Another big weekend in front of us as our engineering team in the field tries to stay warm and dry while providing transmission services for just all the live events you can handle!
John Jennings and the golfers at the Genesis Open at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, CA have been dodging the raindrops all week. The weather is supposed to clear up this weekend for what will surely be an exciting final round of golf, with our efforts broadcast live on the Golf Channel.
The weather’s been a little kinder to Chris Golden, who has the C23 truck parked at the Lely Resort in Naples, FL for this week’s Chubb Classic. This is a new location for us, but we’ve been doing the Chubb Classic for Golf Channel for quite a few years.
Lots of college hoops on the docket. It’s February, after all!
Dave Buckman and the Columbia truck were at Sojka Pavilion at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA on Monday when the Lehigh Mountain Hawks faced the Bucknell Bison and lost. From there Mr. Buckman headed to the Charles E. Smith Center at George Washington University on Wednesday when the Saint Louis Billikens beat the George Washington Colonials. As if that weren’t enough hoops, Dave will be at the United States Naval Academy on Saturday for an Army/Navy doubleheader! Thanks, Dave!
Another one of our many Daves – Dave Mitchell, who goes by “Mitch” to help avoid confusion – is spending a few days at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. On Thursday night the University of Alabama-Birmingham was in town to take on the Thundering Herd. On Saturday it will be the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, another exciting game you can catch on CBS Sports Network.
Dennis Smith is in the hoops mix, as well. He was at Hagan Arena in Philly on Tuesday for some St. Joseph’s basketball out of his NT21 truck. That same truck will be at Seton Hall’s Walsh Gym on Sunday for more hoops, but Steve Hagerty will be at the controls. Steve’s flying in to relieve Dennis, who will be up late Saturday night at the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City, where he will be providing transmission services for the Cage Fury Fighting Championship. As an added wrinkle, Strategic Television project manager Garrett Hunt will monitor the signal for distribution to streaming platforms down stream. Quite the group effort!
Still more hoops on CBS Sports Net: Benny Griffis and the K38 truck were at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, KY on Thursday, when Middle Tennessee came to town to take on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
Big game down in Texas this weekend, and John May is bringing a big truck to help CBS get the show on the air. It’s Oklahoma State versus Texas at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. John has the CK48 mobile teleport ready to go for the afternoon game on Saturday.
Mike Howley has a big game of his own! He’ll be back at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, RI to provide a transmission path for Fox’s broadcast of the Xavier versus URI game on Saturday. This is Mike’s first uplink after a well-deserved vacation, and we’re excited to have him back in the rotation.
And all the way on the other side of the country, Steve Chaisson wrapped up a successful at-home transmission for a friends at ESPN on Thursday night. He provided a multiplexed transmission of the game between St. Mary’s and the University of Santa Clara at the Leavey Center in northern California Thursday night.
If you haven’t watched any of the Alliance of American Football action yet this season, you are missing out! PSSI Global Services has a hand in all the AAF games this weekend.
Rick Ball’s back at Legion Field Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, where the Birmingham Iron will host the Salt Lake City Stallions on Saturday afternoon. Rick’s providing an at-home transmission that will be ingested at the PSSI International Teleport, handed off to the AT&T Global Video Services fiber network, and received and decoded at Sneaky Big Studios in Scottsdale, AZ (where Paul Blomstrom will ensure signal quality). The folks at Sneaky Big will produce the show and send it right back out on the AT&T Global Video pathway for broadcast distribution. Parked outside Sneaky Big, John Bright is in our K34 production/uplink truck providing remote production services for the pre-game and halftime shows of all the AAF games, as well as providing secondary transmission pathways out of the K34’s Ku-band antenna. As if that weren’t enough, Rick Ball is also providing data over satellite so that the production crews in Birmingham and Scottsdale can communicate.
And we didn’t even mention Kevin Spangler! He’s up the road at Liberty Bowl Stadium in Memphis, TN, where the Memphis Express will host the Arizona Hotshots on Saturday night. It’s much the same routine, with Kevin’s signal going to PIT to Sneaky Big and back via the AT&T GVS network. These games have provided our engineering, teleport, and project management teams with quite the challenge, as our friends at AT&T and AAF work tirelessly to get this new league off on the right foot. We are proud to be a part of the team!
The NASCAR season is well underway as we’re in our second week of racing at Daytona International Speedway. Kyle Meyer and Jonathan Ayala are at the helm of the C27 mobile teleport, providing multiple inbound and outbound transmission pathways via satellite and AT&T fiber. All of the offseason planning, truck upgrades, and testing will culminate on Sunday, when our team will ensure every signal leaving the track gets where it needs to be, including FOX headquarters in California. It’s going to be a great weekend of racing!
Gary O’Donovan has a little racing of his own to keep an eye on. Gary’s spending his weekend at the South Georgia Motorsports Park in Adel, GA. Gary’s in our NT23 unit, a very special uplink vehicle that we acquired from CNN. With some upgrades in modifications at our Orlando shop, this tricked-out Ford Expedition is providing the production team at the track with internet over satellite so that they can livestream all the action. With a small footprint, minimal power consumption, and quickly-deployed antenna, the NT23 can provide IP-over-satellite just about anywhere.
We are keeping up with ATP tennis as the tour continues. Mati Kerpen is spending his weekend at Nassau Coliseum – not far from home – to provide international tennis fans with transmission services at the 2019 New York Open.
And how about some biathlon action? Todd Harvey has been in Soldier Hollow, UT all week for the 2019 IBU World Cup Biathlon. This is the first major international biathlon competition to be held at Soldier Hollow since the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and Mr. Harvey is making sure that fans from all over the world can follow the action.
And let’s finish up with some fighting, and there’s a heckuva lot of it on our schedules this weekend.
Let’s start with Steve Toth, who is our northernmost engineer this week. He’s at the Grand Casino all the way up in Hinckley, MN for Top Rank Boxing on ESPN Friday night. Steve’s providing a multiplexed transmission for our pals at ESPN. Local favorite Rob “Bravo” Brant will defend his WBA middleweight crown against the unbeaten Khasan Baysangurov in the main event, while a host of exciting undercards will be keeping Steve’s truck humming throughout the cold winter night.
A few hundred miles south, Ron Ford is back at the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane, KS for another ShoBox event on Friday night. “ShoBox: The New Generation” will feature Uzbekistan’s power-puncher Shohjahon Ergashev taking on Mykal Fox in the 10-round main event, and Ron will also have some exciting undercard matches through the night.
Engineer Chris Hovden and project manager Michael Hollander will be side by side in the K19 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, CA for Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Saturday night. The PSSI International Teleport will play a prominent role in the international distribution of the fight, which Michael is there to oversee. We may also be providing some ingest services for a high-profile remote insert for Fox’s broadcast. Tune in to see who it is!
Big Sunday night UFC fight in Phoenix this weekend. EIC Tracy Michaels will join engineer Wes Hill and project manager Garrett Hunt in the CK35 mobile teleport for a UFC on ESPN Fight Night, live from Talking Stick Resort Arena. It’s Joe Lauzon and Marcin Held along with Yair Rodriguez and BJ Penn in the co-main events, which our team will deliver to domestic and international broadcasters around the world. We have the weigh-in on Saturday and undercards galore as we work alongside our partners at Concom to provide the finest in live event production and transmission.
And last, but never least, it is a pay-per-view weekend for our friends at WWE. Drive Joe Kelderhouse has piloted the CK30 mobile teleport to the Toyota Center in Houston, TX, where Zane Michaels and Logan Schinto will prepare for Sunday night’s WWE Elimination Chamber PPV. Logan and Zane will manage dozens of inbound and outbound feeds via satellite and fiber, with the PIT teleport again providing monitoring and turnaround services for what is sure to be a thrilling night of wrestling. And, as usual, the WWE train rolls on, with RAW in Lafayette, LA on Monday and Smackdown on Tuesday night in New Orleans. We are proud to be the exclusive transmission services provider for WWE!