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...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

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

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

15/04/2026

WIDOW: The Mission Software Defining Rotary Strike

Image courtesy of MD Helicopters...

15/04/2026

L3Harris Announces Billion Dollar Expansion to Boost Solid Rocket Motor Production in Orange County, Virginia

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, L3Harris VP Mark Farley, and state and local l...

15/04/2026

Advancing America's Space Defense: L3Harris Completes Critical Milestone on Way to Delivering GBOSS Capability to the Warfighter

U.S. Space Forces Ground-Based Optical Sensor System upgrade at the Maui Space S...

15/04/2026

Winter Olympics, Super Bowl Power NBCU-Versant to Gold Medal Performance in Nielsen's February Gauge Reports

NBCU-Versant notches 13.1% of TV viewing in February, its best since August 2024...

15/04/2026

Nielsen CMI shows New Zealand's over-65s are a growing, cashed-up and still-working audience brands can't ignore

New data reveals older Kiwis are financially resilient, loyal to local products,...

15/04/2026

aconnic launches ACCEED 4430 10 Gigabit system for high volume enterprise and business service aggregation

aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, announces the market launch of the ACCE...

15/04/2026

Autocue to Mark 2026 NAB Show Debut of its New PTZ Prompter

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Locality Deploys Nielsen's Media Data Engine

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Viant Announces Agreement to Acquire TVision

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Evergent introduces Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platfor...

Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...

15/04/2026

CentralCast Delivers Breakthrough Efficiencies to Public...

Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...

15/04/2026

DPA N Series Wireless System Unlocks Duplex Gap and Guard...

LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...

15/04/2026

Cobalt Iron Launches Compass Tape Gateway Modernizing IBM...

Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...

15/04/2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More at NAB 2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More...

15/04/2026

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound. Apri...

15/04/2026

Panasonic, NEP Partner on IP-Based Live Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media Powers Global Cloud Transformatio...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...

15/04/2026

Viaccess-Orca Powers MasOranges Multi-Brand TV Expansion...

VO Integrates Client-Side and Server-Side Ad Technologies with its Secure Video Player and Segmentation Tools, Leveraging Broadpeak's SSAI and BPK SmartLib ...

15/04/2026

TMT Insights Unveils AI at NAB 2026

TMT Insights, a leader in professional services and software development for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, today announced the launch of TMT AI at...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure E...

Encompass Digital Media, a global leader in managed broadcast and cloud-based media services, today announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infrastr...

15/04/2026

Middleman Software Debuts PhaseLock Technology and Expand...

Middleman Software, a leading provider of signaling and synchronization solutions for broadcast and streaming workflows, today announced it will unveil PhaseLoc...

15/04/2026

Deity Announces PR-4 Compact Field Recorder

Deity Microphones today announced the PR-4, a compact six-track field recorder featuring four inputs, 32-bit float recording, advanced routing, and a workflow-f...

15/04/2026

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live

Blackmagic Design Announces Fairlight Live Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments Powerful software-based live audio mixer with support for SMPTE-2110...

15/04/2026

Haivision Launches Falkon X4 5G Transmitters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

JB&A Spotlights Exhibitors Ahead of Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wave Central, EVS Announce SMPTE ST 2110 Interop Collaboration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Top Reason for Subscribing to Pay TV Is Live News and TV, Survey Finds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

NAB Leadership Foundation Honors Outstanding Broadcasters

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Wisycom Expands MPR60 With New Multichannel IFB Mode

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Thomas Riedel Acquires Premium Manufacturer ARRI

Strategic Alignment With the Riedel Group for Innovation and Growth Thomas Riedel, founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group, has acqui...

15/04/2026

Iyuno Deploys SDVI Rally Platform to Accelerate and Scale...

SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company's Rally platform has been deployed by Iyuno Media...

15/04/2026

Frequency Leads the Industry in Live Local News on FAST

Frequency, the engine behind many of the worlds leading streaming television channels, has become the platform of choice for leading U.S. broadcasters bringing ...

15/04/2026

Harmonic Introduces Breakthrough AI Orchestration Service...

New Service Simplifies Integration of AI Applications with Exceptional Reliability and Security SAN JOSE, Calif. April 14, 2026 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) t...

15/04/2026

VIDI and Media Links Bring Scalable IP Transport to Germa...

During the 2025 off-season, VIDI completed a major upgrade of the broadcast infrastructure across all 36 stadiums in Germany's 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. The p...

15/04/2026

Clear-Com Introduces Transformational Arcadia and Eclipse...

Clear-Com announced significant updates to its award-winning Arcadia Central Station as well as enhancements to the Eclipse HX Digital Matrix System now runn...

15/04/2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026

Shotoku Introduces the World to Aura P2 PTZ Prompter Panner at NAB SHOW 2026 Brie Clayton April 15, 2026 0 Comments New system removes PTZ pan restric...

15/04/2026

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File Workflow Integration

LiveU Announces Expanded Collaboration with Sony at NAB Show, Adding Direct File...

15/04/2026

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation

This 24-Hour Performance Art Piece Needs Your Participation Keefer Glenshaws latest project is about collaborating with the Berklee community and beyond. Apr...

15/04/2026

CentralCast Delivers Breakthrough Efficiencies to Public Broadcasting Stations with Harmonic

Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More th...

15/04/2026

Five Decades of Box Office Intelligence: Comscore Celebrates 50 Years of Movie Measurement

Five Decades of Box Office Intelligence: Comscore Celebrates 50 Years of Movie M...

15/04/2026

Rethinking AI TCO: Why Cost per Token Is the Only Metric That Matters

Traditional data centers only stored, retrieved and processed data. In the generative and agentic AI era, these facilities have evolved into AI token factories....

15/04/2026

RT announces new crime drama The Yank starring Kate Mulgrew and Colm Meaney

Two Cities Television and Keeper Pictures to produce six-part series in association with Screen Ireland for RT and ITV Studios RT has commissioned Two Citie...

15/04/2026

RT unveils The Signal' a specially commissioned 60-second film to celebrate RT100

RT 100 RT unveils The Signal' a specially commissioned 60-second film ...

15/04/2026

New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs

The NAB Show 2026 trade show, running April 18-22 in Las Vegas, is set to showcase a wave of new features and optimizations for top video editing applications. ...