The Florida Swing starts this week at PGA National, and with it begins full-time an entirely new era in golf broadcasting.
NBC Sports takes over the coverage of the PGA Tour for the next six weeks until the Masters, but the entire broadcast team producer Tommy Roy deploys at this week’s Cognizant Classic at the Palm Beaches will be using the same equipment that CBS producer Sellers Shy and his crew worked with during the last three California stops on the West Coast Swing.
And all of that equipment – from the production trucks, catering and porta potties in the TV compound to the miles of fiber cables, microphones and cameras across the course – is owned by the PGA Tour as part of its most recent broadcast-rights agreement with the primary networks that cover the tour.
The PGA Tour fleet of custom-built broadcast trucks was originally deployed in January at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Among the features of the nine new trucks are 90 total seats for production staff, 72 wired cameras, 120 on-course microphones and 230 handheld radios that are shared to produce seven live shows in 1080p HDR or higher, including the network broadcast and PGA Tour Live streams.
The creation of the truck fleet is part of a broader PGA Tour productions strategy of bringing digital operations in house and taking greater control over the creation of content on all linear and digital platforms that goes back more than a decade – long before any investment agreements or negotiations with Strategic Sports Group or Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. That strategy will culminate in 2025 with the opening of its massive new PGA Tour Studios next to its new headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
“It used to be that every week at our tournament sites … all the infrastructure in that compound was managed by CBS or NBC depending on the week of the year. … We expressed to our media partners that we wanted to take the management of those compounds.” – Luis Goicouria
In its latest TV agreements announced in March 2020, the tour agreed to take over the production in the TV compounds at its mainland events in the U.S. and Canada. Previously, NBC and CBS used all of their own trucks and equipment on site at each tour event they handled.
“It used to be that every week at our tournament sites … all the infrastructure in that compound was managed by CBS or NBC depending on the week of the year,” said Luis Goicouria, the tour’s senior vice president of media. “So when we came into our new TV negotiation and our new media deals that started in January of 2022, we expressed to our media partners that we wanted to take the management of those compounds.
“There’s just much greater efficiency, especially with the PGA Tour now having so much production being done for ESPN+ around PGA Tour Live. It was just more efficient for us to have one set of trucks that would work every single week throughout the year.”
There was one massive wrinkle in this plan of serving multiple networks with one universal fleet. More than 2½ years was spent building nine new production trucks that would be customizable to suit the specific needs for NBC and CBS, as each network is still in control of all the talent and crew and how it presents each tournament. The tour had to get both network producers to sign off on everything they needed in those trucks that were being custom built by Pennsylvania-based NEP Group.
“Tommy Roy and Sellers Shy, who are the two guys who run those productions, would have to jointly agree and have that truck customized for how they like to produce golf, which is different,” Goicouria said. “So we had to have each of them come in there and tell us what they wanted and customize the trucks tailor-made to their needs, which wasn’t easy, but we succeeded in doing that.”
In building one universal fleet – with production trucks that can be adjusted and rearranged inside to adapt to each network’s preferences – the footprint was reduced from as many as 14 trucks down to just eight on site at each event. A ninth truck hopscotches every other event to haul and set up the fiber cable that needs to be rolled out in advance at each venue so that when the full fleet arrives, it can simply plug in.
“That advance truck is a trailer for a production manager and our tech managers as well as two complete sets of fiber that gets deployed on the course,” said Michael Raimondo, tour vice president of broadcast technology. “The reason it goes there the week before is so our team can go out and deploy all the fiber so when the trucks pull up on Monday, they just go ahead and connect anything that needs to be connected to the fiber and they’re good to go.”
“We had numerous meetings with NEP between all of the technicians and production teams to provide input into the creation and setup of these trucks, and when I went and saw them in person, I was blown away.” – Tommy Roy
NBC will take its first spin in the new trucks this week at PGA National for what was formerly known as the Honda Classic. It still used its own production equipment to deliver broadcasts of the WM Phoenix Open and last week’s Mexico Open at Vidanta.
“We had numerous meetings with NEP between all of the technicians and production teams to provide input into the creation and setup of these trucks, and when I went and saw them in person, I was blown away,” NBC’s Roy told Sports Business Journal. “They’re some of the nicest trucks I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait for our first event with them at PGA National.
“[The trucks] are more robust, and the overall technology from monitoring to switchboards to communication within the frame is cutting edge. Overall, this state-of-the-art ‘business on wheels’ provides endless opportunities for our team.”
Only the events in Mexico and Hawaii – which have their own set of NEP Group trucks – will not use the fleet moving forward.
A PGA Tour broadcast truck, from the inside out
“We will not drive it in and out of Mexico because it just takes too long in and out of Mexico,” Raimondo said. “And we won’t bring it to Hawaii, but basically every other event, including Canada, that truck fleet will be out starting next year.”
Said Goicouria: “We provide all infrastructure for them on course and in the TV compound as well as all the equipment, and the resources are shared. So, say we have 120 microphones that got deployed at Farmers, they’re shared amongst all parties whether it be PGA Tour Live, ESPN shows or CBS and Golf Channel Thursday and Friday. Everyone now has access to every camera. Everyone has access to every microphone.”
Goicouria and Raimondo emphasized that the only difference now is the equipment. NBC and CBS remain entirely in charge of how they present the show each week.
“They all still handle all that creative end of things; we don’t touch that,” Raimondo said.
“What they do is they bring their people, whether it be the ones telling the stories, or the camera operators – they bring all their talents,” Goicouria said. “It’s important for CBS and NBC that they’re still the creative vision right around our broadcast. Of course, the PGA Tour consults with them on that creative vision … but really what we’re doing here is we’re providing them the equipment and the technology to get to make their creative vision happen. So they’re still telling their own story.”