Live From the Ryder Cup 2023: EMG’s Hamish Greig Sees a New Era of Ryder Cup Coverage

Remote production is a larger-than-usual part of the effort

The 2023 Ryder Cup is under way at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, and, for media-services provider EMG’s golf-production and -operations team, it represents significant change: NBC Sports is producing coverage from production-control rooms in Stamford, CT. Hamish Greig, director, golf operations, EMG, sat down with SVG to discuss this year’s efforts, getting the course ready for coverage, and getting the most out of all the cameras, microphones, and other gear.

Hamish Greig of EMG says the EMG team has delivered for this weekend’s Ryder Cup coverage.

How are things going here at the Ryder Cup?
There is more remote being done on European soil than we have ever had, as NBC and the Golf Channel are remote back to Stamford with the NEWBERT system. Also, NBC, Golf Channel, and Sky UK are working more closely than I’ve ever seen, sharing a studio at the first tee — Sky using it in the morning coverage and Golf Channel using it for the afternoon coverage. They have shared facilities in the U.S. before, but the sharing of facilities here is a first, and it has been seamless and worked out well.

The world feed is still done in the main IBC cabin, and we’ve also been doing the Featured Groups production from Nova 112A and using Nova 125 for live social media and on-course screens. Sky Italia and RAI are also here, and we give them radio talkback, radio cameras, and on-course kits. We also support BBC Radio and IMG radio, which has three transmissions, as well as Sirius XM and the Opening Ceremony.

Our team has been brilliant and, as usual, worked their socks off and delivered. I could not have asked for anything more.

What’s the effect of the remote operations on your operation?
There are fewer facilities as we don’t have NBC production galleries, iso galleries, graphics galleries, etc. But the core facilities are much the same: we give them the access to the matrix so that they have access to all the sources, and their production galleries and EVS operations at home can see everything. Technically, it makes things easier, but I do miss seeing so many of my friends at NBC.

Is the compound smaller?
Yes, because there are fewer cabins as we don’t need extra galleries. But the TOSCA area is the same size, and we repurposed the IBC space so that NBC’s NEWBERT is inside the IBC, and that has worked out well. It’s nice having everything in a good, spacious area that is nearby and well air-conditioned.

How many host cameras are there, and how do you deploy them for the different formats?
We have around 94 cameras when you count in things like bridge, corridor cameras, and the buggy cameras. The Ryder Cup is easier golf-wise because you have fewer matches and fewer things happening. On the European Tour, we commute cameras around the course on a week-in, week-out basis, with a camera starting on one and then moving to seven and then maybe 14. We’re using that commuting model here.

We did use the Sunday camera plan [which will cover 12 singles matches] for the Junior Ryder Cup on Thursday and had a separate camera plan earlier this week for the Stars Cup on Wednesday. The Opening Ceremony had another 12 cameras, and we have a setup for the bands that play each evening until Sunday night.

What are some of the highlights in terms of the cameras?
Well, we have 21 RF cameras for the world feed, which is quite a lot for the world feed. We also have the buggy cams on the captain’s buggies that have been really neat. We went down to the buggy suppliers, took the fairings off, and made space in the normal battery area for the transmitters. The people in the cart can’t see any cables; all they see are the antennas and the monitor.

Aerial Camera Systems also has its WireCam running across the 10th hole, across the 9th green, across 18th green, 1st tee, 8th fairway, and 7th green. That is all on a run that is around 450 meters. It can also get a sexy shot of the grandstand that looks like it is going around it but is a bit of an optical illusion.

What is the breakdown of the unilateral cameras?
NBC has four RFs and a 360-degree smart head on the studio roof, which is shared with the Golf Channel. There is also a panoramic camera on the 13th, which gets great shots of the vista. The Golf Channel has the usual roving camera as well as four studio cameras, and there is a driving-range robo.

Sky UK has three RFs as part of their roving RF studio, which is being used for the first time at a Ryder Cup. They have employed that model at the Opens. The roving studio can move around and has radio mics, reverse monitor, and the RF cameras and gives them the freedom they need to be able to get the on-course view from anywhere.

What have been some of the challenges here?
I know it’s boring, but frequency management has been a challenge because there is a military base and an airport right around the corner. Thankfully, the FR authorities here in Italy have looked after us well. We have 36 radio cameras, which is a lot on the spectrum. We’re in the 2G, 5G, and 7G bands and are maxed out on on-course RF commentator kits. But the signals have been very clean across all the different productions.

Another challenge is that the compound is on a flood plain, and that was problematic for load in.

There has also been a lot of wildlife that impacted fiber setup as they eat through the installed fiber and cabling.

It should also be mentioned that we still feel the effects of Brexit. We had to get equipment and trucks to the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in the UK, and it’s no longer as easy to load the trucks as in the past. We have to itemize everything and have serial numbers and weight for customs. And we had to plan an emergency run from the UK in case we forget something because you can’t just bring it here. We go from here back to the UK for t3 course coverage at the Alfred Dunhill Links.