Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Taking Golf Virtual, TGL Competition Inspires Unconventional Golf Sound

07/01/2025

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
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/01/07/taking-golf-virtual-tgl-competi...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

07/05/2026

IAB Tech Lab Introduces Standardized Signals For CTV Ad Portfolio

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 202...

Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing Cobal...

07/05/2026

FOR-A delivers creativity practicality and technical exce...

Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...

07/05/2026

Intinor brings advanced IP transport diagnostics and HDR...

Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...

07/05/2026

Bitmovin Powers Global Film Streaming Platform MUBI

Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...

07/05/2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026

Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next. ...

07/05/2026

Convergence is Now Established Reality,' Says NAB 2026 Report

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Interra Systems to Showcase Best in Class QC Monitoring a...

At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...

07/05/2026

PlayBox Neo shines a spotlight on delivering Secure Scala...

At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...

07/05/2026

BFBS selects Synamedia to deliver New Digital Platform fo...

Strategic three-year partnership marks delivery phase of BFBS' next-generation media vision Media organisation and military charity BFBS (British Forces Br...

07/05/2026

Amagi Unlocks New Opportunities for CTV Performance with...

Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced the availability of its In-Content Ads offering v...

07/05/2026

Lightware Introduces Rack Taurus For Clean Centralized AV...

Lightware Visual Engineering has developed Rack Taurus for rack-based environments such as education and corporate training spaces. It enables clean and simple ...

07/05/2026

Jigsaw24 Showcases End-to-End Media Workflows at MPTS 202...

Jigsaw24, the UK's leading media equipment supplier and systems integrator, will showcase its expanded end-to-end workflow capabilities at MPTS 2026, signal...

07/05/2026

Ease Live Granted US Patent for Technology Powering Perfe...

Ease Live, an Evertz company, today announced that it has been granted a US Patent for its proprietary graphical overlay technology, the foundation for interact...

07/05/2026

Leader prepares advanced Test and Measurement showcase fo...

Test & measurement innovator Leader Electronics of Europe will present an extensive range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix test and measurement solutions at...

07/05/2026

LiveU Signals a New Era of Live Broadcasting at Broadcast...

At Broadcast Asia 2026 (Stand 5H3 8), LiveU is redefining live production with its most powerful IP-video EcoSystem to date built to help broadcasters and con...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Streaming Server Awarded Trusted Partner Network Gold Logo Certification

January 8, 2024 Colorfront (colorfront.com), a leader in high-performance, on-s...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Unleashes New Opportunities for Content Owners Plus Other Ground-Breaking Visual Experiences at Nab 2024

March 20, 2024 NAB 2024, Las Vegas - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-awa...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Innovations for HDR Cinema at Cinemacon 2025

April 1, 2025 CINEMACON, APRIL 1, 2025 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming syste...

07/05/2026

Colorfront to Showcase Advanced HDR Cinema Mastering Solutions at CineEurope 2025

June 15, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), an Academy and Emmy Award-winning de...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit

June 15, 2025 Colorfront participated in the ICTA Barcelona Cinema Technology Summit on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Held at The Phenomena Experience, the event feat...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Does IBC 2024 Live From Stockholm!

July 1, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Transkoder Delivers a Masterful Performance at Annapurna Studios

July 1, 2025 Passion and dedication will take you places. Come with us on a short trip to the heart of India, where Annapurna Studios is living-up to the inspi...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Opens a New Chapter in Color Tools For Cinema & Television

July 3, 2025 Colorfront (colorfront.com), the multi-award-winning developer of high-performance dailies/transcoding/streaming systems for motion pictures, OTT,...

07/05/2026

Colorfront at IBC 2025: Advanced Tools Make Easy Work of Critical Mastering Tasks and More!

September 1, 2025 IBC 2025, Amsterdam - Colorfront (colorfront.com) - the Acade...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Introduces Colorfront Immersive Utility, a New Mac App for Creating Apple Immersive Video

April 17, 2026 LOS ANGELES - April 17, 2026 - Colorfront today announced Colorf...

07/05/2026

Colorfront Delivers Even More AI Automation Power and Extends Technology Partnerships with Dolby Apple

April 23, 2026 NAB 2026, Las Vegas - the Academy and Emmy Award-winning develop...

07/05/2026

CNN Founder Ted Turner Dies at 87

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

FCC Urges Appeals Court to Toss Challenges to Nexstar-Tegna Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Carr Announces FCC Staff Promotions

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/05/2026

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects

Recreating the 1974 Doctor Who Time Tunnel in After Effects Graham Quince May 6, 2026 0 Comments The Time Tunnel from Doctor Who titles is one of th...

07/05/2026

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray Goggins

Well known Irish faces pushed to the edge in new series of Uncharted with Ray G...

07/05/2026

Powerful four generation story A Traveller Family airs on RT One and RT Player this Monday night

RT will premiere A Traveller Family, a compelling new documentary exploring the...

07/05/2026

Linked and Loaded: Gaijin Single Sign-On Now Available on GeForce NOW

Less typing, more tanking. Faster logins mean more time in the gaming action - and this week provides GeForce NOW members with a smoother path straight into th...

06/05/2026

Wisycom RF Solutions Support Gravity Medias Live Cycling and Marathon Broadcasts

Gravity Media Chief RF Communications Engineer Glenn Willems uses Wisycom RF over Fiber and wireless solutions across major cycling events and international mar...

06/05/2026

Sennheiser Spectera Module Now Available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons

A Sennheiser Spectera module is now available in Bitfocus Companion and Buttons, enabling direct integration of Spectera with the two software platforms. The mo...

06/05/2026

Ted Turner, Cable Television Pioneer, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dead at 87

Ted Turner, the visionary media entrepreneur whose appetite for disruption helpe...

06/05/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Peacock Launches Visin de Campo (aka Pitchside Live), Will Stream All 104 Matches in Spanish

Peacock is going all-in on the beautiful game - streaming all 104 FIFA World Cup...

06/05/2026

NoiseWorks Audio launch VoiceAssist Basic, Standard & Advanced

New pricing tiers for vocal/dialogue restoration tool NoiseWorks Audio's AI-powered vocal and dialogue processing plug-in is now available in three diff...

06/05/2026

RME TotalMix FX 2 now available

Popular mixing & routing software overhauled Following a recent public beta test, RME have launched the final release version of the powerful mixing and rou...

06/05/2026

Focusrite: Designing The ISA C8X Audio Interface

New SOS Video Feature Focusrites ISA C8X is a milestone product that brings together the companys analogue heritage and their expertise in digital audio. Yo...

06/05/2026

L3Harris to Boost Polish Navy Combat Power with Advanced Ship System

Polands Miecznik-class frigates are part of the largest contract in Polish shipbuilding history. (Image Credit: PGZ Stocznia Wojenna)...

06/05/2026

FCC's Anna Gomez Urges Rigorous Review of Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Riedel Ups Marc Engroff to CFO, Shifts Frank Eischet to Group COO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/05/2026

Amagi Launches In-Content Ads' to Attract More CTV Advertisers

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...