to ensure as much efficiency as possible.
The main reason for rebuilding it was the move to 1080p since we were already pretty much filling the pipe with 1080i; it was essentially a mandatory refresh for us, says ESPN Senior Technical Specialist Steve Raymond. It was a win-win-win situation: it's at an affordable price, provides better speed and bandwidth, and is a lot smaller and lighter than spinning-disc arrays we've used in the past.
Inside ESPN's domestic-feed production-control room at the US Open
ESPN also commissioned a new custom-built 1080p on-air-effects system to replace an aging Orad graphics system that was still serving a primary role in its broadcasts.
The Orad box was 10 years old and hadn't been supported for several years, notes Raymond. We reached a point where we had to refresh that. We decided to contract some very talented individuals to rebuild the whole concept from scratch using off-the-shelf computer hardware.
According to Raymond, ESPN hunted for a low-latency solution from established broadcast-equipment manufacturers but couldn't find a system offering anything less than eight frames of latency. So ESPN enlisted a small group of specialists to create custom application software and hardware using off-the-shelf technology. The resulting system has just two frames of latency.
Having only two frames [of latency] allows us to make that transition from the effect to the live court without having any jump cuts or other on-air issues, he says. It takes in 16 inputs, and it's tied to the switcher so it knows what your transitions are going to be ahead of time through presets and generates a whole different set of graphic packages for our various needs.
ESPN's robotic-camera operators control systems scattered across the USTA Tennis Center grounds.
All the Simplylive ACES automated court-production systems for outer-court coverage were upgraded to 1080p last year, and NEP Fletcher continues to improve them. In addition to refining the algorithms used to automatically produce match coverage on the courts, several ACES systems are now using 20X lenses for the primary camera instead of
