Live From the Crucible: IMG at the World Snooker Championship 2024

Live from the Crucible: IMG at the World Snooker Championship 2024 By George Bevir

Friday, May 3, 2024 - 10:12

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World Snooker Championship 2024: Sheffield's Crucible theatre, with OB compound including NEP units to the left

When the World Snooker Championship trophy is lifted in a few days' time, a significant chapter in the tournament's illustrious history will close as IMG's 26-year tenure producing coverage of snooker's Triple Crown events ends. Senior producer Dominic Wright speaks about IMG's work on this year's World Snooker Championship and reflects on the past.

Taking place over 17 days, and with the final a best-of 35 frames contest, the World Snooker Championship is renowned for being something of an endurance event for the 32 players taking part. And the same can be said for those tasked with producing coverage of the contest.

In addition to the world feed, IMG is also responsible for the BBC's produced coverage of the World Championship, including its presentation. At this year's World Championship, IMG has partnered with Slam Media, and is also supported by facilities provider NEP (see box below).

We are very proud of what we've achieved. There's been many people involved over the years who have invested so much in the sport and coverage of it. Everything we've done has moved the coverage forward and helped grow the sport to where it is now, and I think IMG has played a major part in it.

During the earlier rounds of the Championship, each day features three sessions of play resulting in potentially lengthy days crewed by staff operating on split shifts. IMG senior producer Dominic Wright explains: Logistically, it's a huge operation and snooker's not like most other sports. Tennis is similar, but if you take football for example where the match is usually 90-minutes so you can work back two hours or whatever it may be for your call time, and you know you'll be off air an hour or so after the final whistle.

With snooker, you can start at 10am and play can overrun, so you might have to go straight into the afternoon session which can overrun again, and evening matches can easily be a midnight finish. But they can also be the most gripping; the 1985 final (between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor) was a final frame decider that was settled on the black ball, with 18.5m watching a match that finished after midnight and is still the biggest audience on BBC2 and helped to make the sport what it is today.

World Snooker Championship 2024: Host and commentator Rob Walker ahead of the quarter finals

With this World Championship the final event of the current contract cycle, technical changes and advances are incremental rather than radical. In terms of the world feed, the biggest change this year is the introduction of a high and wide camera position.

We've always tinkered with camera plans and different cameras and tried to tweak the coverage, explains Wright. We're very happy with what we've produced over the years, so a lot of our work is tinkering rather than wholesale change.

[The high and wide camera] gives viewers a bit of the crowd's perspective because you get some of the crowd in the foreground and it provides a side-on look at the table, which gives a better sense of the length of a pot.

If you've played pool, you might think snooker is easy until you step up to a snooker table and realise that it's a totally different kettle of fish; the professionals make the game look so easy that it's not until you play that you realise just how big a snooker table is, and that new angle helps.

We had a really good response from four or five players to the use of ear buds and interviews during matches .but introducing technology to the Triple Crown events is the hardest thing because they are the biggest three tournaments in snooker, so any innovation and changes have to be done gradually.

For the opening rounds up to the quarter finals, the venue is split in half, with two tables separated by a divider. For the semi-finals and final it moves to a single table setup, with the whole audience focused on a single match at a time. It results in a significant change in atmosphere and provides an opportunity for a re-rig of cameras.

We bring in more cameras for the final: we have the high-mo cameras and a jib, and we can reutilise all of the PTZs that we use on the other table, putting them into the dressing rooms and into the practice room, for example.

People want to see more of what the players get up to behind the scenes. Obviously, it's a tough balance for an event like this because it's the World Championship - it's not an invitational tournament. So, it's all about striking a balance.

While viewers might want to see more behind the scenes action, not all players are always so keen and those watching at home may have noticed players wandering around backstage before play begins.

Jak Jones, with Judd Trump in the background, backstage ahead of their quarter final clash (credit: BBC)

There's a holding area with a sponsors board, and they're meant to stay around there but of course they know there's a camera there so that's some of them being a bit cuter; you'll see Ronnie (O'Sullivan) just walks all the way down the corridor towards the press room, others will go into the tournament office because they think they're safe there, which is understandable because it's the World Championship and it's their moment.

It's not like being in the tunnel before a football match where players are surrounded by their teammates and staff - [snooker players] know full well that the camera's pointed at them. So, we have to be respectful, but we'll always be trying to push that side of it as well.

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