Taking Golf Virtual, TGL Competition Inspires Unconventional Golf Sound The production's A1: Try to imagine combining a WWF show with a cocktail party' By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Tuesday, January 7, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Microphones will be on many of the 80-plus cameras scattered around the purpose-built SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. The venue will host the first round of the innovative Tomorrow's Golf League (TGL) in partnership with the PGA TOUR, a production that will fuse advanced tech and live action at 9 p.m. ET tonight on ESPN.
Golfers from the six clubs formed so far and backed by such entities as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's TMRW Sports will move seamlessly (it is hoped) between real and virtual tees, fairways, and greens, in the process traversing such hazards as a deep gorge or molten lava.
They're hitting a real golf ball into a [64- x 53-ft. projection] screen, and swing metrics provide spin, launch, angle speed, etc., in real time, explains Joe Carpenter, A1 for the event. It is so accurate.
The New York Golf Club, owned by NY Mets owner Steven Cohen will tee up first against the Bay Golf Club, owned by Marc Lasry's Avenue Sports Fund and Stephen Curry. The others are the Los Angeles Golf Club, owned by Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams; Atlanta Drive GC, owned by Arthur M. Blank; Boston Common Golf, owned by Fenway Sports Group; and Jupiter Links Golf Club owned by TGR Ventures and David Blitzer.
The Sound of Virtuality There will be microphones on some of the robocams; on a Spidercam; in the warm-up areas, where each golfer will each have their own mini-simulator; and on a so-called rover camera, which can roam the playing area seeking reaction shots. Golfers will be wearing Q5X PlayerMic transmitters as well as Bluetooth IFB packs and prototype Apple Beats earpieces. Carpenter, working from Game Creek Moonshine mobile unit onsite, says the challenge will be creating an individual mix for each golfer's earpiece as they move back and forth between reality and virtuality.
The TGL playing area within SoFi Center is roughly the size of a football field: 97 yards long x 50 yards wide.
Each golfer will have preferences as to what they want to hear in their ears: themselves or not, sound effects, teammates, announcers, Carpenter explains, adding that the mixes will be a combination of preprogramming (via an RTS ADAM frame) and live mixes. (Announcers Scott Van Pelt, Matt Barrie, and Marty Smith are lined up for event commentary.) Rory McIlroy, for instance, may want to hear his teammates and Matt Barrie but not himself. I'll create an individual program mix for each of the six golfers. In addition, pretty much every golfer, as soon as they step into the tee box and we're still in reality, will want to kill that program in their ear so nobody can talk to them accidentally while they're addressing the ball and hitting. It's wild.
The golfers won't be talking to are caddies - live ones, at least. Virtual caddies will display ball locations and other metrics. They're interactive, providing the golfers with feedback on distance, wind, lie, and other factors.
Complicated Course, Complex Mix Carpenter will be working with colleagues Dave Free and Mike Rew, who will submix the live SFX and the Q5X microphones and manage tape-replay audio, respectively. All the audio, as well as the final broadcast mix, will be captured and distributed in 5.1 surround.
Although the gofers are hitting into a giant screen powered by simulation manufacturer Full Swing from areas with real grass, fairway, rough, and sand for approach and tee shots (one of which has actual sand from the Masters' Augusta, GA, course), dubbed the Screen Zone, TGL tee sounds will be picked up by shotgun mics typically deployed at tees and elsewhere. For shots of approximately 50 yards or less, the setup transitions to a physical, custom-built Green Zone, a 22,475-sq.-ft. short-game area that transforms between holes. It's built atop a 41-yard-wide turntable that rotates to change approach angles and can morph its topography using nearly 600 actuators.
The Green Zone is about the size of four basketball courts, and numerous sounds will come into play there. Some will be fairly conventional, such as splashes for water landings or ricochets off trees, taken from a bespoke effects library of about 80 sounds that Carpenter and friend and PGA TOUR veteran Brad Faxon compiled for the production by knocking shots around a local Florida course.
Other sounds will be less conventional. When that ball goes into the virtual world, we're in a virtual computer [environment], and I'm going to have to decide what that sounds like, says Carpenter. Depending on the hole, if it's a canyon, it's going to be like rattlesnakes and the Snake River; if the ball hits off the canyon rocks, you're going to hear it sound like it glances off a rock. One of these holes is over some kind of volcano, and you'll see - and hear - the gurgling lava. If the hole's [supposed to be] in Ireland, maybe a little bagpipe in the background and a really stiff breeze to set the sense of place. The trick is going to be picking and syncing these sounds in real time.
Here, too, Sports Betting Has an Effect As complicated as the sound for this novel golf outing might be - every shot will be live and fast-paced to keep within the show's two-hour scheduled slot - it's made more complicated by sports betting: Carpenter will have to tailor his mix feeds for regions that prohibit the practice.
If gambling's legal in one place, you get one program and can advertise gambling, he points out. In another feed, gambling advertising gets [removed] entirely. Between gambling or no
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
14/11/2026
Newest Lenses, Horizon Anamorphic Seminar & Guided Lens Character Experience Highlight Creative Possibilities
At the 2026 Toru CAMERIMAGE Film Festival, ZEISS...
14/11/2026
Sonnet Announces Black Friday Sale on Select Products
Brie Clayton November 14, 2026
0 Comments
WHAT: Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a select...
14/11/2026
Berklee Alumni Shine at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards This year's winners included songwriters, engineers, and performers who contributed to acclaimed reco...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
Taking Golf Virtual, TGL Competition Inspires Unconventional Golf Sound The production's A1: Try to imagine combining a WWF show with a cocktail party' By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
