AA Access keeps cameras on Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup commands the third largest television audience of any sporting event in the world, beaten only by the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic games. It has the potential to reach 620 million viewers and, although the main broadcasters are Sky Sports for the UK and NBC for America, various other broadcasters take the tournament to countries as far removed as Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, China, New Zealand and Nepal.

UK access specialist AA Access provided all the truck mounted platforms on site from which much of the Golf was filmed. These included Bronto, Ruthmann and Wumag machines four of which were fitted with special circular camera cages the rest of the machines had normal cages fitted for use either as camera platforms or aerial links to the remote RF cameras.

Using the circular cage allows the camera to move silently (always important on a golf course) and quickly from one side to the other without rotating a normal cage or repositioning the boom. The special camera cage machines were deployed strategically to cover three or four holes each, which allowed the director to aim them to cover where the action was happening.

Andy Ainsworth of AA Access said, "As this event is a world live sporting event is was crucial our machines and operators were up to the task of delivering a reliable and professional service throughout. We achieved this without a single hiccup during the event, even though we were faced with appalling weather conditions (high wind and torrential rain) and some difficult positions to set the machines."

AA Access fielded a team of nine at the event with a total operating experience of 211 years.