Live From US Open 2022: ESPN's Jamie Reynolds on New Camera Angles, More Player Access, and Serena's Impact on Production Strategy Looking at both past and present, the first week is all about the emotion' By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor Friday, September 2, 2022 - 2:38 pm
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There aren't many people on the planet with more experienc producing tennis Grand Slams than ESPN's VP of Production Jamie Reynolds, so he knows a thing or two about a good storyline. And it simply doesn't get much better than Serena Williams' farewell tour this week at the US Open in Flushing Meadows. SVG sat down with Reynolds this week to discuss how this reward from the tennis gods is impacting ESPN's production strategy at the Open, new camera angles (including the towel cam ) and audio features (mic'ed up coaches), and how record attendance at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center has brought renewed energy to ESPN's broadcasts.
How much has Serena Williams's announcement that this will likely be her final event affected your production strategy and changed the way you're covering this year's Open?
Even before Serena's announcement, we had committed to a dual-network approach on ESPN and ESPN2 for the first round of coverage. In primetime, ESPN was to be the Ashe channel; on ESPN2, we were going to run Armstrong Stadium plus all the outer-courts action. That was a commitment to the USTA to celebrate the return of tennis and the excitement that was going to be here.
Serena's announcement of a farewell tour here [at the US Open] and what it meant to have her own opening night changed the entire dynamic. We lovingly said the tennis gods showered us with a reward for our commitment to the sport over the years.
I have to admit that, on that opening night, there was a little bit of trepidation because everyone was nervous to see how Serena would compete. Would this be her last match ever on Ashe? Or would she be successful, and [it would] be the first chapter of a longer celebration of her career? We were walking a fine line between whether we were watching her last performance at Ashe Stadium or [seeing] the incomparable Serena we've all come to know. It turned out to be the latter. She showed up and, with a great deal of fearlessness and guts, put in a tremendous performance. To the benefit of the US Open, this is a wave that is going to build all week and potentially into next week.
We've seen a few fun new on-court camera angles, such as the mini towel cam that shows the player's face as they walk to the towel bin. What do these types of angles add to the broadcast?
We've been challenged by the USTA to deliver the sport at a premium level that takes advantage of unique technology assets and camera angles that can set these telecasts apart from the Australian Open, French Open, or Wimbledon. The USTA has been very progressive in allowing us to push the technology, as long as it doesn't infringe on the field of play or become a distraction.
We've been creative in finding new angles and the technologies that give us more access. A lot of our [manned] cameras on the field of play have been pushed outside closer to the spectator rim, but we've found smaller robotics or specialty cameras that allow us to get even closer to the field of play and get angles you wouldn't necessarily see. And the USTA has been very supportive of those initiatives.
A new addition to US Open coverage has been the towel cam, a miniature camera mounted a few feet behind each towel bin at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
[The towel cam] is one of those specialty shots where you see a player in their own personal quiet moment. Typically, [when] a player heads to a towel box, you're looking at them from behind or from a side angle. Now you've got a visceral shot of what their face looks like: if they're intense, centering themselves, or silently turning into a presentation of confidence.
That's on the video side. How are you looking to offer more access to viewers on the audio side this year?
With the USTA, we've been very progressive in finding new ways to gain access to player boxes. We have always had player-box cameras and audio, but now we have the ability to invite coaches to wear microphones during competition. Some have said yes, while others said they prefer not to. Our goal is to be able to take advantage of that first-person voice of the coach. For offering a more intimate view of the experience, that's a big win for us. We were able to have [coaches mics] during qualifiers, and those wireless microphone systems are available on Ashe and Armstrong for coaches that elect to wear them.
After a couple of years away, the second Spidercam is back at Armstrong Stadium. How does the way that four-point cable system is used differ from the one used at Ashe?
A Spidercam at Louis Armstrong court raises the production level and gives a new look to coverage.
There are a lot of nuances because they're very different venues. You have different flight angles, and, because of the steepness and structural integrity, [the way] those systems fly. They have different approaches, different lines of sight, different altitudes. It's easier to fly around the bowl of Ashe than it is in the box of Armstrong. It's a little steeper angle in Armstrong than it may be at Ashe. But it does add a larger scope to the Armstrong [broadcasts] that we think is a real difference-maker.
Last year, ESPN expanded its ACES automated production system to all 14 outer courts, and that has continued this year. What has been your opinion of the outer-court coverage so far?
That's all about scale and volume. The technology is at a point where we were able to scale it up to more courts th
