Ryder Cup 2023: Creative Technology’s display tech takes centre stage in Rome
Creative Technology (CT) is providing an array of displays and screens at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome to keep spectators, staff and media on top of the action at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
CT – part of the NEP Group – is a long-term provider of audio visual services to the Ryder Cup, with the 2023 edition being the 10th European competition the company has supported.
Over a 36-year period, the scope and complexity of CT’s brief has increased massively; back in 1985 it provided a single screen measuring 48m2 while this year, the the equipment inventory includes 2,500m2 of Roe LED display modules configured as 28 screens ranging in size from 21m2 to a massive 180m2 on the stage in the village used for the opening ceremony and as a central viewing area throughout the competition.
CT chief executive Dave Crump said: “We have been on an incredible journey with the Ryder Cup over almost four decades. The technology deployment in 2023 will inevitably develop further as we look forward to future events. None of this would be possible without the incredible on-site team of around 50 lead by Dominic Hill who manage and install and operate the project”.
In addition to the screen, some 600 televisions (typically 55-inch and 65-inch) are deployed throughout the corporate hospitality and retail and merchandise areas , all connected on a course wide IPTV network installed and managed by CT allowing customised content to be remotely routed and controlled on every display across the site.
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The network infrastructure further extends to include CT’s TFC Flow solution – a hybrid variant of NEP’s TFC system optimised for temporary deployment at major live events and deployed at multiple events since its launch in 2022.
TFC Flow handles connections to and from the broadcast compound alongside all incoming/outgoing data sources needed to drive CT’s Mercury proprietary scoring and graphics system which creates multiple real time graphics outputs including customised content available to every LED screen on the course with specific details of each player group as they approach each green, fairway or tee alongside constant real time overall match results and of course the live feed.
At the heart of CT’s system, a Panasonic Kairos production platform provides independent source switching and automated transitions to up to 48 individual M/E outputs, each of which can be remotely controlled by on course volunteers who select appropriate content as each player group approaches from a custom configured hand-held panel, which can be overridden (if needed) from CT’s central control.
Two further high resolution displays complete CT’s line up in Rome. A ultra-wide screen data display in the media centre provides hole by hole scoring alongside live feeds from both Sky and NBC, whilst in the Technology Operations Centre (TOC) a state-of-the-art 1.2mm pixel pitch display from DigiLED provides a 4K multi image dashboard of the 19 mission critical data sources covering everything from network security to crowd density heatmaps and real time ball positioning allowing critical safety decisions around crowd control to be made as wind and weather conditions change.