Live from 151st Open Championship: NBC Sports Visits Little Eye Island; MegaStudio a Hit By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Sunday, July 23, 2023 - 3:57 am
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The 151st Open Championship is entering its final round and for the team at NBC Sports one of the production highlights won't have anything to do with the on-course coverage but, instead, a live opening hit for the final round featuring NBC Sports golf host Mike Tirico on Little Eye Island, an island off the coast of West Kirby that provides a dramatic view back to Royal Liverpool Golf Club.
Allison McAllister, NBC Sports, VP, Golf Operations, says the idea came during the spring survey when Producer Tommy Roy and some of the club members were talking about options to do something special for the opening of the final round.
(left-to-right) NBC golf's Ed Boyer, Marc Caputo, Tavi Wright, Bridget Cugle, Sam Ruby, and Allison McAllister at 151st Open Championship.
They came up with this great idea to go out on Little Eye and the club member was so excited about the plan he called the Rangers that day for approval, looked at the tidal charts, and are now they are making it happen, she explains.
The island is unique in that most of the time (approximately seven hours out of every 12) the low tide allows access on foot. Located about a mile offshore, there are no buildings and no power, but it does offer a great view back across the golden sands of the Dee Estuary.
Marc Caputo, NBC Sports, director, remote technical operations, and engineering, says on Sunday a Ranger will drive a cameraman, Tirico, an A2, and an RF utility out to the island for the hit.
We are using RF facilities provided by EMG, he explains. And then part of the coverage plan is to use two ACS robotic cameras, one on the 17th green and one above the NBC studio, to help with the coverage from the Island.
Of course, once the opening shot with Tirico is completed all eyes will be on the action on the course, a course which last hosted the Open Championship in 2014.
The 17th hole has been completely redesigned since the last Open becoming a spectacular, challenging par 3. It is the feature hole of the course and even has a whole feed dedicated to it. One thing that hasn't changed in the past nine years is the location of the practice range, which is actually located off-property and over the train tracks.
All our reporters and camera crew need to shuttle over in vehicles to the range which is unlike most of the courses on the rotation, says Bridget Cugle, NBC Sports, director of golf operations.
There are more than 160 cameras on the course that are available to the NBC golf production team, including 13 unilateral cameras (three of which are on-course RF) for championship coverage. NBC Sports Technical Manager Sam Ruby says Live From has four Telemetric robotics on set, a downrange camera an ACS bunkercam in a practice bunker, and a rover cam.
A first for NBC Sports this year is that the main broadcast booth and Tirico's booth are sharing the same location.
It's a mega studio located between the 13 green and the walk off from 14 tee, says McAllister. We will have all our announcers in there together, except our on-course walking announcers.
Along with maximizing resources it also gives the production team two different looks from one location and reaction from all involved as been positive as it makes everything more convenient.
Along with the unilateral cameras, the production team, which numbers around 150 personnel, has some additional support from ARL for virtual graphics; its own Pinpoints providing wind animations; and a LiveU that is capturing scenic shots throughout the area (including, with a little luck, live shots from the Cavern Club).
The main tournament production comes from here while the early golf that airs on Peacock and USA is produced out of Stamford and relies on the world feed, adds Caputo. We're also producing Live From' out of Stamford, and we are also providing a production team for the two featured groups. Also, our par three channel is using the UHD HDR feed.
McAllister says the 151st Open Championship, like all golf majors, required working closely with the R&A, ETP, and EMG throughout the year.
Beyond those external partnerships we have great calaboration with tournament, studio, and news teams sharing resources to make sure the 151st Open Championship is covered from all angles, she says.
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Live from 151st Open Championship: NBC Sports Visits Little Eye Island; MegaStudio a Hit By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
