Inside the Mix: A1s Florian Brown and James Deason on Golfs Biggest Broadcasts

Golf viewership is growing. The 2025 Ryder Cup drew five million viewers in the UK, a 45% increase over the 2023 event. The US Open was the most streamed golf event in NBC Sports history, and the Ryder Cup generated 432 million video views across its digital and social channels. Two of the A1s responsible for the audio of those broadcasts - Florian Brown and James Deason - spoke with Calrec about the technical and creative challenges of mixing golf at this scale.

James, this was your first year as lead A1 at the US Open. How did you prepare?

JD: 2025 was indeed my first year as lead A1 for the US Open. For the prior four years I have been the relief mixer. On the technical side we rely quite a bit on past knowledge. We are very fortunate that the majority of our audio crew has been involved in these shows for a number of years, that is an immense help. It gives us a solid foundation for building the show since we know what we have done in the past. That foundation gives us a tremendous amount of flexibility in adding new technologies for these large shows since we don't have to focus on the basics. Having an incredibly skilled and experienced audio team makes the job so much easier.

Were all four of NEP's ND2 mobile units used at the US Open?

JD: For the US Open we used all four units of ND2; The ND2A console was the main mix desk for the show, and the D console handled the submix. The consoles are linked together via hydra patch bays, as well as 2110 flows. Lawrence Cirillo is the lead NBC submix and he handles all of the sounds coming from the field of play. One of the unique things in golf is there are 18 independent arenas being used simultaneously. They all have to feed into the router so that they can be recorded. Lawrence handles all of that. He sends me a full 5.1 mix of whatever hole is live during the broadcast.

The Argo in NEP's Supershooter10 truck was the main console for the World feed Production. The Submix Apollo desk audio travelled to me and then a split was given to the NBC show Apollo. Each desk then fed the router with the appropriate audio to each desks needs. The TFC infrastructure allowed everything to be shared then over the router. The world feed had access to the NBC assets, and NBC had access to all the world feed assets.

What other NEP trucks were in the compound, and what role did TFC play?

JD: We had NEP's Supershooter 4 A, B, and C units on site. They handled the feature group coverage for the event. All of these trucks are 2110-enabled so there is an amazing amount of flexibility. We rely heavily on the EICs; in the 2110 world the truck engineer is the point of the spear; every source and destination has to go through them, so their role is mission critical. The 2110 flows between the various trucks allowing signals to easily route to any destination. Utilizing NEP's TFC as well as other signal transport like MADI, and Dante gives us the flexibility to do anything with any signal.

Did you and Florian work together on the 2025 Ryder Cup mix?

JD: I handled the unilateral feed for NBC at the Ryder Cup, and Florian mixed the world feed. The Ryder Cup was, by far, the most complicated scenario I have ever been a part of. The lead producer for NBC was producing the world feed and the NBC feed at the same time. In addition, there was a separate world feed producer and NBC producer that handled commercial elements. The audio department had to juggle all of those producers and the various talent before we could even begin to address the actual golf. Florian was on a new Argo console, but I was using a non-impulse core Apollo, so there was a lot of conversion and signal generation to get sources and destinations where they needed to go.

Florian, can you explain how audio was routed in the Ryder Cup multi-truck compound?

FB: The Argo in NEP's Supershooter10 truck was the main console for the World feed Production. The Submix Apollo desk audio travelled to me and then a split was given to the NBC show Apollo. Each desk then fed the router with the appropriate audio to each desks needs. The TFC infrastructure allowed everything to be shared then over the router. The world feed had access to the NBC assets, and NBC had access to all the world feed assets.

How does Argo Q help integrate with NEP's TFC orchestration platform?

FB: While the IP nature of audio is still being digested by Mixers, the consistent labelling between the desk and the TFC infrastructure is key to being able to navigate the multiple folders. The ergonomics of the touch screen nature of both platforms makes patching and routing fairly easy.

James, how do the Calrec Apollo consoles integrate with TFC?

JD: The TFC system gives us the organizational capabilities that are needed on a large show. Every flow is accessible and the routes in and out of the Apollo are easily changed. Using TFC creates a format-agnostic signal as far as the Calrec is concerned; meaning once the signal is in TFC it doesn't matter what the original source was a de-embedder, CCU, MADI, AES, 2110 once it is a part of a flow it is easily accessible.

How has crowd audio capture changed at events like the Ryder Cup?

FB: The Ryder Cup roar is the loudest sound in golf. On a normal weekend crowds tend to gather on signature holes, or near sponsor activations. At the Ryder Cup every hole can draw huge crowds, and you never know when the roar will go off. We gain all the field mics lower for this event and use the Groups to make up any gain if we need it.

The crowd behavior was described as particularly rough at last year's event. How did that compare to other golf tournaments?

FB: The sound of golf has evolved over the years, once it was a quiet sport, with reserved crowds. But not anymore, fans yell and scream all the time. With the international competition that enthusiasm on

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/04/28/inside-the-mix-a1s-florian-brow...
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