Live from the Crucible: IMG at the World Snooker Championship 2024 By George Bevir
Friday, May 3, 2024 - 10:12
Print This Story
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.
One
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
Live from the Crucible: IMG at the World Snooker Championship 2024 By George Bevir 
