Some of the Fusion Film and TV crew recently worked on the Queen’s Club Championships and RF Camera operator Nico had this to say:

Working as an RF camera operator on the recent Queen’s Club Championships has been a blast!
For the first time in a while, the RF camera team were able to meet in person, we all hit it off straight away and we knew that the week ahead was going to be a good one.

As always with these live outside broadcasts, the first day was a busy one. Logistically speaking it takes a while to find your way around the grounds, (turning up on the wrong court is a no-no!) familiarise yourself with the kit, understand the schedules and know where you are meant to be at specific times. Pretty challenging under normal circumstances but add in sweltering 30-degree heat with no breeze and while I now have an excellent tan, it was thirsty work.

Physically speaking, it’s not easy carrying nine kilos of camera and tripod around for a week but team work makes the dream work as they say, and the crew all pulled together to help.

What an incredible privilege it’s been to work courtside. I’ve always loved tennis as a sport and enjoy watching it on TV. Standing within 10 meters of the players filming the match I realised that what you see on TV does not do the speed and the accuracy of the game any justice. Watching the players that closely was awe-inspiring, seeing the ball go over so close to the net, time after time; hearing the speed of Berrettini’s 140 mph serves was just incredible. Another favourite moment was when the RF team and I were waiting to do Andy Murray’s flash interview; we were all super nervous, as we had had some technical issues out of our control on the previous flash interview. We didn’t want the same thing to happen again. Suddenly it was our turn to go, I ran out to the position with the tripod and camera, followed by Radzi Chinyanganya, (he’s a fabulous presenter by the way), and the rest of the RF team. We had literally 30 seconds to get everything ready to go, time flew by in slow motion. Boom pole held by Mark over my head, I gave the thumbs up to Radzi. The interview with Andy Murray was brilliant and emotional. We were all absolutely buzzing after. Fast-paced, seat of your pants, live television at its best. Unfortunately, it was his last interview with us as he lost the following match though!

My first day off, I slept for about 11 hours but wow what a week it’s been at the Queen’s Club Championships. I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Andy Murray at the Queen's Club Championships being interviewed with Fusion's Nico on camera