
Live From THE PLAYERS Championship: NBC Sports Expand TrackMan; JitaCam Enhances Coverage A production team of 285 is onsite wielding an arsenal of 65 cameras By Ken Kerschbaumer
Thursday, March 9, 2023 - 8:31 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
It's day one of the 2023 PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, and the NBC Sports golf-production team is once again ready to cover all the action with a team of 285 for on-course coverage (working with 65 cameras), a team of 60 for Live From coverage, and some new production tweaks. Helping in the efforts is that good weather has made setup smooth and has everyone in a good place.
From left: NBC Sports execs Bridget Cugle, Allison McAllister, and Mark Caputo and Production Managers Megan Moltenbrey and Lauren Rose Maochi at the PLAYERS Championship
Everything has been great, says Allison McAllister, VP, golf operations, NBC Sports. We're lucky that we have a great team in place and a great partnership with the PGA TOUR, along with other vendors to make the PLAYERS a successful event.
The tournament tees off this morning, but the NBC team has been producing content since Monday when Golf Central Live From the PLAYERS began its coverage at 7-9 p.m. By the end of Sunday, the team will have delivered more than 40 hours of coverage.
According to Marc Caputo, director, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, Live From coverage is essentially the same as last year's, an 11-camera complement comprising a Flycam and four Telemetric cameras controlled from Stamford, CT. The Newbert flypack is once again on hand for transmission support between the course and Stamford. One change is that the Rules Official has moved into NEP Supershooter 17 unit, giving the production team space for a rain room. NEP ND1 and ND7 are at the center of NBC's coverage, with NEP XL1, Fiber 2, and ESU in supporting roles.
By the end of Sunday night, Golf Channel's Live From The PLAYERS will have delivered more than 40 hours of content to viewers.
We did add a second roving camera this year so we could do two different reporter standups simultaneously, Caputo adds. Robovision has provided the cameras at the practice range, both down range and back range, as well as the short-game area. They've been a good partner.
The FlyCam can get shots of he 16th fairway and green, the 17th tee shot and green, and players walking from 16 to 17.
Also this year, TrackMan is the PGA TOUR's official shot-tracing partner, giving the Live From team the ability to deliver tracing shots on the practice range.
As usual the par-3 Hole 17 island green - arguably the most pressure-packed par 3 in golf - will feature plenty of bells and whistles. A Flycam will run 225 yards from the stands behind the 17th green across the lake to the 16th green, and a BunkerCam from Fletcher will once again be inside the Hole 17th bunker.
One change on 17, notes Caputo, is that we will use a Robovision RoboHead for the super-slo-mo camera on Bird Island, rather than having a cameraperson there, for two reasons: EHS and for a cleaner look. The same operator will control it but will use a pan-bar hard-camera system to control a Sony HDC-4300 camera instead of using a joystick.
A JitaCam has been installed at the 18th hole to provide shot tracing of tee shots on the final hole.
Also getting a production lift is the 18th hole, whose tee shot can leave golfers either in the lake if they hit too far left or in the rough and under trees if they hit too far right. A 25-ft.-high JitaCam overlooking the 18th tee has been added to make it easier for talent and viewers to get a sense of where the shot is headed.
We're mounting the JitaCam right to the existing camera tower that has been a good initiative with the PGA TOUR, adds Caputo.
Another iconic hole - the par-5, 558-yard 11th hole - will be host to the Player Walk and Talks, when a player dons Airpods to chat with NBC's on-air talent. The 11th hole is home to some of the more interesting shot-making decisions on tour, so the conversations promise deeper insight.
Aerial coverage at the PLAYERS features both a live drone (provided by Sky Reality) and a fixed-wing airplane (Winged Vision). To give fans a closer look at the players, the broadcaster will deploy a shallow-depth-of-field camera on a Steadicam, improving the quality of shots captured as the players walk around the course.
Bridget Cugle, senior manager, remote operations, NBC Sports, has been at the center of efforts with the PGA TOUR (which has taken on many of the below-the-line responsibilities) in the compound, ensuring that everything goes smoothly. So far, all systems are in great shape. Our partnership with the PGA Tour this week has been wonderful, she says.
For Ken Goss, EVP, remote and studio operations, NBC Sports Group, it's great to be back at the PLAYERS with the PGA TOUR: We continue to expand our coverage technically. We are looking forward to a successful week with [PGA TOUR Entertainment VP/Executive Producer] Greg Hopfe and his technical and operational teams here.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
06/11/2025
Media organisations from across the globe are uniting to promote media and information literacy (MIL) to help ensure their future survival and win back the trus...
06/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Athlos NYC CEO Kayla Green on Building the Brand of the Young Trac...
06/11/2025
ESPN Exits ESPN BET Deal With PENN, Goes Into Business With DraftKingsDraftKings will integrate innovative fan experiences' across ESPN platforms and DTC s...
06/11/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Voyage Audio's Colin Ritchie on How the Spatial M...
06/11/2025
Ben Whishaw at the premiere of Peter Hujar's Day (photo by Robin Marshall / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Bailey Pennick
The premise is si...
06/11/2025
At Spotify, we're always finding new ways to bring you closer to the music that moves you, turning sound into something personal. From the playlists that ma...
06/11/2025
O mundo est ouvindo a Am rica Latina. Os artistas da regi o est o constantement...
06/11/2025
The world is listening to Latin America. The region's artists are consistent...
06/11/2025
El mundo est escuchando a Latinoam rica. Los artistas de la regi n marcan const...
06/11/2025
After nine months of fiscal year 2025, SGL Carbon generated sales of 652.9 million, down 16.5% on the previous year (9M 2024: 781.9 million). This is attribut...
06/11/2025
Contact information:
Miriam Johnson, Website Lead, Fotoware Group
miriam.johnson@fotoware.com
Oslo, October 2025: As part of our brand unification, the Pic...
06/11/2025
Calrec's 36-fader Argo M in Steiger Media's newly equipped OB truck parked outside the venue will showcase a live remote workflow connected to the Calre...
06/11/2025
With nearly 50% of streamers willing to cancel a service based on difficulty fin...
06/11/2025
BRISTOL, Conn., and BOSTON ESPN and DraftKings today announced an agreement naming DraftKings the sports programmer's exclusive official sportsbook and odds...
06/11/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Canon USA has launched the CR-N400 and CR-N350, two new Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras designed to deliver high image quality, versatile connectivit...
06/11/2025
NEW YORK Fox Sports said its coverage of the Los Angeles Dodgers' win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the decisive Game 7 of the 2025 World Series delivered 2...
06/11/2025
NEW YORK DoubleVerify and Roku, Inc. are reporting that they have seen a marked reduction in fraudulent ad requests imitating Roku device traffic across the s...
06/11/2025
CAMBRIDGE, England Faced with rising inflation and worries that the economy is weakening, consumers are prioritizing their spending on popular streaming service...
06/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports is mounting mics in unconventional places to bring the sounds of NASCAR into the living rooms of sports fans....
06/11/2025
BRANSON, Mo. Link Electronics has partnered with Aberdeen Broadcast Services to provide a real-time, dual-stream translation and captioning service....
06/11/2025
Venture will deploy and commercialize Level-4 autonomous driving technologies
P...
06/11/2025
Strategic execution and operational optimization lay foundation for sustainable growth
Space Services returns to growth following Thuraya-4 start of operations...
06/11/2025
06 Nov 2025
VEON Appoints Sebastian Rice as General Counsel Vitaly Shmakov promoted to the newly created Chief Investment Officer role
Dubai, November 6, 2025...
06/11/2025
Telos Alliance Partners to Showcase Professional Audio Processing and Next-Gen ...
06/11/2025
The prequel to the Sky Original mob crime saga is a six-part drama tracking the ...
06/11/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
06/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz at productronica 2025: Innovation and production - hand in hand As a trusted partner for electronics manufacturing, Rohde & Schwarz will prese...
06/11/2025
Back to All News
Mystery Thriller The Price of Confession' Starring Jeon D...
06/11/2025
The company will highlight its recent ecosystem expansions and strategic innovat...
06/11/2025
Red Seat Ventures Announces Partnership with Renowned Entrepreneur, Author and M...
06/11/2025
We're delighted to announce the appointment of Max Mehta and Mark Fannon as Junior Systems Engineers, further strengthening our growing Technology team.
Ma...
06/11/2025
RT Announces Alex Walden as General Manager of the
RTE Concert Orchestra
Alex Walden, renowned orchestra manager, most recently for the BBC Concert Orche...
06/11/2025
Actors Steve Coogan and anna Hardwicke will be on the Late Late Show this week ...
06/11/2025
In the third episode of The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In actor Danny O'Carr...
06/11/2025
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and chief scientist Bill Dally were honored ...
06/11/2025
A crisp chill's in the air - and so is the action. GeForce NOW is packing November with 23 games hitting the cloud, including the launch of the highly antic...
06/11/2025
Scripps Research team identifies sugar molecules that trigger placental formation Study reveals how sugar-protein interactions are critical for the placenta dur...
05/11/2025
College Hoops Preview 2025: ESPN Remote-Ops Team Preps for Massive Slate of Men&...
05/11/2025
University of Iowa Centralizes Video Production With Dual Control Rooms at Carve...
05/11/2025
On Monday night, Ed Sheeran and Spotify lit up The Royal Dublin Society in Dublin for a one-night-only performance. The occasion? The third installment of Billi...
05/11/2025
Cumbia has long been woven into daily life in Argentina, and its popularity on S...
05/11/2025
La cumbia forma parte del d a a d a de los argentinos desde siempre, y su popula...
05/11/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
05/11/2025
SBS showcases next generation of pro cyclists in extended broadcast deal with Pr...
05/11/2025
Photo credit: CIVMEC...
05/11/2025
A Nielsen survey of 500 directors and millions of monday.com workflows reveals t...
05/11/2025
Prime Video's VoD offerings included for the first time in standardized AGF Measurement
Frankfurt, October 28, 2025. AGF Videoforschung, together with Ama...
05/11/2025
A 13-year-old company that serves as a master control/disaster recovery hub for PBS stations says it has seen little financial impact from cuts to public broadc...
05/11/2025
To no one's surprise, the NFL's most dominant franchise in recent years attracts the most TV viewers, according to new research by S&P Global Market Int...