Tennis Channel Intros Open-Specific Virtual Set

For its daily coverage of the U.S. Open, Tennis Channel has customized its entire studio set. A brand-new 5,500-sq.-ft. stage is home to two U.S. Open recap shows, but the redesign of the set is easier than it looks, as the set is completely virtual.

“For an hour a day, you get a whole wrap-up of the day in an Entertainment Tonight-meets-SportsCenter-meets-tennis format,” explains Larry Meyers, SVP, production, and executive producer for Tennis Channel. “We wanted to do something really striking and different for the technical presentation, so we built this brand-new stage from scratch.”

The fully HD facility in Carson City, CA, hosts Tennis Channel’s master control and tournament integration, as well the 5,500-sq.-ft. virtual stage.

“The only actual material on this set is a desk and two chairs,” Meyers says. “Everything else – the floors, the walls – is green.”

IDS was the general contractor for the project, while Brainstorm is responsible for the computer platform that does the virtual integration. General Lift, based in El Segundo, CA, provides the telemetry for the two cameras and one jib used on the set.

“It would be impractical to build a set on the grandeur of this set just for one event,” Meyers explains. “It would have to be a smaller, more traditional kind of a sports set because it would just cost too much. What you see with the interactive, multi-screen experience, integrated tickers, a highly rich, luxurious visual presentation – that would just be impossible with a traditional hard set. Because it’s virtual, electronic, and computer-based, it can change on a dime.”

Meyers’s team is looking into sponsor integration for upcoming editions of the show, which is far simpler with a virtual set than a traditional one.

For the talent hosting the shows – U.S. Open Tonight and Breakfast at the Open – the virtual set was a bit of an adjustment. Tennis great Lindsay Davenport is new to the studio world in general, so she had no preconceptions, but, for Kevin Frazier, who has plenty of television experience, the set took some getting used to.

“The talent was very nervous in preproduction,” Meyers says. “But, two or three days into rehearsals, they were prett y comfortable with their surroundings. You have to be smart about it; we put monitors in strategic places so they can get a sense of where they are in the space. It was not a hard learning curve.”

The best way to get a feel for the set, Meyers says, is to tune into the show. U.S. Open Tonight airs nightly at 11 p.m. ET and Breakfast at the Open airs twice each morning, at 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., on Tennis Channel.