Improving the audience experience of the Ryder Cup with added insight

Golf fans will be familiar with the work of PinPoint Visualisation's live broadcast production team. For several years now the company has been behind the 3D graphics showing the flight of the ball and the views of the fairway and green, providing television viewers around the world with a unique insight into major golf competitions such as the US Open and Ryder Cup.

For this year's Ryder Cup, held at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, a team of eight PinPoint engineers and production experts created HD visualisations for viewers of ESPN and NBC to see the course from a golfer's point of view, hole by hole.

The first step was to map the Celtic Manor course into the PinPoint software with aerial views of the Welsh environment. Using the 'millimetre perfect' Pro Green product, PinPoint also created accurate virtual greens to show the viewer exactly what the golfer sees rather than an artificial high camera angle that tends to flatten out the landscape.

The unique PinPoint Visualisation software allows engineers to create incredibly realistic environments. Details such as the type of grass on the green, which varies from country to country and even course to course, local trees and landmark buildings and even the weather can all be realistically created.

Creating the HD environment was only the beginning of the process; the PinPoint experts were also on-site with the outside broadcast facility for the whole of the competition, including the unexpected extra day of play, to offer their unique views to the TV Producers during the broadcast, providing fly-throughs from every angle and for every hole. In addition, the position of the players, the trajectory of the ball, wind direction and even the undulation of the green were features added to the virtual flights. The full interaction of the software means that the joystick operator can dictate the view, even if the player finds themselves somewhere other than on the fairway!

The same broadcast quality 3D visualisation system from PinPoint that was used by ESPN and NBC throughout the Ryder Cup coverage has also been used by golf courses around the world to showcase their facilities or plan construction and renovation projects. The system is an ingenious, cost effective and flexible way to promote a golf course via interactive websites or DVDs.