Broadcast · Augusta, Georgia, USA

Augusta — CBS Sports

From helicopter photography to a meticulously reconstructed golf course: pioneering 3D broadcast work for CBS Sports, created under exacting scrutiny.

THE PROJECT

A closer look.

Setting: Augusta, Georgia, USA
Our work: Helicopter photography, course mapping, 3D reconstruction and broadcast footage
Client: CBS Sports
Recognition: Emmy nomination for Stephen Bell

Archiform 3D produced 3D footage for CBS Sports’ coverage of international tournament golf in Augusta. It was a pioneering commission in the studio’s history, bringing detailed course reconstruction and animated viewpoints to sports broadcasting.

The work began in the air. Before drones became an everyday production tool, Stephen Bell photographed the course from a helicopter and mapped the site to build the foundation for its digital reconstruction. The task was to turn that photographic reference into a coherent three-dimensional environment.

Augusta scrutinised the detail closely. Fairways, greens, bunkers, water and the surrounding trees all contributed to a setting that had to read convincingly from multiple viewpoints. The process demanded sustained attention to the landscape as a whole and the small features that make a course recognisable.

The resulting broadcast work earned Stephen Bell an Emmy nomination. For Archiform 3D, the project remains a defining example of developing new production techniques to meet an unusually demanding brief: capturing a real place, reconstructing it in 3D and bringing it to a television audience.

This gallery presents still imagery from the Augusta project, showing the course, its landscape and tournament atmosphere.