Live From THE PLAYERS: NBC Sports Tees Up Drone Tracing, Taps Into NEP Compound Connect

In a new wrinkle, NBC will start its telecast on Saturday from PGA TOUR Studios' new Studio 1A

It’s day two of THE PLAYERS at TPC Sawgrass, and this year’s event is surrounded by a lot of excitement, most notably about the new PGA TOUR Studios building. That massive building, located about 500 ft. from the TV compound, is a hotbed of next-generation broadcast technology and workflows and will be front and center on Saturday afternoon when NBC begins live broadcast coverage from the building. It’s all part of a production that continues to see NBC Sports and the PGA TOUR working more closely together every year.

This weekend, NBC Sports broadcasts THE PLAYERS Championship from TPC Sawgrass. (Photos: Carrie Bowden, SVG)

“Our relationship with the TOUR gets stronger every year,” says Bridget Cugle, director, golf operations, NBC Sports. “They are a great partner. PLAYERS week has been a true testimony to this, with everything going smoothly.”

The production effort on Saturday will take advantage of something else new this year: NBC will start the telecast from PGA TOUR Studios’ Studio 1A. NEP’s TFC Compound Connect system connects the building to NEP PGA TOUR, ND2, and Sharpshooter CBS trucks and NBC’s IP NEWBERT flypack. Compound Connect allows signals to be shared via NEP TFC technology and SMPTE ST 2110 workflow.

“In addition, nine intercoms are trunked,” explains Marc Caputo, senior director, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, “and comms are seamless between the onsite trucks, PGA TOUR building, and NBC Sports Stamford.”

A PLAYERS first this year is drone tracing, he adds. “It is one of three drones covering the course. PGA TOUR introduced drone tracing during the 2023 season, and the solution is a joint effort by the TOUR, Kaze Aerial, ARL, Bolt 6, and Trackman. It has revolutionized golf coverage.”

On the 18th green, NBC also has an incoming trace provided by RoboVision and ARL using Trackman data. On holes 16 and 17, the broadcaster is taking the feeds from a Cosm cam installed in the water next to each green.

The TV compound for THE PLAYERS continues to evolve and is centered on NEP’s PGA TOUR mobile units.

At the heart of the compound is NEP’s multi-unit PGA TOUR fleet, which debuted last season and is home to both NBC Sports and CBS Sports golf productions. The Production Control Room unit is the main production area; Field Acquisition Units 1 and 2 houses the EICs, fiber patching, video shading, the A1 area, submix, and the majority of QC for audio; and a Record Flex truck comprises EVS operations, editing, and rules review. Also onsite are two BSI trailers: a main truck, which is now a double-wide, and a hauler providing up to 36 RF camera paths. NEP Supershooter CBS is on hand for Every Shot Live coverage.

More than 70 cameras have been deployed for the tournament, including the aforementioned live drone tracing, drone coverage of the 16th and 17th holes (which will also have bunker cams), and a FlyCam once again running between the 9th and 18th holes.

“With the PGA TOUR trucks,” says Jason Abrams, director, remote technical operations, NBC Sports, “we were able to have them parked on Monday and build out 76 cameras in 72 hours so that we could be on air by Wednesday.”