PSSI Global Services loves a parade! Well, most of us do. Our team in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts probably wasn’t watching the footage from Philadelphia Thursday. However, Dennis Smith, Dave Buckman and Blake Blomstrom braved the crowds and the cold to provide transmission services for the Super Bowl victory parade in honor of the world champion Philadelphia Eagles. Dave, Blake and Dennis set up the day prior, in front of the “Rocky” steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Fortunately they were safely behind the fences of the TV compound, as some 2 million fans flooded the streets for this historic event. Nice work, guys!
Up the road, NYC-based engineer Mati Kerpen is rounding out a very busy week. He and Victor Verno were in Manhattan at the beginning of the week for the Hugo Boss Fall 2018 Menswear fashion show, where Mati was providing the uplink for European fashion fans. Rest assured both Victor and Mati were dressed in their finest for the show. Once he wrapped, Mati immediately took his truck over to Wall Street to set up for Thursday morning’s earnings announcement from T-Mobile. It isn’t always easy to find a satellite in NYC (or arrange parking), but Mati is the consummate pro in his home town, and he was able to find the right bird for the big show.
Capitol One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C. isn’t a particularly easy venue for uplinkers, but Mike Howley knows the drill. He was there for Thursday night’s Celtics versus Wizards game. He was in Philly on Tuesday night, where the Wizards visited the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. Always glad to transmit some hoops for our friends at the Turner networks.
Plenty more basketball on our schedule, especially in the Northeast. Nick Ray’s doing a couple more at-home transmissions for our friends at ESPN. Wednesday he was in Storrs, Conneticut for UCONN versus the University of South Florida at the Gampel Pavilion. Then on to the Ryan Center in Kingston, Rhode Island, where URI hosts Davidson on Friday night. Nick, the C42 truck and a big stack of encoders have been flawless for ESPN’s at-home productions of these college basketball games.
Blake Blomstrom has an at-home transmission of his own on Saturday, this time down in College Park, Maryland, where the Terrapins host Northwestern. Along with Blake, Dennis and Dave are hitting the ground running after their time at the parade. Dennis will be at the Army-Navy doubleheader on Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. Dave heads to Easton, Pennsylvania for some Lafayette College hoops, as the Leopards host Loyola at the Kirby Sports Center.
Blake’s brother Brian Blomstrom is doing an at-home transmission, as well, in Tempe, Arizona on Thursday, as Arizona State hosts the USC Trojans on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Arena. Once he’s done with this multi-channel transmission, Brian then drives CK25 up to Vegas for more upgrades at our shop before a string of exciting events in Las Vegas.
Wes Hill is also doing an at-home transmission for ESPN on Saturday, as
St. Mary’s hosts Gonzaga at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, California. A few hundred miles east of Wes we have yet another at-home transmission in Reno, where Chris Hovden and Steve Chaisson set up our CK35 mobile teleport to transmit Nevada versus San Diego State. In case you lost count, that’s six at-home transmissions on five different trucks in the span of four days, from one coast to another. PSSI Global Services is the only transmission solutions provider with that kind of range and engineering talent!
Rick Varney’s back in the in the Boston College hoops rotation after a successful trip to the west coast for a 4K game last week. He will be at the Conte Forum on Saturday as the Eagles host the Miami Hurricanes.
Steve Hagerty’s back at what may be his second home: the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Wake Forest is in town on Sunday, and Steve will be there for every minute of the action.
Pittsburgh-based engineer Dave Mitchell is on the road this week as he covers back to back VCU games in Richmond, Virginia for CBS SportsNet. He swings by Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on Monday for some Bucknell hoops before returning his truck to its home base north of Pittsburgh.
Benny Griffis found himself in Spartanburg, South Carolina for some exciting high school basketball on Thursday night, where Spartanburg Day hosted Greensboro Day for a live broadcast on ESPN. Great to have these kids get some time on the big network!
Rick Kolinek is working in some basketball, as well, as he will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Sunday for the NBA G-League matchup between the Grand Rapids Drive and the Memphis Hustle. But before this game, Rick will be in Des Moines, Iowa for Friday night’s AHL hockey game between the Chicago Wolves and the Iowa Wild.
It’s not all basketball! We also have some lacrosse and tennis on our schedules this weekend. Seattle-based engineer David Meyer is heading up to Canada on Saturday for some big league lacrosse action as the Vancouver Stealth host the Saskatchewan Rush at the Langley Events Centre. A few thousand miles away, Craig Henry’s taking a break from golf to work close to home. Craig is all set up at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend for the U.S. Tennis Team’s defense of their Fed Cup title as they take on the Netherlands. Sisters Serena and Venus Williams will be joined by 2017 Fed Cup Champions Lauren Davis and Coco Vandeweghe playing for the U.S. team. The Netherlands team will be Richel Hogenkamp, Arantxa Rus, Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs. What an exciting match!
With or without Craig, the golf schedule keeps on going. Chris Golden and C32 are at The Old Course at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Florida for the Boca Raton Golf Championship. This event, consisting of Top PGA Champions competing for a purse of $1.6 million, helps raise money for the Boca Raton Regional Hospital, as well as other local charities.
We are also up at Pebble Beach with our state-of-the-art production/uplink bus this week for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Bus driving extraordinaire Dale Fountain was very happy to get back in the driver’s seat of the bus, and Kyle Meyer is right at home at the engineering station for a few days of transmissions for the Dan Patrick Show.
Some pretty exciting special events on our schedule this weekend. The NASCAR Season officially kicks off this week at Daytona International Speedway in Florida for the Advance Auto Parts Clash, which is an invitation-only, 75-lap race. Also this weekend is the Daytona 500 Qualifying; Ben Bradshaw and Jonathan Ayala know just what to do in the C27 to make it all come together. We have a lot of exciting new service offerings for our long-time partners at NASCAR, and this is going to be an exciting season — not only because of the racing, but also because of the cutting-edge transmission innovations our engineering team has been devising. So much more to come!
Mike Lemieux will be at Chelsea Piers this weekend getting set up and ready for the Westminster Dog Show in Manhattan, New York with CK48. The events start on Saturday with fifth annual Masters Agility Championship and the ninth annual AKC Meets the Breeds. The fun continues on Monday with third annual Masters Obedience Championship and the start of the 142nd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Mike will be providing extensive transmission services out of each of the truck’s antennas for Fox’s multiple broadcasts over the weekend.
Last, but certainly not least, our ace UFC team is on the ground in Perth, Australia for an unprecedented international pay-per-view. It is no easy feat to transmit an enormous PPV event from the western coast of Australia — just getting there took more than 20 hours for Garrett Hunt, Jim Flowers and EIC Tracy Michaels! These guys are working side-by-side with our trusted partners at Sydney Teleport Systems — who traveled for several days across the Outback to get their trucks to Perth — to provide multiple, redundant paths to UFC fans around the world. All the way back at the PSSI International Teleport (PIT) in Pittsburgh, Bill Sciolla, Lance Banks and the TOC crew are getting set to provide some turnaround services. Garrett and Tracy have worked hard with our teleport team to establish a long-term link between Pittsburgh and Sydney, which gives PSSI Global Services an extensive presence throughout the Pacific Rim for this event and more to come. UFC 221: Romero versus Rockhold is a huge event unto itself, as are all of UFC’s PPV broadcasts, but this one is among the most complex we have ever done. Tune in along with viewers around the world on Saturday night (in the U.S.) as our team on the ground does great work on Sunday morning (in Perth) — even that time difference is substantial!