2023 TENNIS AUSTRALIA
BROADCAST SERVICES

SMT Creative Studio is a recognized leader in creative design and concepts in the world of sports. Specializing in brand design, data integration and motion graphics packages for broadcast, webcast and live events, our award-winning staff consistently exceeds clients’ expectations.

OUR

TEAM

The SMT Creative Studio team is composed of art directors, designers, animators and editors that focus on designing, creating and enhancing the quality of content production, ranging from television graphics (3D, HD, 4K), virtual studios, virtual insertions and web designs to on-site event production, including CCTV channels, video displays, ribbon boards, information towers and custom displays. We are experts on data integration, entertaining presentations and engaging content with a focus on the targeted audience. Some of the key personnel of SMT Creative Studio include:

Patricia G. Hopkins
Corporate Vice President
Marketing and Creative

Jon Kaczmarski
Director of Creative Strategy

Caleb Thomas
Art Director

Jorge Arce
Art Director

Richard Quintana
Senior Multimedia Designer

Jesse Richardson
Senior Real-Time Specialist

Sophie Falzone
Graphics Designer

Alexandra Batista
Project Coordinator

VIDEO PRODUCTION

SERVICES

SMT’s Video Production Services team is comprised of Emmy-winning broadcast specialists who use a producer’s eye to help clients produce engaging and compelling content for their distinctive audiences. Tennis fans at select tournaments are treated to SMT’s Moments Ago productions, which feature edited montages during sit-downs, including set/match highlights and session sizzle reels on the stadium’s main video boards. With SMT’s Social Media Walls, SMT curates posts from players, fans, and celebrities that are displayed on giant LED boards.

Scoreboard Content Production

Chair Umpire LED

Serve Clock and Serve Speed

Video Walls and Production

CREATIVE STUDIO

CAPABILITIES

SMT's Creative Studio specializes in:

Brand identity
Brand design
Graphic design
Visual design

Web design
UI/UX design
Motion graphics
3D visualization animations

Interactive media displays
Virtual and augmented set design
Digital media services and operations
Augmented reality

US Open Broadcast Package

IMSA Bug and Pylon

Red Bull Straight Rhythm

NASCAR Screen Pylon

SMT GRAPHICS OPERATIONS

TVI

TELEVISION INTERFACE

The SMT broadcast television interface (TVI) integrates real-time tournament and historical tennis data with social media content for on-air production while the SMT Display Interface (DI) provides state-of-the-art content presentation on-site.

Court Interface examples?

World Feed Interface examples?

AUTOMATED GRAPHICS

OUTER COURTS

To help streamline and reduce production costs, SMT has built and refined its proprietary Automated Graphics Interface to automatically trigger specific graphics for Host Broadcasters, based on scoring information and timing sequences within a match. Triggering of each graphic is based on "Business Rules" that are configurable in the SMT Intelligent Automated Graphics Interface. The graphics can also be triggered manually or supplemental to the pre-configured 'automated sequence'.

(AUGMENTED REALITY)

SMT’s suite of virtual and augmented reality graphics for tennis includes broadcast graphics and virtual studios. For live match broadcast production, SMT can display an assortment of content within the broadcast such as live match statistics, player flags and identifications, sponsor placements and virtual ads, all inserted directly on the court or around the stadium. In addition, SMT’s technology allows for the virtual content to be produced remotely and tailored for each geographic region.

PRODUCTS

Virtual Studio
Virtual Graphics
Virtual Ads
Virtual Telestration

REMOTE OPERATIONS

(ROOSTER)

With SMT’s mobile production vans and our new production studios, SMT services are flexible and configurable to handle delivery from remote locations.

Our ROOSTER (Remote Optics Operator Staffing & Technology for Eliminating Risk) studios, located at our 3 U.S.-based divisions, have played a crucial role in 2020 broadcasts, providing virtual ads insertions for Roland Garros; detailed match statistics and serve speed services for U.S. Open; as well as remote scoring and scheduling for WTA and ATP events. SMT has also delivered remote broadcast services for other international events, such the Tour de France and the Olympics.

SMT’s mobile production vans deliver our same product and service suite with a minimal onsite footprint, reducing the need for our technicians and equipment to be housed in production trucks. Our mobile production vans offer the flexibility of a control room that can be configured for any sport.

FEATURES:

Video streaming and cloud video storage
Multiple concurrent views from any location
Adjustable video quality (higher quality = higher bandwidth)
Browser-based viewer
Allows for real-time viewing of onsite monitoring and signals
Real-time stream-health viewing in browser (video formats and internet bandwidth)
Up to 6 HD-SDI signals per device
Up to 4 XLR allowing up to 2 operators to talk/listen per device

Events operated solely or in part from ROOSTER studios include:

U.S. Open Tennis Championships
Tour de France
Roland Garros
Professional Fighters League
Triple Crown of horse racing
Rogue Invitational
National Hockey League

Production Van

ROOSTER

VIRTUAL FANS, ADS & BRANDS

V-FAB

SMT’s latest virtual-insertion technology solution, V-FAB, is specifically designed to create, assemble and virtually insert a context-synchronized, visually pleasing atmosphere in real-time into the broadcast video of a sporting event. This proven solution has been used in many sports, including Roland Garros, WTA Monterrey and WTA Charleston, creating additional revenue-generating value for sponsors and advertisers. Clients who benefitted from this solution included:

MLS is Back Tournament
Fox Sports’ MLB broadcasts
NTT IndyCar Series
NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and Finals

SMT PRODUCTION OPERATIONS

AUTOMATED PLAYER TRACKING

and CAMERA PRODUCTION

SMT PLAYER TRACKING SYSTEM

SMT created a player tracking system with a multi-sport "generic" and autonomous approach

System also used in professional baseball to track players on field
Parts of system to be incorporated into SMT ATLAS line calling system

For Broadcast production, SMT's player tracking system will greatly assist the operators by providing the ability to operate multiple cameras by using a single controller, thus providing a solution which reduces the need to have a single dedicated camera operator per camera.

The key to SMT's system is that it uses "Frame Differencing" which looks at what is changing from frame to frame. In addition, the system uses SMT's proprietary "chroma Key" software to eliminate items such as the court and other variations of colors and shadowing. With SMT's system the system allows the operator to eliminate everything that does not need to be tracked.
SMT's "Chroma Key" software is much more robust than other standard software and can "key out" multiple or a range of colors to help create a more accurate tracking environment.
In tennis, SMT takes advantage of knowing all tennis courts are "flat". Therefore, the SMT tracking system can use a single "tracking" camera to get a 3-dimensional location in order to obtain the XYZ data.

TAPM SOFTWARE (Tennis Automated Production Manager)

As part of the automated player tracking system, SMT will provide its Tennis Automated Player Manager (TAPM) software which is the link between controlling the cameras an d the tracking system.
The SMT TAPM software is a proprietary software application which is the link that controls the automated movement and direction of the cameras and other areas of the production. This includes having controls to configure each camera's pan, tilt and zoom controls, as well as framing distances and location (ie the camera can be present to always frame the players to the right and center of the video).
This software helps provide a "reference" where each player s located and how the camera will react to the player movement
This software also allows the the operator to have "presets" for camera position during specific moments of a match.

CAMERAS/PRODUCTION CONTROLLER

For each court, SMT uses a customized controller for the camera operator
This controller interface allows the operator to manage "multiple" SMT and production tech nologies from a single device. This device allows the producer to operate all cameras, production switchers and other technologies which helps leverage production efficiencies.

MATCH INSIGHTS
(PLAYER ANALYSIS)

In 2021, as a natural extension of many years of working with data in television, media and sponsorship, SMT launched our Data Science Department and generated new statistics such as TIG (Tennis Insight Graphics) for The Championships, Wimbledon, ingesting tracking data into our point-by-point eventing system. This year, SMT provided data analytics for the world feed and BBC Wimbledon broadcasts. Today, SMT's data science group delivers data analytics products and services for ice hockey, golf, tennis, and American football clients. Our data analytics product, EDGE, is helping to revolutionize the way the sport of ice hockey is being managed by the league, its teams, and its broadcast partners