Happy New Year to ALL! It’s only a few days into 2018, and already we’re off and running.
How about some NCAA hoops? Steve Hagerty was with K18 at Alumni Arena at University at Buffalo in New York on Tuesday, when the Buffalo Bulls took on the Toledo Rockets. Steve’s now parked and set up at the Reilly Center in Olean, New York, where it probably won’t get much warmer than 0 degrees, for St. Bonaventure vs. UMass in women’s hoops. Then Steve heads to Syracuse for Sunday’s game at the Carrier Dome. Steve has taken great pains to ensure his truck is ready to work in this cold snap, which we (and our customers) greatly appreciate!
Mike Howley’s been a little chilly, too. Wednesday he was at Conte Forum at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, when the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team took on the Clemson Tigers. The next night’s game was cancelled due to the big storm, but Howley stayed busy by providing some news coverage of the massive snowstorm in the Boston area. New Jersey-based PSSI News Group engineer Chris Stewart was also up in the Boston area for CNN’s coverage of the nasty snowstorm. This weekend Howley heads up to Portland, Maine — poor guy — for some more NBA G League hoops. Hang in there, Mike!
New England-based Nick Ray thought he might be escaping the weather when he went down to Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina, for a seven-channel multiplexed transmission of the game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Missouri Tigers. From there Nick headed over to Atlanta, Georgia, for his piece of the College Football Playoff National Championship game, and he woke up to temperatures in the teens! Same with Atlanta-based News Group engineer Lorenzo Dottori, who was there in Charleston for CNN’s coverage of the snowstorm in South Carolina. It’s been a tough week throughout the South!
Mati Kerpen spent much of the last couple of days getting the Junior truck ready to be at Rose Hill Gymnasium in Bronx, New York, on Saturday for a college basketball doubleheader. First the Fordham Rams women’s basketball team will take on the Saint Louis Billikens. Then the Fordham Rams men’s basketball team takes on the Duquesne Dukes. Sounds like a great day at the Rose Hill Gymnasium, and at least the snow has stopped!
Also in hoops action this weekend:
- Mike Lemieux will take the Arizona truck back to the Conte Forum when the Boston College Eagles take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
- Dave Mitchell will head to WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia, with the Pittsburgh truck when the West Virginia Mountaineers women’s basketball team takes on the Iowa State Cyclones on Sunday morning.
- K46 and Dave Buckman will head to Charles E. Smith Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. on Sunday when the George Mason Patriots take on the George Washington Colonials in more college basketball action.
We also had a little pro basketball this week. C12 was at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, with Todd Harvey at the helm for some NBA coverage when the two highest-scoring teams, the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, met up on Thursday for an action-packed evening. Just a preview of the excitement to come at the upcoming NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles, California. You can bet that PSSI Global Services will be there!
Also in LA, awards season is officially underway. Project managers Eric Hall and Michael Hollander have been preparing for this weekend’s Golden Globes ceremony, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Engineers Wes Hill and Chris Hovden will park and set up on Santa Monica Boulevard Saturday for the domestic and international broadcasts on Sunday. Wes will then have his tuxedo freshly pressed for the Critics’ Choice Awards in Santa Monica next Thursday. After that we’ve got the Grammys, the SAG Awards, and, of course, the Oscars just around the corner.
A few miles out over the ocean, Kevin Spangler and Tracy Michaels are kicking off the 2018 Golf Channel season at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Maui’s Plantation Course at Kapalua. Our C15 truck safely made the voyage across the Pacific, and the guys are a few days deep in extensive golf coverage. Then the truck and the guys travel over to Honolulu to begin the Sony Open early next week, live from the Waialae Country Club.
Back on the mainland, Chris Golden begins a very busy golf season in Florida at the St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, with a live shot for Golf Channel News on Monday morning. From there it’s a tournament in Lake Buena Vista, along with more tournaments in the Bahamas. It wasn’t much of a winter break from Golf Channel work, but that’s the way we like it!
We at PSSI Global Services are also very much ready for some football.
John May and CK48 will head to Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Saturday for the Division I Football Championship when the James Madison University Dukes face the North Dakota State Bison. Last year these two teams met in a national semifinal game and the Bisons came out on top. John and his truck are about to leave the relatively comfortable weather in Texas for points north, so John’s going to enjoy it while it lasts!
It’s playoff time in the NFL, and we will find ourselves at several NFL stadiums for the next couple of weeks. This weekend, Justin Roszak’s doing the big game transmission for CBS at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Jaguars host the Buffalo Bills. Marty Smitherman will be at the stadium as well as provide pre- and post-game live shots from the field. Next week we’ll be in Pittsburgh and New England for some big-time AFC playoff action. It’s going to be a great postseason!
College football is finally approaching its culmination at the beautiful new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. We have a veritable army of engineers, trucks and encoding equipment positioned throughout the city, as PSSI Global Services is proud to be the exclusive transmission partner for all of the ESPN networks’ broadcasts before, during and after the big game on Monday night. Engineer in charge (EIC) Rick Ball is overseeing this transmission extravaganza, and he is working with an absolute ace crew in surprisingly challenging conditions in frigid Atlanta. Our team has their hands full, but they’re well on their way to providing an unprecedented amount of transmission services through the weekend.
Steve Toth has positioned C31 at Centennial Olympic Park for various live broadcasts, including SportsCenter, GameDay, SEC Nation and the Paul Finebaum show. He will be cranking out transmissions all around the clock from that location until well after the final whistle on Monday night.
Nick Ray’s going to lend Steve a hand, but first he has his own transmissions from Philips Arena, where he’ll be providing a multichannel multiplexed transmission of ESPN’s various Media Day cameras. They’ll finish up there Saturday afternoon, and then Nick heads over to Centennial to see where he can help Steve with the C31.
Benny Griffis will be positioned at couple of locations over the next couple of days for various team press conferences and interviews, but not before he squeezes in a little lacrosse action in his hometown of Duluth, Georgia, on Saturday night.
Over at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, our C27 mobile teleport will have quite a few signals coming in and out of its two antennas. NASCAR veterans Ben Bradshaw, Jonathan Ayala and Kyle Meyer have their football helmets on for the extensive and unprecedented transmission services for the game itself and every little bit of hoopla surrounding it. Not too far away, Craig Henry and Rick Varney have their hands full with our custom-built encoding kit, as they will multiplex and transmit multiple signals over fiber to and from ESPN headquarters. Mr. Varney — along with Steve Toth and several others from our Orlando crew — spent quite a bit of time getting this fiber kit put together just right to suit all of ESPN’s transmission needs. News Group engineer Charlie Neiswenter rounds out PSSI Global Services’ massive presence as he will be on hand for CNN’s coverage of the 2018 College Football National Championship.
The end of the game on Monday will be the culmination of countless man hours of planning and building. We are thrilled to be a central part of the big broadcast that millions around the nation will be watching.