Emmy Award-Winning hsc.tv Creates Contactless US Open Interview Set for ESPN

In an effort to help keep the players, staff members, and those a part of the production crew at the 2020 US Open safe amid the COVID-19 health crisis, Emmy Award-winning full-service production company hsc.tv created a completely contact free interview set for ESPN. The set combines remote technology and various video tools that give hsc.tv the ability to tell the stories of this year's tournament.

"We knew that the feature storytelling at the US Open would be unique and a challenge under the circumstances this year. So we sought to create an interview set where the players would be alone in a room and have no contact with the crew," said Bryan Brousseau, Director of Photography at hsc.tv. "The no contact interview set we built for ESPN allows us to have control of cameras and lighting without being in the same room, helping to keep everyone involved in this year's tournament safe."

hsc.tv used the Panasonic EVA1 and Panasonic VLT cameras on Kessler pan tilt remote heads, along with Tilta focus controls, to control the lenses. The cameras offer the 10bit 4K-sensor quality that the company wanted.

"Our goal was to interview players remotely through a Zoom call, but we wanted to use Panasonic's professional cameras to give the interviews a great look. Both Panasonic cameras have LAN Ethernet capabilities that were key to controlling camera settings remotely through Panasonic's ROP app," said Rick Elders, Video Technician at hsc.tv and winner of a Sports Emmy award for ESPN's technical remote team at last year's US Open. "We were able to convert SDI to HDMI through a Shogun Inferno and fed that into Zoom. We then mirrored our iMac display into a teleprompter through HDMI, so players can communicate directly with ESPN talent. And we were able to use Belkin Ethernet to iPhone thunderbolt adapters for a hardwired (more reliable) solution compared to Wi-Fi."

For lighting control, hsc.tv used the Broncontrol APP using F160 LED fixtures in Para 133 and Para 88 umbrellas. And for the custom TWZM practical lights, the company used Leviton D4DMX-MD5 dmx dimmer packs to a hard wired dimming board.

As well as the US Open, hsc.tv has worked with ESPN on coverage for a number of other major sporting events, including the Masters golf tournament, NBA Draft, NCAA Wrestling Championships and the NCAA Lacrosse Championship.