U.S. Women’s Open: NBC Sports Tees Up Epic Production, Historic Programming for Open’s First Visit to Pebble Beach

A record 12 hours on NBC network mark first-ever live primetime broadcasts

Although legendary NBC Sports Golf Producer Tommy Roy has overseen a whopping 20 U.S. Women’s Opens during his storied career, this week marks just his fourth production at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links. He has occupied the front bench at Pebble for the 1999 U.S. Amateur, 2000 U.S. Open, and 2010 U.S. Open — making the U.S. Women’s Open’s historic first visit to Monterrey this week a special moment not only for the players on the course but also for the production crew in the truck.

“If you’re a golfer, Pebble Beach is an incredibly special place,” Roy says of the U.S. Women’s Open’s debut on the course. “It’s a real treat any time you have the chance to visit. This week is even more special because of the history that these women are going to make. Just as this will be a career highlight for the players, it’s a career highlight for me and all of the men and women on our production team who have the opportunity and privilege to document and showcase this historic moment across all of our platforms, culminating in record weekend coverage on NBC.”

Stacked Schedule: Linear Coverage, Streaming, Live Studio Shows

NBC Sports coverage of the first-ever U.S. Women’s Open to be held at Pebble Beach airs today and tomorrow on Peacock and USA Network before transitioning to NBC broadcast network over the weekend. The presentation will include a record 12 hours of coverage on NBC on Saturday and Sunday, including live primetime coverage for the first time in championship history. NBC Sports will also complement its linear coverage with live Featured Group coverage Thursday through Sunday on Peacock, USWomensOpen.com, the new USGA mobile app, the USGA streaming app on connected-TV devices, and via DirecTV.

NBC Sports has been onsite since Tuesday with Golf Central Live From the U.S. Women’s Open on Golf Channel and Peacock, surrounding the championship with more than 25 hours of live studio coverage.

Covering Pebble Beach: Production Team Goes All-Out for Historic Event

Overall, NBC Sports has nearly 350 people onsite, including its tournament, Featured Groups, and Live From teams. Facilities are very similar to those of the past couple of years, according to NBC Sports Director, Remote Technical Operations, Marc Caputo.

NEP ND7 (A, B, C, and D units) and BSI RF 4 are in the truck compound, located near the club’s equestrian center.

“We are using the existing fiber infrastructure to connect from the equestrian fiber hut to the tennis-court fiber hut,” says Bridget Cugle, director, golf remote operations, NBC Sports. “Scheduling presented a bit of a unique scenario, with the majority of the crew working the U.S. Senior Open last week and then heading straight to Pebble from Wisconsin.”

Golf Central Live From the U.S. Women’s Open has been onsite at Pebble Beach since Tuesday. Golf Channel and Peacock are carrying the shoulder coverage, which is hosted by Anna Jackson (left) and features several analysts, including Paige Mackenzie (center) and Hally Leadbetter.

The camera complement is headlined by NBC Sports’ first use of a shallow–depth-of-field system at a U.S. Women’s Open. Dubbed the “Strut Cam,” the camera will offer cinematic shots of players traversing the course.

Also new, NEP Bexel is supplying Riedel Bolero wireless intercoms for player walk-and-talk using Bluetooth Apple Air Pods.

Other key cameras are an RF drone provided by Sky Reality Productions, a 4DREPLAY system on the 14th tee, robos and bunker cams from NEP Fletcher, and numerous super-slo-mos. NBC has also rolled out a TopTracer POV system and three RF TopTracer systems for fairway tracking, as well as Pinpoint Wind tracking and ARL virtual graphics.

The Switch is handling primary fiber transmission, using JPEG2000 for the tournament dirty and clean feeds as well as the five camera paths for Live From. A LiveU LU800 field unit is on hand as secondary transmission backup for the linear coverage. PSSI is using three satellite muxes to encode 20 additional paths for Featured Groups and Live From shared resources. 

The NBC Sports broadcast booth is located behind the 18th green, providing a magnificent view of the hole and coastline. Play-by-play duties are handled by Dan Hicks and Grant Boone. They are joined by analysts Morgan Pressel and Paige Mackenzie on the set; Tom Abbott in the tower; John Wood, Karen Stupples, Kay Cockerill on the course; and Cara Banks conducting player interviews.

Featured Groups, Live From: Leveraging the Power of Stamford

Featured Groups are being produced remotely from NBC Sports’ broadcast center in Stamford, CT, using one of the facility’s new venue-control rooms, PCR 12. The first round of Featured Groups teed off today at 11:50 a.m. ET; the second round starts at 5:35 p.m. (weekend times will be determined during the championship).

Emilia Migliaccio, who is competing, will serve as an on-course reporter for Featured Groups coverage on Peacock for the portion of the round in which she is not competing. Featured Group coverage will include play-by-play caller George Savaricas, analyst Amanda Blumenhurst, and on-course reporter Julia Johnson.

Live From is using a “Baby Newbert” flypack to send five dedicated camera feeds to Stamford, where the onsite studio show is produced out of PCR 8. Three cameras are on the onsite set: a jib, a Rover camera with multiple drops, and a dedicated TopTracer POV focusing on the players warming up on the range. The set is to the players’ right on the 18th fairway with the iconic Stillwater Cove in the background.

Live From is also deploying two LiveU LU600 ENG cameras. They covered Tuesday’s U.S. Navy flyover along the coastline at Pebble Beach Golf Links as part of NBC’s coverage of Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks. The flyover was piloted by an all-female flight crew to celebrate the 50th anniversary of women flying in the Navy.