Media
Why the PGA Tour just won an . . . Emmy?
The Oscars may have come and gone, but Awards Season isn't over. And on Tuesday, the PGA Tour won an . . . Emmy?
Yep, an Emmy. And golf fans will agree it's a well-deserved honor.
The PGA Tour's Live Drone AR won the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award at the 46th Sports Emmy Awards administered by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
So what is the Live Drone AR exactly? Here's how the PGA Tour describes it:
A TOUR-owned, patent-pending technology, Drone AR was developed through a collaborative effort between six partners — the PGA TOUR, Bolt6, CBS Sports, NBC Sports, Virtual Eye and Kaze Aerial Production — that came together in early 2024 with a shared vision to successfully track ball-in-motion data from a live moving drone on the PGA TOUR. Highlighting the skill of TOUR players and the challenge of iconic golf courses, the cutting-edge innovation allows fans to watch towering drives like never before, as the augmented reality experience combines live aerial video with real-time analytics.
And here's a video showing what it looks like. Although, again, if you watch golf, you've certainly noticed these technological enhancements to tournament coverage on TV:
In the category, the tour beat out Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (Immersive Audio at Scale), NFL Live (StatusPro Visualizer—VR Technology), NHL Big City Greens Classic | Simpson’s Funday Football | NBA Dunk the Halls (Modified Character Scaling), and OptiMotion.
