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Teacher arrested after drone crashes at the US Open
In a Grand Slam like the US Open, top tennis players have to be able to block out unwanted distractions. A crowd that's starting to side with your opponent is one problem, but a drone? That's something most competitors aren't prepared for. As the Guardian reports, a 26-year-old teacher has now been arrested after a quadcopter crash-landed into an empty section of the stands. Flavia Pennetta and Monica Niculesu were facing off on Thursday night when the 3DR Solo swooped in unannounced. Videos have emerged documenting the crash -- although no-one was hurt, it clearly broke the flow of the match and worried the players, their families and fans. Curiously, the intruding drone didn't appear to have a camera on board -- it's possible that it snapped off during the landing, but otherwise it's unclear exactly why the pilot was flying there in the first place. As we've seen in the past, usually drones sneak into sporting events to capture all of the action.
US Open exhibit pits you against Maria Sharapova in VR
From real-time match updates to performance analytics and the Hawk-Eye, the US Open has been upping its technology quotient over the last few years. This year the two-week grand slam tournament is opening its hard courts to virtual reality with the "You vs. Sharapova" experience. If you have a ticket to watch the live action at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, you can swing by one of the three VR stations and strap on an HTC Vive to be Maria Sharapova's opponent.
Fox US Open broadcast has live VR streams, drones and 4K cameras
We haven't connected cutting edge TV tech to golf much since 3D met the Masters, but Fox is promising a live streaming virtual reality setup this weekend during the US Open tournament. It's working with NextVR -- the same company that brought a Malibu beach sunrise streaming live in 180-degree VR to my house in Michigan -- so that viewers can pop into any of five camera rigs around the course and peek around like they were really there. According to Fox, this is believed to be the "first live multi-camera VR broadcast experience in history." This is still in the demo phase so the easiest way to watch is to actually be at the event in one of the properly equipped hospitality areas, or at a Fox Sports location in New York, Vancouver or LA. Even if you can't catch the live feed, NextVR will have the video ready for its portal that is coming to the Oculus Rift and Gear VR headsets.
LCD Soundsystem's frontman is transforming tennis data into tunes
LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy has dabbled in some weird stuff since the group split up three years ago, so the news that he's now working with IBM to convert the back-and-forth cadence of tennis matches at the US Open into music... isn't really a surprise. What is surprising is what he and dev-collaborator Patrick Gunderson will ultimately wind up with: nearly 400 hours worth of algorithmically crafted "music" made from boiling serves, aces and faults into instrument tracks.
ESPN launches more second screen coverage with golf's US Open
ESPN is further boosting its major sports coverage by producing a raft of extra material for golf enthusiasts at the US Open. And the outlet will be doing the same during the British Open, along with Wimbledon, the US Open and Australian Open for tennis. The network is employing a special team during the tournament (including some not normally involved in golf coverage) to supplement the main ESPN broadcasts with featured group and hole coverage, hole flyovers, shot tracking and more. Some of the extra goodies will appear on ESPN3, DIRECTV, and USOpen.com. All that means you might need to drag that extra TV out of the spare room, and possibly your Xbox, laptop or tablet. Who says watching sports reduces your attention span?
CBS, Panasonic & DirecTV add US Open Tennis to 3D Demo Days lineup
Panasonic and DirecTV's n3D channel has added another event to its slate of coverage from Center Court of the US Open Championship during Labor Day Weekend and Finals Weekend. A notable shift for this production is the use of a new combination "Shadow D" camera rig developed by Vincent Pace, which Broadcasting & Cable mentions will allow one operator to control the 2D and 3D cameras at the same time. Panasonic is working with CBS Sports to add new, lower placements for the six 3D camera rigs, and a dedicated production team for the broadcast that will be viewable onsite, on DirecTV's n3D channel (103) and also at any retailers participating in the 3D Demo Days promotion between September 10-12 like Best Buy. According to HD Guru we can expect coverage between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the fourth, but the rest of the schedule is not yet available. This is Panasonic's second 3D tennis event of the season, but likely the first many of us will have a chance to put eyes on, especially if there's another epic Isner/Mahut three day, 11-hour match.
Nintendo and Lexus host Wii Tennis tournament
Nintendo and Lexus hosted an intense Wii Tennis competition in Rockefeller Center yesterday. After competing for three consecutive days, the winner will get a free one year lease on a Lexus IS F and VIP tickets to the US Open finals. In the end, Benjamin Melinger proved to be the most hardcore of this typically not-so-hardcore game, with his heightened reflexes and appropriate attire. The matches, as you can see in the video above, end up being less about careful position of shots, but the ability to flail your arms as quickly as possible. Nintendo once again captured the hearts of the non-gamer, as onlookers couldn't help but be amazed by the spectacle, and wanted to try Wii for themselves.%Gallery-7042%
US Open: Worse HD coverage than the World Cup
Did anyone catch the US Open over the weekend? It was a great sporting event that was butchered by piss-poor HD coverage. There wasn't a five minute interval that didn't have at-least three SD camera shots in it. The event was supposed to be in HD but ESPNHD and NBC continually switched to non-HD. This is somewhat of a common thing on a large course like Winged Foot but both stations insisted on presenting us with Stretch-O-Vision. Normally, ESPNHD would put their logo bars on the side, but that didn't happen this time. One of the best SD camera shots was of a golfer teeing off and they switched from their HD feed to an SD feed and you could clearly make out the other high-def camera that was just on. Now we know many of you had issues with the World Cup coverage but there is no way it was worse the the US Open.
NBC's US Open coverage will be in high-def
What is the best looking HD sport? Golf (period) Football and hockey just don't hold up against the tranquil beauty of the gentleman's sport. This year we have seen a good amount of high-def golf coverage on CBS but now NBC is getting in the game too. Their June coverage of the event will be in glorious 1080i beauty. The event spans four days and NBC has high-def coverage of all of them.
