Australian Open Adds Second World Feed; Comet Camera, New Graphics Package Debut

In addition, augmented-reality capability is added to replays and drone coverage

The 2024 Australian Open wraps up this weekend, marking the 10th consecutive year that the Tennis Australia production team has handled host duties.

“We have 12 full-time staff members year-round,” says Josh Lee, head of broadcast and media operations, Tennis Australia. “We grow to a team of over 50 that is spread out around the country during the month of January [we also produce the United Cup, Brisbane International, and Adelaide International each year]. We also directly hire more than 500 freelance broadcast-production crew to work across our productions each January.”

One of the highlights of this year’s Australian Open was Alexander Zverev’s winning a 51-shot point against Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals.

Among the highlights this year? Tennis Australia becomes the first broadcast production in tennis to add augmented reality to replays, with Hawkeye data overlaid in real time for replay sequences. AR capabilities have also been added to the drone camera: drone operator Flying Features deployed AR graphics over iconic aerial views of Melbourne Park every day of the tournament.

“This year, we also introduced the Comet Camera system, which includes high-frame-rate cameras that can shoot up to 500 fps on each of the top three courts,” adds Lee. “The cameras are positioned on each of the singles sidelines, capturing close calls and slow-motion replays from angles not previously seen in tennis.”

This is also the second consecutive year that the event was produced natively in 1080p (a 4K feed from Rod Laver Arena is also produced). And long-standing supplier Gravity Media is on hand as technical-facilities provider.

“We have changed our postproduction edit systems to Adobe Premier Pro edit suite,” says Lee, “but a lot of the technical workflows and infrastructure we have in place have remained similar since we invested in building out our production center at Melbourne Park in the lead-up to AO22.”

Although no new rightsholders were added prior to this year’s tournament, he notes that ESPN returned to the site for the first time since the 2020 edition.

“They returned to Melbourne Park with a larger production footprint, including their talent team, commentary boxes, and hosting studio positions,” Lee says, adding, “CCTV and Swiss TV also came back to site with commentary positions for the first time since the COVID-affected years. On the domestic front, Channel Nine moved their Court 9 studio set to the RLA concourse, which has given them a new vantage point and view from amongst the crowds looking back into the Rod Laver Arena player pod.”

With the scale of the Australian Open production (more than 180 cameras and 24 EVS servers covering action on 16 courts), all the production team and facilities are onsite. “In 2021,” he explains, “we constructed permanent production facilities at our Tennis Australia Headquarters, which is where we produce all broadcast content during the AO and video content year-round.”

In terms of enhancements, Lee adds, a new broadcast graphics package aligns the brand with contemporary industry trends and includes a new suite of Game Insights Group stats. “For the first time, we have produced a second fully integrated world feed which editorially focuses on the next-best matches not being covered by the primary world feed. That allows broadcasters around the world to program multichannel coverage without any downstream production effort.”

This year’s main world feed includes an LED screen for analysis, crosses, play-ons, and play-offs, according to Lee. Audio coverage in the coaches boxes has been increased, along with interviews with coaches during warm-ups. Improved audio and video coverage of those boxes is on Tennis Australia’s wish list, as are enhanced statistical graphics (including biometrics), AI-generated multi-language commentary (which Lee notes is a long way off) and multi-language graphics outputs.

He adds that the organization is in the market for technical facilities and crew from 2025 onwards and is considering remote-production options for the United Cup from its central production facilities at Melbourne Park, 1080p HDR–native production (with the ability to produce 4K/UHD across the top three courts), the move to EVS XT-VIA systems, and upgraded camera technology.