CBS first aired a drone tracer shot on the 6th hole during Saturday's coverage
The PGA Tour introduced
moving drone tracer technology to the CBS's telecast at the Travelers Championship this past weekend in Connecticut, but viewers likely won’t see the tech again until the FedExCup Playoffs in August.
The tour -- at least for now -- is concentrating the new tech around its Signature or other elevated events such as the playoffs, which begin Aug. 15 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. The tech is not expected to make an appearance at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic or ensuing tour events before the playoffs. In addition to the playoffs on NBC, it’s expected to have a presence at the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal in September.
Tracking technology provider Bolt6 is the vendor that delivers the shot from the drone to the on-site production trucks. At TPC River Highlands, CBS had the ability to use the tracer on eight holes: the 6th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th and 18th. The network chose not to look at using it on the first five holes due to the leaders not being there during its broadcast window.
CBS aired the first tracer as Tom Kim played the 6th hole Saturday and utilized it several more times throughout the weekend, including during the playoff between Kim and Scottie Scheffler.
LIV Golf first
introduced a drone tracer to its telecasts last October at the league’s team championship in Miami and this year has been utilizing it on 2-3 holes per round. The difference on CBS this past weekend is that its drone was moving as it delivered the shot.
“Doing it while moving is quite a challenging technical hurdle to clear,” said James Japhet, the chief commercial officer for Bolt6.
Bolt6 has been working on the tour’s ShotLink platform for about 18 months, Japhet said, while the idea of adding a moving drone tracer to the broadcasts has been a process around six months in the making.
“There’s a ton you could do with the drone itself in terms of different ways to tell stories, what golfers are trying to do or what they have done or what they should be doing,” Japhet said.
