Following Disc Golf with FLIP UP COLLECTIVE^PRO

One of the fastest growing sports in the world, with a professional circuit as well as a huge amateur following, disc golf takes the basic principles of golf – nine or 18 "holes" around a rural course – and combines it with the skills of flying discs. As a game, disc golf has existed since the early 1960s, with its origins tracing back to informal games among American students and early pioneers, gradually evolving into the sport we know today.

Formal disc golf courses typically feature holes between 60 and 120 metres, though the longest stretches an incredible 460 metres. Unlike traditional golf, these courses embrace natural landscapes, with trees, bushes, elevation changes, and water hazards adding to the challenge. Instead of a hole in the ground, players aim for an elevated basket, blending strategy with precision.

The Swedish Disc Golf Championship Challenge

The Swedish Disc Golf Championship, held in 2024 at Ale in early August, took place over four days on the 3km, heavily wooded White Course at Ale Disc Golf Center. The centre offers multiple courses designed to encourage beginners while also providing challenges for top professionals.

When it came to delivering coverage of the event, the team at Levande Video came up with a bold plan to provide live streamed coverage of all the action. The task of realising this plan was handed to production house Flip Up Collective, who had to achieve it with nothing like the resources that a more established sport could command.

"Of course we had a very limited budget," said Nils Brytesson, founder of Levande Video in Stockholm, and producer for Flip Up Collective. "But we had a clear idea of how we could cover the course, and that included nine mobile cameras to stay close to the leading players."

The Technical Solution

Live coverage from mobile cameras around a very large area full of trees is always a challenge. From his previous work, Brytesson had considerable experience of the Intinor Direkt link solution and knew it could handle the demands of such a vast terrain.

When he spoke to Intinor about the project, he discovered that the company was very open to the idea. "I'm a disc golf player, and so are several others here at Intinor," said Emanuel Bergquist, technical account manager. "We were very keen to get involved. We provided some additional equipment, and I was on site throughout the event to provide support."

For more than 20 years, Intinor has specialised in high quality, practical solutions to delivering media content over internet-like links. The company has developed a core platform, Direkt, now available in many versions to suit different applications, from intercontinental remote production links to the mobile cameras that Flip Up Collective required.

Direkt Series in Action

For the disc golf championship, Flip Up Collective used:

• Three Direkt link mobile backpacks
• Six Direkt link compact backpacks

Each took in the signal from a camera (SDI or HDMI) and provided high quality encoding before streaming the signal live over multiple bonded cellular connections.

At a central control room near the club house, all the feeds were received on Direkt router rack decoders and set to a production switcher to be combined with fixed cameras and high resolution graphics for the final output. The low latency Direkt links minimised timing issues.

Resilience Under Pressure

An important part of maintaining low latency, even over complex bonded connections, is that the Intinor approach transmits point-to-point from the backpack encoder to the rack decoder. Other portable connectivity solutions route the stream via the cloud, and as well as greatly increasing latency adds another significant element of risk to the production.

This became evident on the second day of the championships, when torrential rain swept across the course, taking down some IT infrastructure and worsening the available internet connection. However, with minimal adjustments from Bergquist, the Intinor network continued to function without any issues.

Successful Results

The result was four days of uninterrupted coverage, ultimately seeing Dennis Augustsson and Sofie Björlycke taking home the trophies, all while being watched by fans around the world.

"We were able to follow all the key action with the mobile backpacks and move from place to place as the competition progressed," said Brytesson from Flip Up Collective.

"I find working with the Intinor system a delight, because you have real control over what you are doing, and it responds instantly.

"The quality is excellent, and we are proud we delivered way more than what the fans expected to see."

Supporting Emerging Sports

One of the most important ways that Intinor has developed into a leading player in streaming is through support for emerging markets. Direkt is seen as the standard connectivity platform for esports, for example, not least because Intinor was there at the very beginning, learning with the founding producers just what needed to be done to make it the global phenomenon it has become.

"Just as esport once was, disc golf is new and growing. That means those covering it are not bound by the way things have been done for decades, and can seize on the power of technology, add creativity and produce engaging television. Through creative partnerships like Flip Up Collective, the industry is defining a new future."