Sponsored: Broadcast Sport looks at how the PGA TOUR created its state-of-the-art production base
It’s safe to say PGA TOUR Studios doesn’t do things by halves. When the team decided it was time to up sticks from its 25-year-old facility to a new state-of-the-art studio for live production and content creation, it designed and developed a vast, beautifully appointed 165,000-square-foot space in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
The new PGA TOUR Studios facility epitomises modern production techniques and incorporates truly best-of-breed technology. It is now home to the live and creative content production for the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, and more than 5,000 hours of PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+. PGA TOUR Studios also houses the largest library of golf content in the world, featuring more than 170,000 videos totalling 223,000 hours of content.
“The vision for PGA TOUR Studios is to produce as much golf as possible for fans and deliver it in a variety of ways so fans can consume content however they choose ,” said David Piccolo, senior vice president, executive creative director, PGA TOUR. “That’s always changing, so you’re always innovating to keep up with the latest technology. PGA TOUR Studios will allow us to adapt and pivot as needed to improve our product for fans.”
PGA TOUR Studios includes eight production rooms, eight audio control rooms, and seven LED-outfitted studios, with a 270-degree LED display in Studio 1A. One of the many innovation elements for the new facility was incorporating a graphics system that would enable PGA TOUR Studios to manage on-air graphics, studio graphics, and virtual reality (XR, AR, and VR) — all on one platform.
Integrated graphics
After an extensive evaluation of potential options, PGA TOUR Studios selected Ross Video. “We were confident that Ross would be able to serve all our need at PGA TOUR Studios,” said Andrew Wisniewski, vice president, engineering, PGA TOUR.
Ross stood out for its ability to provide a unified solution for live graphics, studio production, and virtual workflows — offering seamless integration and flexibility. Its suite includes XPression (real-time motion graphics), XPression Tessera (LED content management), XPression FX (advanced playback system), Lucid Studio (virtual graphics control panel), Voyager (virtual graphics engine), and Artimo (free-roaming robotic camera system).
Using Ross’s suite of creative products eliminated the need for third-party integrations, keeping everything streamlined from both an operational and training perspective.
The system was also well received by PGA TOUR Studios operators during testing, further reinforcing the decision. Ross Video and its creative services division, Rocket Surgery, collaborated closely with PGA TOUR Studios to implement the graphics suite and ensure a smooth transition.
Ross also worked closely with PGA TOUR Studios operators to ensure they were confident using the new technology and could move seamlessly from legacy systems.
Cutting-edge studios
Broadcast Sport caught up with Kieran Hosking, business development manager, graphics at Ross Video, to discuss Ross’s role in the creation of the new PGA TOUR Studios.
Rather than retrofitting an existing space, PGA TOUR Studios started fresh. “You could design things the way they wanted, rather than having to fit in with whatever was there already,” says Hosking.
Having the various functionalities of Ross’s graphics solutions in an all-in-one package was essential to creating a truly versatile system that would still be simple for operators to learn.
Hosking explains: “PGA TOUR Studios was clear on why they wanted to go with one solution – ease of use, support, the integration between the different systems, and being able to call on one supplier you trust to deliver across the board.”
Performance, player, and course data feed into many of the graphics, so there needed to be an intuitive way to integrate this data operationally. XPression DataLinq was key to connecting their revamped data system, Meekus, into the graphics templates. Rocket Surgery also worked with PGA TOUR Studios to plug this data into the graphics and visualise it on screen.
When it comes to the virtual studios PGA TOUR Studios now has access to, Hosking said: “They have so many capabilities in all of their studios – you can do various levels of virtual, from AR and virtual set extensions with or without XR, to full XR. I’ve seen examples where they’ll bring the putting green into the studio — you’ll see the flag, the hole, the terrain — and then have the presenters stand next to that in the studio. There’s a lot you can explore with virtual that you just can’t do, or would be too costly to do, in real life or with a traditional set. You’re bringing a new dimension to it from a fan perspective.”
Skilling up operators
Ross’s unified solution for live graphics, studio production, and virtual workflows is designed to be straightforward to use, with all the different elements integrated to ensure consistency of operation. Training operators typically takes three to five days, depending on the level required.
“Someone who’s experienced will be able to pick it up quickly,” says Hosking. “We put a lot of effort into making it as seamless as possible.XPression and Voyager created efficiencies with workflow and operation.
Our teams were able to provide training, creating templates, migrating existing templates, integrating data into new systems, or whatever it might be.”
PGA TOUR Studios officially opened at the beginning of 2025, with ever more ambitious studio sets and graphics now being introduced into productions.
Hosking is buoyed by the creative possibilities that PGA TOUR Studios has to explore. “It’s exciting – it shows there’s an appetite to do cool, creative things, and there are people who really want to push the boat out,” he says. “It’s really engaged fans, and I’m looking forward to seeing how PGA TOUR Studios continues to drive innovation over time and what they’re able to do creatively. It will be influential for others who look at the PGA TOUR Studio now and think, ‘Wow, these guys did something really cool — I want to do something similar.’”
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