We’ll start off this week’s roundup by expressing our gratitude for all of our engineers who were dispatched to Dayton and El Paso this past week to cover the horrible shooting rampages in those cities. While nothing compares to the grief the families of the victims must be going through, working long hours on these events exacts a significant emotional and physical toll that is difficult to understand. Special thanks to PSSI News Group’s Lorenzo Dottori and Bill O’Toole, who were there in Dayton, and David Conwell, Michael Humphrey, and Al Meshberg down in El Paso. On the PSSI Global Services side of the house, we had Joe Cox, David Meyer, and Ron Ford in El Paso, all working around the clock for various news outlets. We all hope this doesn’t happen again.
On the much brighter side of life, we’ve been at Disney World all week. Rick Ball’s there at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, FL for Fox’s extensive coverage of the Junior NBA Global Championship. Featuring talented young men and women from around the world, the Junior NBA tournament is live on Fox Sports 1 all weekend long. Steve Toth’s joining the party with a Ku-band truck over the weekend, as this is must-see live television.
Keeping in Florida, and keeping with hoops, Mike Howley’s on his way to American Airlines Arena in Miami for the next stop on the Big 3 basketball tour. Mike’s in the newly improved C49 truck, a large aperture C-band truck that is now equipped with state-of-the-art solid state amplifiers. It carries a full-time compliment of compression equipment to handle up to a 10-channel “at-home” transmission, and it is a real powerhouse. Big thanks to our talented Satcom team in Orlando, FL, who have been putting in long hours to make the C49 one of the finest C-band trucks in the world.
Abi Falcon is one of experts who spends most of his team rebuilding trucks in Orlando, but this weekend he’s enjoying some time with his friend, Jose Sanchez, in San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico. Both engineers are there to provide ringside commentary services for Saturday’s fight between Julio Cesar Chavez, JR and Evert Bravo. A host of exciting Mexican undercards lead up to this big fight, and Jose and Abi are all set up and taking a moment to enjoy the delicious catering!
Believe it or not, that’s not our southernmost event this weekend. Mike Lemieux, Jim Flowers, and Keith Valeri have joined our friends from Concom and Casablanca Online for a UFC Fight Night in Montevideo, Uruguay. Valentina Shevchenko and Liz Carmouche are co-headliners with Vicente Luque and Mike Perry at the Antel Arena for Saturday night’s event. In the United States, you can watch on ESPN+. Mike, Jim, and Keith will also deliver all the action to MMA fans around the world, with a couple of pathways running through the PSSI International Teleport.
Back en los EEUU, we’ve got plenty more fighting on our schedules. John May’s back for more DAZN boxing with our friends from Aldea. The CK48 mobile teleport is all set up for testing at the Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie, TX, where Vergil Ortiz will take on Antonio Orozco in the main event on Saturday night.
Staying with Boxing, Rick Varney’s getting himself all set up at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA for Top Rank Boxing on ESPN Saturday night. Rick will have a 2-channel multiplexed transmission going for our friends at ESPN. The main event is now between Jason Sosa and Haskell Lydell Rhodes after Carl Frampton broke his hand earlier in the week and was forced to drop out. The show must go on!
On Thursday, not too far up the street from Rick, we had yet another successful Professional Fighters League Event. John Bright and Mati Kerpen were on hand for this fight night at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. PFL 6 was the end of the regular season for this fledgling league, and we are very pleased to have been a key part of their inaugural run. The PSSI International Teleport took in the feeds from site to transcode and distribute all the action to multiple streaming platforms around the world. We’re looking forward to more event management and transmission opportunities from our friends at PFL!
It’s a big weekend of wrestling in Toronto! The WWE tour is all set up and ready to go at the Scotiabank Arena for NXT Takeover Toronto, WWE Summerslam, Monday Night RAW, and Tuesday night Smackdown! It’s quite a run of big time live television that is sure to please wrestling fans around the world. Driver Joe Kelderhouse skillfully placed the CK30 mobile teleport outside the arena so that Zane Michaels could handle WWE’s multiple inbound and outbound satellite transmission pathways and data services via AT&T GVS fiber. Project manager Logan Schinto is on hand all weekend to oversee domestic and international distribution – much of it via PSSI International Teleport – and Nick Ray comes off a well-deserved vacation to join the team on Sunday and lead it through the first part of next week. Dennis Smith is also coming up to lend some Ku-band support, as well. It’s a huge show, and our WWE team has left no stone unturned as we continue to provide one of our biggest customers with the highest level of service week in and week out.
Enough fighting. How about some football?
It’s a busy weekend of exciting NFL preseason action around the country. We kicked off the season in Chicago, Green Bay, Baltimore, and Cleveland on Thursday night, and all four games were a great success. John Jennings and Rick Kolinek had C-band and Ku-band transmissions from Lambeau Field, where the Packers eked out a 28-26 win over the Houston Texans.
Steve Hagerty was at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland for the Browns commanding victory over the Washington Redskins.
Dave Mitchell was at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Thursday, where the Bears lost to the Carolina Panthers.
And Dennis Smith was on hand at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, where the Ravens hammered the Jacksonville Jaguars 29-0.
That was just Thursday! On Friday night, Craig Henry will get a first look at the Pittsburgh Steelers as they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Heinz Field. We’re there for our the Steelers preseason games on behalf of our friends at KDKA.
Out West, it’s time for some 49er football. Steve Chaisson will be providing transmission and closed captioning services for the game between the Niners and the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night, live from Levi’s Stadium.
Plenty more NFL football coming up next week, as well, and that college football schedule is right around the corner…
Lots of golf this week, and project manager Jennifer Hyder-Michaels is keeping on top of a whole lot of paperwork.
Todd Harvey’s up and running at the Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside Portland, OR for the Winco Foods Portland Open, with tournament coverage on Golf Channel.
Chris Golden’s got a view of the Statue of Liberty where he’s parked on the Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City, NJ. It’s the Northern Trust tournament, and Chris is there to provide an extension package of comms and transmission for our friends at Golf Channel News.
The World Long Drive Series continues in Tennessee this weekend, and we’ll be there, of course! Kevin Spangler’s on his way to the Cattails at MeadowView Golf Course in Kingsport, where he will be providing multipath transmission and comms services to Golf Channel for their coverage of the Tennessee Big Shots, which finishes up on Monday.
Plenty of NASCAR keeping us busy, as well. Justin Roszak is all set to go at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex, where the B&L Transport 170 – a stop on the NASCAR Xfinity Series tour – will air on NBC Sports Network Saturday.
The Monster Energy Cup Series continues to heat up, and we’re there for every minute of it. This week the C27 mobile teleport is parked at the Michigan International Speedway for a whole lot of racing action this week. Jonathan Ayala and Ben Bradshaw are providing multiple satellite and fiber transmission pathways for NASCAR and NBC – all of it running through our team at the PSSI International Teleport – as well as data for the entire production via AT&T Global Video Services fiber. All of our team’s efforts culminate in the Consumers Energy 400 Cup race on Sunday afternoon, which is sure to be an exciting race.
There’s another special event in Michigan this weekend: La Liga-Serie Cup soccer at the Big House! Steve Hagerty’s headed to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor for our friends at IMG. He’ll provide the origination feed for the international distribution of the match between Barcelona and AS Napoli on Saturday afternoon.
And what about a little Arena Football? Dave Buckman’s on his way to the Times Union Center in Albany, NY for ArenaBowl 32. The Albany Empire host the Philadelphia Soul in the Arena Football League championship game on Sunday.
More WNBA basketball, as well. Mati Kerpen’s heading down to Washington, DC, where the Washington Mystics will host the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday afternoon.
Mike Sheehan and Tracy Michaels are making their way to Salt Lake City, UT this weekend as they prepare for the grueling Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah bike race. Mike’s providing live transmission services at every stage next week, while Tracy is once again the tech manager for the entire event. Tracy’s been preparing for months, as he’s in charge of orchestrating all aspects of production and transmission, from parking the TV compound every night, to coordinating RF relay feeds from aircraft and motorcycles, to arranging data provisions at every stage. This is quite an undertaking, and a great example of the work that we do at PSSI Global Services that goes far beyond satellite transmissions. Good luck, guys!
Let’s finish in California, where we have a couple of exciting events to share.
Earlier in the week, Mark Huss, Wes Hill, and Alex Mestizo found themselves in the middle of a fig orchard in Madera, CA providing extensive production and transmission services for a satellite media tour touting a new fig cookbook. Great job by project manager Cheryl Leving wrangling all the production, transmission, and logistical elements to pull off this interesting live event on behalf of California fig growers.
Chris Hovden was back at LA Center Studios for the first live broadcast of Ann Curry’s Chasing the Cure. Chris’s transmission pathway to Turner was clean as a whistle, and we’re excited to be a part of this show every single Thursday through October.
Chris takes a short break before heading down to Hermosa Beach to prepare for Fox’s Teen Choice Awards, which is live on Sunday night. Chris is running one of three trucks we’ll have parked right next to the beach. Wes Hill and Larry Sheets are also there providing multiple, redundant transmission pathways for this entertaining, and often surprising, awards show. Wes, Larry, and Chris will enjoy performances by Taylor Swift, Bazzi, Mabel, Monsta X, and many more, and we hope you’ll tune in, too.
Big concert at the historic Wiltern Theatre in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood. Carly Rae Jepsen is in town on her Dedicated Tour, and we will be providing extensive production and transmission services for the concert on Sunday night. John Bright and Alex Mestizo will have the K34 production/uplink hybrid rocking and rolling along with Carly Rae.
Last, but not least, please join us all in wishing our CEO, Rob Lamb, the happiest of birthdays on Friday, August 9th! The fire department wouldn’t allow us an accurate count of candles on his cake, but Rob remains young at heart, spending a long day working at the office as he has for decades. Rob continues to set the standard for the hard work, honesty, and commitment to quality that has made PSSI Global Services the worldwide leader in events, transmission, and connectivity.
Happy Birthday, Rob!