U.COM Media Delivers LET Return to Golf for Sky Sports, Golf Channel

U.COM Media delivers LET return to golf for Sky Sports and Golf Channel TV Skyline OB 7 plays key role as production team spreads out in the compound By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe

Thursday, August 13, 2020 - 20:55

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Briefing for the production team in the compound at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick

The LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour have teed off this week at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, as professional women's golf returns to Scotland for the first time since Europe's triumph in the 2019 Solheim Cup last September.

A team from Ladies European Tour TV production partner U.COM Media is onsite for the behind-closed-doors tournament, along with its OB services provider TV Skyline, producing world feed coverage for broadcast partners Sky Sports and the Golf Channel along with digital content for ladiesscottishopen.com. Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Mix coverage is from 12:00-16:00 BST and on the Golf Channel from 07:00-11:00 EST through the weekend.

The Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open is dual-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and LET and features Rolex Rankings No.2 Danielle Kiang along with No.8 Minjee Lee in the field this week.

In 2019, South Korea's Mi Jung Hur came out on top to earn her first victory since 2014 and set the 72-hole tournament record at -20. While Hur is not defending this week, past champions Ariya Jutanugarn (2018) and Mi Hyang Lee (2017) have made the trip to The Renaissance Club, as have 2019 major champions Hannah Green (KPMG Women's PGA Championship) and Hinako Shibuno (AIG Women's Open).

The 144-player field also includes 15 of the top 20 in the Race to Costa del Sol competing for the $1.5 million purse, as well as Rose Ladies Series Order of Merit winner Charley Hull.

This is the first of two consecutive events in Scotland, ahead of next week's AIG Women's Open at Royal Troon. The tournament is the final opportunity to qualify for the AIG Women's Open.

The Ladies Scottish Open goes ahead without spectators as a made for TV event following close consultation with the Scottish Government, Aberdeen Standard Investments, VisitScotland, the LPGA and the LET, adhering to internationally recognised COVID-19 protocols and subject to necessary formal approvals of athlete quarantine exemptions.

Fiona Hyslop, cabinet secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, said: The ability to host a tournament of the stature of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open is great news for Scotland and is only possible thanks to the hard work of the many partners involved to develop the safety plans necessary to allow this fantastic event to take place.

The Scottish Government is committed to equality in sport and society, and I am therefore particularly pleased that we are able to support the return of female professional golf to Scotland, building on the last year's enormously successful Solheim Cup.

I'm sure that audiences across the world will be enthralled by the stunning East Lothian coastline and views of one of the country's top courses. I hope that will inspire many to visit when the time is right and offer a morale boost for Scots to see the return of international events to our shores.

U.COM Media camera operator out on the course during play

U.COM Media head of business development Hendrik Finger spoke to SVG Europe about what it took, and what it takes, to plan and produce coverage of a Tour-level golf tournament with full social distancing in place due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Since 2011 U.COM has been the production partner and rights holder for all Ladies European Tour events around the globe, and the Solheim Cup. We handle the rights and produce the pictures.

We work with them where they are the main sanctioned partner and we also produce with them, or for them, on the events in Asia where they co-sanction with partners. Where we can we travel with the trucks from TV Skyline, and in other territories we work with local partners. We've now done work on all continents apart from South America.

In terms of the camera coverage this week it's pretty much our normal set up for four-hours-per-day live coverage: we have ten cabled cameras rotating on the course, four RF cameras and a beauty shot - plus an on-course commentator.

We obviously had to do a lot of amendments in terms of workflow and workspace. One of the big differences is we need a lot more space in the TV compound, because everyone must work apart wearing masks. Everyone must have their own dedicated buggy to drive around the course and there are sanitising facilities everywhere.

The biggest challenge was to implement the live workflow around camera rotation due to social distancing. We've allocated dedicated people in smaller groups, so they keep their distance and don't mix. That's our main priority, said Finger.

TV Skyline's OB 7 truck has three control rooms and features 32 workplaces on-board in an old normal' production configuration. Due to the three separate control rooms and the size of the audio area, the truck is ideal for use in socially distanced sports production given the current COVID-19 protocols.

The big advantage with the fleet from TV Skyline is they have trucks with the [required] space, which we try to maximise. Also, some of the people that usually work in the truck have now been moved out into cabins, to maintain distance. For example the graphics guys who usually work in the submix part of the truck are now working from a cabin, in order to maintain more space in the truck.

We have a lot of post production work spaces in the cabins: the highlights edit, social media edit and openers are being edited onsite. For all of that we have each team working in different cabins, and these people are together in the hotels so we t

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