Live From the 2023 Ryder Cup: Sky Sports’ Virtual Studio in UK Plays Big Role in Remote Production

The broadcaster is also sharing an onsite studio with Golf Channel

It has been a busy run of top golf events for the team at Sky Sports, with this week’s Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club outside Rome following quickly on the heels of last week’s Solheim Cup in Spain, the women’s equivalent of the men’s Ryder Cup.

“The components of our Solheim and Ryder Cup coverage are fairly similar, with a world feed plus commentary plus a studio onsite,” says Jason Wessely, executive producer, Sky Sports Golf. “And there is a gallery and master-control operation at Sky that brings it all together.”

Jason Wessely (left), executive producer, Sky Sports Golf, and Katie Harrison, production manager, Sky Sports, in the 2023 Ryder Cup compound

This Ryder Cup marks the first time at any tournament that Sky Sports and Golf Channel have shared a studio location. Located at the first tee, it gives both production teams a chance to leverage the same facility during dayparts that are optimal for their audience back home. Sky is on-air in the morning and during the day; Golf Channel takes over at the end of the day.

“Timing-wise, in the U.S., it’s much better to use it after the match is finished,” notes Wessely. “In the morning, we can build up on the first tee with a lovely studio set looking into the crowd and the energy of that crowd.”

While Golf Channel is wrapping up the day’s action on the studio, Sky Sports switches over to a standup position with an RF camera at the side of the 18th green. Sky also rebroadcasts the Golf Channel “Live From” show, giving viewers in the UK a bonus two-hour recap.

“We’ll manage that two hours from a smaller gallery at Sky,” Wessely explains, “so we can deal with any non-compliant stuff that we want to edit out on the fly. We could also run in our content to replace their content if we feel it’s not quite right for our audience, but it is quite light-touch.”

Studio operations back home are busy during the Ryder Cup, with a virtual green-screen studio in Osterley Park handling a variety of coverage elements. A camera at the Ryder Cup course shoots backdrops at different times of the day, and those images are dropped into the back-screen projection. The goal is to make the viewer at home feel that that the virtual set is an extension of the real studio set onsite.

“Our player avatars, virtual course, and touchscreen are all presented from there, and it’s designed to look as though it is here at the course,” says Wessely. “As soon as the player pairings are known, the team there gets to work building the players and building the editorial. Then they record the head piece in the virtual set and, when the time comes, run that into the program with a throw from the real studio here to the 3D virtual studio.”

Building the player avatars began with player recordings last Tuesday and Wednesday. The recording process requires the players to stand on a rotating plank so that cameras can capture them from all angles.

“We’ll get some still photography, ask a few questions, and have some fun with them. That process is really important to us,” adds Wessely. “We then map their 3D images, which is crucial to our virtual presentation.”

The storytelling rhythm of a Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup is very different from that of a major golf tournament because matches can end prior to 18 holes (and often do). The Ryder Cup, ideally, has very little time between sessions, but, if necessary, on-course RF kits and on-course reporters can do reports or interviews.

“Plus,” adds Wessely, “we have the virtual studio at Sky recording the pairing for the afternoon, and we play that into the break section to reveal to the viewer who was going to play in the afternoon. The time goes by pretty fast.”

Next week, the Sky golf team heads to Scotland for another unusual event. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championshi, is played across three courses: Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns.

“We choose one course to focus on,” Wessely explains, “but we have remote OBs at every location for each day. We lean into the celebrity aspect and do interviews with the celebrities playing and have some fun with it because it is a different event.”

Key to keeping spirits high for the team is good golf, and that is what it has had for the past couple of months, from the Open in Liverpool to the BMW Championship in Wentworth, the Solheim Cup in Spain, and now the Ryder Cup.

“As long as the golf is good, it keeps the spirits going,” says Wessely, adding, “Weather is the other thing that can dampen the spirit. The trick is keeping the remote team back at Sky motivated, and we find clever ways to get them out to the golf course during the year.

“Yes, they can sleep in their own beds,” he continues, “but it’s hard to gauge the event when you’re working at home. So a mixture of OBs, remote, and clever ways of getting [the team] to venues is the secret to remote broadcasting because it’s here to stay.”