The days are getting longer, and the schedule’s getting busier! Hoops, golf, pay-per-views, awards shows, and more. Here’s what we’re up to this week.
Let’s start in Los Angeles, where we’re already up and running for the 2020 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Strategic Television’s VP, Jason Land, is in town to manage the international distribution of the big show while keeping an eye on all things domestic, as well. He joins forces with awards show veterans Wes Hill and Brian Blomstrom at the Staples Center. Brian’s got a big C-band antenna for CBS’s transmission, while Wes is handling the origination for the international feed, which will make a stop at the PSSI International Teleport before continuing on to music fans around the world. Lizzo, Li’l Nas X, and Billie Eilish are leading the pack with nominations, but don’t forget about Tanya Tucker, who has four noms of her own. We’ll have all the exciting live action from the red carpet and the show itself on Sunday night. PSSI News Group’s David Conwell will also be on press row for all of CNN’s live coverage of the biggest night in music.
It’s also a big weekend for the American Hockey League, as it’s time for their All-Star Weekend at the Citizens Bank Business Arena in Ontario, CA. Mark Huss will be there with our friends at Concom to provide transmission and closed captioning services for the festivities. Strategic television project manager, Garrett Hunt, will be around, as well, to support the event.
Keeping out West, but way, way north of Southern California, David “Nanook of the North” Meyer will cap off his two week run in Canada this weekend at the Big White Ski Resort in the Canadian Rockies. It’s the Snowboard Cross World Cup – one of the biggest snowboarding events of the year – and David is all set up (and still a little cold) for a weekend’s worth of slalom, halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events. He’ll finally get back home to Seattle on Monday after an epic Canadian tour. Thanks again, David!
More snowy mountain action back down south. Steve Chaisson and Joe Cox are heading to Heavenly Valley Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe, NV starting this weekend. It’s the 2020 Operation Sierra Storm, which will feature live shots of prominent meteorologists from around the country through Tuesday. For most jobs we prefer to avoid the snow, but in this case it makes for great television!
Fewer mountains, but similar winter weather in Buffalo, NY. Steve Hagerty’s there for college hoops on CBS Sports Network, as the Bulls host the Kent State Golden Flashes on Friday night.
As you might imagine, that’s not the only basketball on our schedules. Dennis Smith was at Villanova on Thursday for an interview with coach Jay Wright before hitting the road for Annapolis, MD. On Saturday Navy will host Army live on CBS Sports Net. Dennis will be there for the transmission and stay south for upcoming games at American University and Richmond.
Mike Lemieux will pick up some women’s hoops on Fox this Sunday, as Seton Hall hosts St. John’s in a classic Big East matchup at Walsh Gym.
We are loving weekday NBA basketball on the Turner Networks. Steve Chaisson handled the transmission for another Trailblazers game at the MODA Center in Portland, OR on Thursday night. And on Tuesday of next week Kevin Spangler will be in Miami for the game between the Heat and the Boston Celtics.
Kevin’s staying in Florida for more work after that, and should stay, as well. It’s very busy in the Sunshine State this week and next. You might’ve heard something about a football game at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami coming up. The CK48 mobile teleport is spending a little time in our Orlando shop this week getting cleaned up for Super Bowl LIV on Fox. Coverage starts early next week, and Rick Ball and John May will be providing transmission services for the game itself while ingesting remotes from team hotels and other locations around the country. It’s going to be a busy week for our team in South Florida!
But even before that, we are already back on the NASCAR circuit. It’s already time again for the Rolex 24 – 24 Hours of Daytona, featuring an all-star lineup of IMSA WeatherTech regulars as well as drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula 1. Rick Ball and Justin Roszak have been there all week for remarkably complex transmissions via satellite and AT&T Global Video Services fiber. In what is without a doubt the biggest at-home transmission in the country, our guys are responsible for delivering 32 videos, 150 audios, plus comms and internet to production. The PSSI International Teleport is providing extensive hub services between Daytona and NASCAR headquarters in Charlotte, and we are well on our way into another successful season with our friends at NASCAR. Great work, guys!
It’s golf season in Florida, too. Chris Golden is spending his weekend in Boca Raton for Golf Channels’s coverage of the Gainbridge LPGA tournament, with play ending Sunday so long as the weather holds.
Up the road from Chris, Mike Howley will have a few days of live transmissions from the Orange County Convention Center on behalf of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Mike has two-way transmissions going between our truck in Orlando and one of Globecast’s antennas in South Africa. The GCSAA has South African legend Gary Player as a featured speaker, and our transmission services are taking care of the questions and answers going both ways. Golf Channel project manager, Jennifer Hyder-Michaels is coordinating both live shots, and she even had to arrange for security in South Africa so that the monkeys don’t eat the video cable! In live TV you have to plan ahead for everything!
We haven’t even talked about fighting yet, and there’s plenty of it this weekend! Chris Hovden got things started Thursday night at The Hangar at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA. Chris was there for another edition of Golden Boy Thursday Night Fights. Project manager Michael Hollander streamed Chris’s feed remotely from the PSSI International Teleport to monitoring the outgoing signal to licensees around the world.
Mr. Hollander has also arranged for the distribution of the world feed of Saturday night’s PBC Showtime fight, live from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Blake Blomstrom will park a Sprinter underneath the arena, and from there he will encode Showtime’s feed over fiber and ensure that the international origination is clean leaving the building on its way to PIT. Our team there will uplink to international satellites and turn to boxing fans around the world. Strategic Television project manager, Victor Verno, will be there as well to work with Blake and make sure all goes as planned.
The UFC tour is at PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Our friends at Concom are giving us multiple signals for distribution domestically and around the world. UFC EIC Tracy Michaels is joining forces with senior engineer, Craig Henry, on the CK25 mobile teleport, while STV project manager, Keith Valeri is there to ensure all feeds get to MMA fans here in the states and internationally.
Big time weekend for WWE – though it always seems that way for one of our top customers! Nick Ray and Mike Howley are on the CK30 mobile teleport in Dallas for Friday Night SmackDown on Fox. Howley’s been working WWE’s Wednesday night NXT show from Full Sail for quite awhile now, but this is his first taste of the big show on the big truck. After SmackDown wraps, Joe Kelderhouse drives CK30 down to Houston for a big time PPV weekend. Zane Michaels tags out for Howley to join Nick Ray for Saturday night’s Worlds Collide event at the Toyota Center. Then Sunday the compound moves over to Minute Maid Park for the WWE Royal Rumble PPV. Strategic Television project manager, Logan Schinto, has been preparing worldwide routings for weeks, and he will be there in person to work with Zane and Nick to ensure a perfect shows for our friends and partners at WWE. As if that weren’t enough live TV in Texas, Zane and Joe will head down to San Antonio for Monday Night RAW at the AT&T Center. Keep on rolling, boys!
And that’s that for another full week of PSSI Live! Tune in next week for more detail on our Super Bowl services, big fights for DAZN and PBC on Fox, the Iowa Caucuses, and much more! Thanks for reading!