CBS Sports is updating its coverage of the PGA Championship by introducing immersive replays, a putt prediction tool, and a camera-mounted rover to the major for the first time.
Highlighting the technology at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis this weekend is the 4D Replay system being installed at the 15th tee. The par-four, 495-yard hole will feature a ring of cameras around the tee box that can create a 270-degree replay (i.e. three-quarters view) of the action. Producers will be able to zoom, spin, and pan around in the midst of a golfer’s drive.
This will be the first use of 4D Replay at a golf tournament in the U.S. and CBS’ second deployment after debuting the technology at the CBS Sports Classic basketball showcase last December. ESPN used the system in its Home Run Derby coverage last month.
“If there’s a place where we can put a camera that’s going to help enhance a broadcast—especially in a big event like the PGA Championship where we can try to capture every shot from every angle—we’re going to do it, wherever we can,” said CBS Sports EVP of innovation and new technology Ken Aagaard.
In addition to 4D Replay, the Hawk-Eye Green tech shows the range of paths a golf ball can travel and still enter the hole. The Putt Predictor, which CBS tested at the L.A. Open, will be available on several holes. A shaded overlay illustrates projected trajectories for successful ball strike, from the softest to hardest extremes.
A remote-controlled rover with a wireless camera will lead golfers as they walk off the first tee. Aagaard said similar tech was used at the AT&T Byron Nelson when a camera resided on a flotation device in a pond.
“It’s another tool for our director to provide another look of golfers going down the fairway, for example,” he said. “In some ways, it’s eye candy, but it’s another unique shot that gives the viewer a different [look]. It puts the viewer with the guys walking down the course.”
Aagaard emphasized the need for visual storytelling, as many fans might not be able to hear the sound from a TV if they are at a clubhouse or some other public venue.
Additionally, many other recent innovations are returning to CBS’ PGA Championship coverage, including aerial drone footage of the entire course, SwingVision high-frame-rate cameras, and TopTracer radar-tracking tech. Virtual Eye relies on TopTracer data to generate 3D models of holes, showing the trajectory of shots.
“We’re using it on second shots and not just on tee shots. In the PGA, we’re going to try to have it on as many holes and as many shots as we can,” Aagaard said, before adding later:
“We’ve always recognized, when a guy hits a ball, where’s it going? You can’t see it. How do we do that? This tracer technology has really gotten a lot more sophisticated.”
Given the abundance of gadgets and technology providers tapped to enhance CBS’s coverage, Aagaard invoked the name of the National Association of Broadcasters and said, “I kind of call this tournament the ‘NAB on Wheels.’”