The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center has a whole new feel this year, thanks to the addition of a roof to Arthur Ashe Stadium, an impressive new Grandstand Court, and a revamped campus that offers some serious enhancements in terms of crowd flow, ease of movement, and more. And all the changes are having a positive impact on those involved with TV production.
From left: The USTA's Steve Gorsuch, Brian Williams, and Patti Kleinman-Fallick in the newly revamped tunnel at Arthur Ashe Stadium
It has energized everybody because so many people have been here for a lot of years; everyone was familiar with where the courts and other facilities were, says Steve Gorsuch, director, broadcast operations and production, USTA. And, among the TV community, there is a lot of wow factor that has given everyone a boost because it has a whole new vibe. We're pretty excited about that. And, if you saw this place a month ago, you would have said, No way.'
The biggest change, of course, is the addition of a roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium, which has posed some challenges. There seems to be some issues with respect to increased noise levels in the already noisy stadium, but it also alleviates the stress of waiting out rain delays and the concern of playing the men's final on a Monday (it also seems to have done such a good job of preventing rain from impacting the Open that the storms, like Tropical Storm Hermine this past weekend, don't even bother showing up).
It was the day before the annual US Open Kids Day event prior to the start of the tournament, and I was driving in my car listening to the weather to see if rain would cancel Kids Day when I realized we have the roof and it didn't matter, says Gorsuch. So it's been fantastic.
Another enhancement at Arthur Ashe is that Clair Brothers has been brought in to handle entertainment audio.
They've done a very good job, says Gorsuch. We went back to having carts on the court for the stage PA. After the tournament, they want to investigate hoisting the speakers to the ceiling. Overall, Clair Brothers have been great to work with, and they have really embraced the event.
In terms of enhancements, the new Grandstand Court is the biggest completely new addition to the complex.
Certainly, the camera angles there are terrific, and it's a great place to be a spectator, Gorsuch point out. There are also two video screens that have similar big-screen productions to Arthur Ashe with their own control room, Chase replay review, and entertainment segments; they have their own hard camera and RF camera.
Technology Changes
The technology side of the facility has also been given a couple of enhancements. More fiber has been laid across the facility to improve audio- and video-signal transport back to the TV compound. This year sees improvements to the interview room as well as to the interview area in the hallway for players going on and off of the court at Arthur Ashe. Both were treated with a new lighting design by Ferri, and the interview room has a completely new production philosophy.
With enhanced lighting and additional cameras, the Interview Room is now essentially a set for a mini TV show.
The idea for improving the Interview Room began two years ago, says Gorsuch. Last year, ESPN jumped in, [seeing] it as something that was cool and could give a lot of traction to another audience for the entire run of the tournament for 13 or 14 hours a day.
The key enhancement is the use of four cameras: one shooting a wide shot of the player, a second a tight shot of the player, and two robotic cameras capturing reverse shots of the members of the press asking questions.
You can now see and hear the interaction of the players with the press, and the robotic camera also gives us a chance to cut to another shot, says Gorsuch. The control room is located outside of the room behind the player, and three people there control the cameras and switch the audio and video.
Reverse-angle shots of the media is a rarity in most interview rooms, but Gorsuch thought it would be more compelling than just hearing voices.
Also, our sound system wasn't so great; you couldn't even always hear the question, he says. So we amped up the sound system and changed the lighting to make it like a mini TV show.
From a broadcast perspective, Gorsuch says ESPN is dialed in this year for year 2 of its role as both domestic and host broadcaster. Although Eurosport also has a bigger presence than previously, he notes, Olympics and World Cup years tend to see a smaller presence from international-rights holders.
We're down two set locations this year; we have only two on the practice courts, as both Sky and ESPN International do not have sets, he says. And, in the South Plaza, we have Eurosport and then the big ESPN stage.
Not all the changes this year are about technology and improvements to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Patti Kleinman-Fallick, recently named senior director, broadcast operations, USTA, has joined the team.
I've had the pleasure of watching Steve work for the last two or three weeks, and he is a genius, she says. He knows every nook and cranny and how to get things done.
Fallick's new full-time role with the USTA is to help plan out the broadcast facilities within the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. For example, the decision has been made to make the ESPN Broadcast Center permanent, but work still has to be done with respect to international-rights holders.
We want to futureproof ourselves, she says, and bring in more IP technology and maybe rethink some of the ways we do things.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center has a whole new feel this year, thanks to the addition of a roof to Arthur Ashe Stadium, an impressive new Grandstand Court, and a revamped campus that offers some serious enhancements in terms of crowd flow, ease of movement, and more. And all the changes are having a positive impact on those involved with TV production.
