CBS Sports Tees Up With NEP For PGA Coverage

By Ken Kerschbaumer

This weekend, CBS Sports will tee up its first PGA Tour event of the 2009 season, and, for the first time, NEP will be behind the scenes, since the company acquired NMT’s HD12 unit and its related golf contracts last September.

“NEP has done everything they can to make this as seamless a transition as possible,” says Ken Aagaard, CBS Sports EVP, Operations and Production Services. “Our production team doesn’t notice a difference, and the credit goes to NEP.”

Now known as SS10, HD12’s three-truck design comprises a sideways-oriented production and graphics room in the A unit, including an HD/SD LCD monitor-wall layout consisting of 135 monitors. The B unit is dedicated to video, audio, and videotape/DDR replay, with the C unit providing additional audio and graphics support and featuring a full-size rear lift and extra storage space for additional equipment.

Components consist of a Sony MVS8000 HD production switcher with 80 inputs, a fully optioned Calrec Alpha 100 audio console with Bluefin, RTS Adam Intercom System with fiber and coax bus expansion options, two Sony 1080i POV cameras, Sony 1500 HD cameras, Evertz Master Sync and Clock System with a GPS option, and a fully managed data network for maximum throughput.

New for CBS golf coverage this year is a move to Chyron Duets. “It basically conforms us to the same system as the Golf Channel and NBC Sports and even Golflink,” says Aagaard. “It makes it almost seamless to go from our coverage of an event to NBC’s coverage of another event.”

Like everyone else, CBS is also looking to cut costs. For golf, that means eliminating a camera position here and there, but one good bit of news for golf fans is that Swingvision, the super duper slow-motion analysis tool, is back for 19 tournaments. Konika Minolta is sponsoring the system.

Also new this year is an additional 90 minutes of exclusive golf coverage produced by CBS that is available on the Golf Channel. The coverage is in exchange for carriage of CBS College Sports Television on Comcast cable systems.

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