Case study: Disc Golf – PDGA Euro Tour 2023 

Rockway Oy’s disc golf division Pulsea Disc Golf Media carried out the media implementation of the official tour organized by the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) Europe in the summer of 2023, which was sent out by the Disc Golf Network (DGN).

Disc golf productions in numbers

• 10 disc golf broadcasts from 7 countries
• a production team of 12 people
• 7 field units and 2 LU2000 servers
• 2 simultaneous streams using 12 cameras at the city of Nokia
• 2 broadcasts per day, duration 7 hours

Ten broadcasts from seven countries

There were ten broadcasts from seven different countries. The sites were located in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Spain. The LiveU systems played a key role in the success of the implementation. The broadcast was directed from Rockway Oy’s studios in Vallila, where the commentators of the broadcast also hosted this international production. Rockway acquired its LiveU system through Mediatrade. The equipment currently covers seven field units and two LU2000 servers.

Integrating the LiveU system

The American tour organization Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT) has used the LiveU system in its own broadcasts for several years, so the system integration was effortless for two competitions that DGPT carried out from Europe with its own resources. DGPT’s production capacity was expanded to cover 12 cameras with Pulsea’s LiveU system, as bringing the entire system from the US to Europe would have been challenging and expensive.

“The biggest production was from the European Open played at Nokia, where two simultaneous streams were made with 12 cameras and a newsroom.”

Varying terrains and environments as a challenge for TV productions

The biggest challenge in disc golf productions is the location and shape of the tracks. The European Open played in Nokia is an exception, because it is played in the city center, but mostly the courses are located in a sparsely populated area, and also in the forest. Trees, bushes and variations in the terrain play a central role in the sport, but they cause challenges for the implementation of traditional TV production. In addition, the players move in groups of four, and when playing in the forest, the disc may slip into the forest.

From the LiveU system to Rockway Oy’s Vallila Studio

With the help of the LiveU system, the image and sound of the cameras were transferred wirelessly from even the most difficult conditions to Rockway’s studio, using SIM cards from local mobile phone operators. The system also has the option of sending the director’s instructions as talk back directly via LiveU to the camera operators. This allows the cameras to move around the area effortlessly. With the help of additional batteries, it was possible to make two transmissions a day, the duration of which was more than 7 hours.

Production equipment

For the camera operators, the additional weight of a few kilos did not cause any trouble, we experienced relatively little signal loss anyway. We sent the broadcast in HD quality to DGN, but we tested for each destination that 4K quality would also have been possible. The delay was kept constant at two seconds, but we also tried that a delay of one second would have been possible. Sony FX6, FX30 and A7 were used as cameras. We operated one of the FX30s with a DJI RS3 gimbal, and the broadcast also used a Mavic Pro 3 drone. The cameras were routed from the receiving LU2000 servers with NDI to Vmix and Tricaster, from where they were mixed for broadcast with graphics and narration.

“In summary, it can be said that without such a system, making disc golf production in this form would be almost impossible in a cost-effective manner.”

The system enables mobile productions from anywhere, as long as the destination has a 4G mobile phone network. The cost savings are considerable when compared to the traditional way of doing the entire production on site, and transferring the already produced broadcast to the channel via a broadcast truck. Cost savings also occurred when relatively fewer people were needed – broadcasts were carried out with a group of 12 people, including two commentators.