The Great American Eclipse of 2017 is happening on Monday, Aug. 21. The path of totality, along which the moon will block out the sun completely for a duration of less than three minutes, is estimated at 70 miles wide and will cover areas from Oregon to South Carolina, traveling through Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. PSSI Global Services and PSSI News Group will be positioned along the path to cover the eclipse and all of the surrounding festivities.
Last year the San Francisco Exploratorium hired us to broadcast a total eclipse from Micronesia. Senior engineer Jim Flowers traveled by air and sea for a couple of days to send back some remarkable images from a remote island. Since we’re a little closer to home for this one, Jim has more help! Jim’s setting up in Casper, Wyoming, alongside Mark Huss and project manager Barbara Worthington for the Exploratorium’s live stream of this historic event.
Mike Sheehan is just up the hill with our DC9 truck, working with PBS to broadcast the eclipse from lovely Casper Mountain. Reaching an elevation of 8,130 feet, Casper Mountain, along the North Platte River, forms the northern part of the Laramie Mountains, rising about 3,000 above Casper, Wyoming. We can’t wait to see the view from there!
Also for PBS, Todd Harvey and our Midwest truck will be transmitting the eclipse from Salem, Oregon, near Willamette University. Meanwhile John Poss is at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, where NASA will be sending scientists up in retrofitted bomber jets to follow the path of totality from above.
PSSI Global Services is also well-represented in Madras, Oregon, where we have several trucks covering the eclipse. John Jennings and our Starlight truck will be looking up from Erickson Aircraft Collection alongside Chris Hovden and our SkIP Van, again on behalf of the Exploratorium. Our SkIP van is there to provide phones and internet for the TV compound using Intelsat’s Prism platform, an essential luxury for television production in the very small town of Madras. Literally a few blocks up the road at Madras High School, David Meyer and K20 are also providing phones and internet along with live video of the eclipse.
Each location of the eclipse promises to be an experience to remember. Check your local listings for the best viewing time in your area, and PLEASE REMEMBER, do not look at the sun directly!
Meanwhile, preseason football is really heating up this week with games from coast to coast. Heading to one of the games this weekend? Find our satellite truck on location, snap a photo and share it using #PSSI on Instagram and Twitter.
Mike Howley kicked off the football weekend on Thursday in Philly, bringing us the Buffalo Bills facing the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
Friday’s game is across the country in Seattle, Washington, where the Minnesota Vikings play the Seattle Seahawks at 7 p.m. PT from CenturyLink Field. The Seahawks are looking for their second preseason win after their 48-17 domination last week over the Chargers. Seattle-based engineer David Meyer is looking forward to a little football before heading down to Oregon for the eclipse.
Saturday is a pretty full lineup, starting with the Washington Redskins defending FedExField against the Green Bay Packers in Landover, Maryland.
Up the road, the New England Patriots are looking for their first preseason win as they go up against the Houston Texans, who are also coming off a loss last week against the Carolina Panthers. Shrewsbury-based project manager Mike Reidy is hoping his hero Tom Brady will take at least a few snaps at NRG Stadium, so he will be tuning into Ron Ford’s signal from the game.
Heading out west, things heat up at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the Chicago Bears look to redeem themselves after their loss last week to the Broncos. They face off against the Arizona Cardinals, who won their game last week against the Raiders. Rumors have been flying that the Cardinals players were “bored” this week at practice. Hopefully they find the energy needed to pull out a win in the 103 degree heat that is expected at game time on Saturday evening.
If you’re headed to the Bay Area on Saturday evening to catch a football game you might want to leave extra early. The Oakland Raiders are at their home field of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Saturday night. Senior engineer Dave Feustel is working with one of our newest engineers, Nathan Holsey, to provide coverage of the game for the local Comcast affiliate. The Raiders, having lost last week against the Cardinals, are hoping to take down the LA Rams, who are coming off a win last week against the Cowboys.
A hop, skip and jump away, Steve Chaisson will have our Atlas truck in top form at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the Denver Broncos are playing at San Francisco 49ers at 7 p.m. PT. In addition to transmission services, we will be providing closed captioning for the broadcast.
Sunday’s game is at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Atlanta Falcons face the Pittsburgh Steelers. Local engineer Dave Mitchell will be joined by Atlanta-based engineer Kyle Meyer to provide the C-band transmission for the local CBS affiliate.
Of course there’s plenty of racing this week, as well. Our NASCAR truck is in Bristol, Tennessee, at the Bristol Motor Speedway bringing you every lap. Rick Ball is there with C12 as well, providing additional paths out of the racetrack. Rick’s also prepping C12 for next week’s IMSA race at the Virginia International Raceway. Rick and new-to-PSSI engineer Justin Roszak will be attempting a 22-path transmission out of C12’s antenna, an unprecedented feat in satellite transmission.
Also in racing this weekend, we are at the Memphis International Raceway, where Steve Hagerty and K17 will be covering the IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship two-race weekend, presented by COMP Cams with 2nd Hand Power Stock/Super Stock racing.
WWE is busy this weekend on the East Coast at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with the NXT as well as the WWE SummerSlam. Zane Michaels, Terry Glover and project manager Logan Schinto are setting up CK30 on the busy streets of Brooklyn to provide multiple transmission paths for WWE fans around the world on this intensive four-day stretch.
We also have golf, golf and more golf on the schedule again this week.
John Bright is at the En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, New York, with our CK25 dual-dish truck for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open through Sunday. From there John takes the truck up to Ottawa for next week’s Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
Blake Blomstrom is spending his week with C45 at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, to bring us the Wyndham Championship tournament.
And Mike Lemieux, Tracy Michaels and C43 are at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa, for the Solheim Cup through Sunday. These two senior engineers have been spending whatever off-hours they have maintaining and upgrading the truck for what is shaping up to be an intensely busy autumn of golf and football.
Finally, off the mainland, we have a team in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico native Abisai Falcon, encoding specialist Kenny Holley and new-to-PSSI Justin Roszak have been prepping a 5.5m antenna and a flypack full of encoding gear at the Complejo Ferial de Puerto Rico for Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN. The matchups include Alberto Machado vs. Carlos Morales and Juan Carlos Camacho Jr. vs. Edwin Rodriguez for an exciting Friday night from the island.
After all this weekend’s excitement, we take a quick, deep breath and prepare for an insane week in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Here in LA we have the MTV Music Awards at the Fabulous Forum. In Vegas, as you might have heard, Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will face off in what will likely be the biggest boxing event of the century so far. PSSI Global Services will be there in full force all week.