Veteran mobile production companies NEP Supershooters, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, and Game Creek Video, based in Hudson, NH, provided all of the rain-soaked, HD images of this year's 109th annual U.S. Open Golf Championship event, carried live by NBC. The two companies provided a combined seven trucks in Farmingdale, NY, in addition to ancillary gear for the weeklong tournament at Bethpage State Park's Black Course.
NEP Supershooters sent its ND3, ND4 and ESU mobile production vehicles on-site. ND3 and ND4 were used in tandem (connected via fiber-optic cabling) to provide 18-hole coverage for NBC. The state-of-the-art tandem used more than 40 Sony HDC-1000 fixed and HDC-1500 handheld HD cameras, 20 EVS HD servers, Avid Deko HD graphics systems and a full 5.1 surround-sound audio mix (via dual Calrec Alpha digital audio consoles).
ND3 features a 4M/E Sony MVS-8000A production switcher, while ND4 includes a 4M/E Grass Valley Kalypso switcher. The ESU is a support truck that handles HD video and audio processing and distribution (via a Grass Valley SMS7000 routing switcher).
Game Creek was hired by ESPN to cover the numerous ancillary events surrounding this year's U.S. Open Golf Championship, sending four mobile units for four separate shows, with each unit equipped with a different Grass Valley switcher.
The production company used a Grass Valley Kalypso 4M/E HD switcher and three Kayak 3M/E switchers to handle the production. The Kalypso and one Kayak were used to switch between ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and USOpen.com webcast coverage. One Kayak unit provided for the Players In Depth channel on DIRECTV’s U.S. Open Mix, while the remaining Kayak switched the 17th Hole Channel, also on DIRECTV’s U.S. Open Mix.
All Game Creek mobile units were connected via fiber, using Telecast Fiber Systems Adler units between the A and B (the main control room) units and Evertz connections for the others. A Pesa interconnect tied to a Pesa router for video and audio was employed, as were numerous Sony HDC-1000 and 1500 HD cameras.
