Happy Holidays from PSSI Global Services to all of our friends, families, partners, and customers. We hope everyone enjoys a safe and happy holiday break with their loved ones, and that 2019 brings peace and prosperity to all. While much of the world is taking the next week off, we have plenty of guys working in the field and in the offices to keep the live television going! Special thanks to all of those who are on the road for Christmas.
If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, please click here for the holiday edition of our Transmission Times newsletter, which features our engineers of the quarter, a profile of Strategic Television President, Matt Bridges, a look at our recently announced Emmy award, and so much more!
College basketball is starting to take the lion’s share of our schedule. Quite a few games this weekend:
Dave Buckman and the Columbia truck will be at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia Saturday when the Loyola Ramblers take on the St Joseph’s Hawks.
Dave Mitchell and the Wolfcoach truck will be at West Virginia University Coliseum when the Jacksonville State Gamecocks face off against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Blake Blomstrom and the C45 truck will be at the Xfinity Center at in College Park, MD when the Seton Hall Pirates take on the Maryland Terrapins for college basketball on Fox.
John Bright and the new-and-improved NT26 will be at the University of Western Kentucky in Bowling Green when the St Mary’s Gaels are in town to take on the Hilltoppers.
And a little NBA hoops, as well: Chris Golden and the C24 truck were at American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL on Thursday when the Houston Rockets took on the Miami Heat and lost 99-101.
Brian Blomstrom is spending quite a bit of time at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for the NBA G-League Winter Showcase. All the G-League’s teams are in Las Vegas for this annual in-season scouting event, as the players get the opportunity to play in front of NBA general managers and personnel executives. Brian and the CK35 mobile teleport are providing long days of transmission services for ESPN’s broadcast of this exciting event before taking a much-deserved holiday break.
And, halfway across the ocean, Rick Ball and Todd Harvey are back in Honolulu for ESPN. It’s the Diamond Head Classic, a big-time basketball tournament live from the Stan Sheriff Center on ESPN. Norm Bearce from our Orlando shop joined the guys prior to the event to ensure all of our Hawaii equipment – which includes two large aperture antennas, a Ku-band truck, and a support truck – is in perfect working order. Rick’s going to take a break from hoops to head over to Aloha Stadium for the SoFi Hawaii Bowl on Saturday, also on ESPN. Rick’s providing encoding and multiplexing via fiber for our friends at ESPN before he heads back to the States to gear up for the Big 6 College Football Playoffs. Our plates our full, and we have several guys mobilizing on Christmas to be in place for the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. More on what we’re up to in next week’s roundup.
More football back on the mainland. Steve Chaisson and the C47 are at Albertson’s Stadium in Boise, ID for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, where the Western Michigan Broncos face the Brigham Young University Cougars on Friday. Steve’s providing one of our patented 10-channel “at-home” transmissions for our friends at ESPN. Steve will be in Phoenix the day after Christmas for yet another at-home transmission for ESPN, this one via fiber for the Cheez-It Bowl at Chase Field.
Some NFL football on the schedule this weekend, too. Kevin Spangler’s down at the Mercedez-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA for Sunday’s game between the Steelers and the Saints. He’ll be providing transmission services for pre- and post-game live shots on Pittsburgh-based KDKA’s broadcast of the big game.
Rick Kolinek is back in Milwaukee, WI for hockey on Saturday. It’s an AHL matchup between the Chicago Wolves and the Milwaukee Admirals, live from Panther Arena on Saturday.
And Mati Kerpen is back at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY for boxing on Saturday night. It’s a Premier Boxing Champions fight that will air on Fox, and project manager Michael Hollander is working with the PSSI International Teleport to deliver the fight to Latin American boxing fans. The co-main events are Jermall Charlo versus Matt Korobov and Jermell Charlo versus Tony Harrison. Note that there’s one letter different in the two Charlo given names; Jermall and Jermell are identical twins, and they’re sharing the top of the fight card on Saturday night. Crazy world out there!
Here in Los Angeles, Mark Huss will once again spend his Christmas Eve at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mark will be providing transmission services for our friends at KOCE-TV; it’s the 59th Annual LA County Holiday Celebration. Mark hasn’t been doing it for all 59 years, but it’s been quite a few in a row for our senior engineer.
Next week we’ve got all the bowl games to celebrate, a big UFC pay-per-view in Las Vegas, and New Year’s Eve in Times Square. In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there!
