Historically the summer can be pretty slow in the live television business, but we are just as busy as ever this week across the country and halfway around the world. Those of us in the offices are pedaling fast to keep our guys in the field well-prepared, and we just started laying some college and NFL football into our fall schedules. There’s no such thing as summer break for PSSI Global Services!
Speaking of football, we’re going to have a great first look at what’s happening in the SEC this fall. Benny Griffis will be at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, this weekend with C23 for SEC Nation Media Days. This marks the first time in over 30 years the event has been held outside Birmingham, Alabama. During this four-day media event, the Hall of Fame will host the primary press conference location and the live broadcast headquarters for ESPN and SEC. Atlanta-based engineer Kyle Meyer will be on hand for some extended comms support for ESPN’s production crew as they keep up with all the activity in Atlanta over the weekend.
We continue our run of flag football for the NFL Network and The Switch. Dave Mitchell with the Arizona truck and Craig Henry with C47 will both be in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Bud and Jackie Sellick Bowl for the AFFL U.S. Open of Football Dual Finals. This weekend there’s playoffs for both the amateur and professional teams to see who heads to Houston on July 19 to play each other for a prize of $1 million.
Another type of football has us busy yet again in Minneapolis and in Washington, D.C., as well. Rick Kolinek and K22 are back at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota on Saturday for Major League Soccer when the Real Salt Lake Lions face the Minnesota United FC Loons. In D.C., Dennis Smith and the Columbia truck will be the first to uplink a live event from the brand new Audi Field. There D.C. United takes on the Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club. Both games will be ingested at the PSSI International Teleport, where our team will get the signal into the AT&T Global Video network for nationwide distribution.
Right here in LA, Chris Hovden and Nathan Holsey are in CK25 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel for the Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) Awards this weekend following the FIFA World Cup Finals. After the event, our team in the Van Nuys shop will buff, sand and remove the logos on the newly rewired and absolutely stunning CK25 so she can get a fresh coat of paint.
Our other flagship mobile teleport, the CK35, is in Boise, Idaho, this weekend for UFC on FS1. Jim Flowers and Ray Loyko have joined project manager Tommy Lopez at CenturyLink Arena for UFC Fight Night 133. Former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will face former World Series of Fighting champion Blagoy Ivanov in the Octagon for the main event. The co-main event will feature Sage Northcutt battling Zak Ottow, a toe-to-toe matchup between Dennis Bermudez and Rick Glenn, Randy Brown taking on Niko Price in a welterweight bout, featherweights Myles Jury and Chad Mendes battling each other, and Cat Zingano taking on Marion Reneau.
Still another dual-antenna mobile teleport is working this weekend. Joe Kelderhouse is heading to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Zane Michaels will be heading up the WWE pay-per-view (PPV) Battleground event this weekend. Project manager Logan Schinto has been working closely with the PSSI International Teleport (just up the road!) to build the show and test the signals for distribution to wrestling fans around the world. From Pittsburgh, Joe and Zane continue on to Buffalo, New York, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for Monday Night Raw and Tuesday SmackDown. What an action-packed week of wrestling!
We have more dual-antenna action on the NASCAR circuit. Ben Bradshaw and Jonathan Ayala are in C27 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, for the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart. The Kentucky Speedway, recognized as one of the best battlefields on the circuit, will also be home to the Buckle up in Your Truck 225 on Thursday and the Xfinity Series Alsco 300 on Friday night. The guys are managing the fiber transmission via AT&T’s Global Video network along with a redundant satellite transmission out of the truck’s two C-band antennas.
Last but not least among our dual-antenna mobile teleport powerhouses is CK48. John May’s getting a hand from Rick Ball today as they set up at Lakefront Arena at the University of New Orleans for some boxing action as Regis “Rougarou” Prograis takes on Juan Jose Velasco in the Super Lightweight Championship. The co-main event will feature undefeated lightweight Teofimo Lopez as he faces William Silva.
What’s unique about this fight is that it will also feature another fight from halfway around the world. CK48’s C-band antenna will downlink a signal from the PSSI International Teleport that originates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There we have world travelers Tracy Michaels and David Gallardo managing the worldwide distribution of the highly anticipated fight between Manny Pacquiao and Lucas Matthysse. David and Tracy have navigated some 30 hours of travel, a whole lot of time zone conversions and diverse transmission paths to ensure that boxing fans around the world can see how Pacquiao recovers from his last fight. This is a 12-round bout for the WBA welterweight title, and it’s going to be a heckuva show.
A little closer to home, Mark Huss will be at the Novo at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on Friday with K19 truck for Golden Boy on ESPN when Joet Gonzalez will face Rafael Rivera for the vacant NABO featherweight title. Mark’s handling another three-channel multiplexed transmission for ESPN, ESPN Deportes and international licensees. Project manager Michael Hollander is also on hand to ensure the origination signals make their way to their final destinations.
Steve Hagerty wraps up his final week of cricket in Toronto. Steve’s been at the Maple Leaf Cricket Club for the Global T20 Canada cricket tournament taking on a couple of weeks of what has been an absolute marathon. He’s seen more cricket than anybody in the company during this time, including matches with the Toronto Nationals, Montreal Tigers, Edmonton Royals, Vancouver Knights, Winnipeg Hawks and West Indies B team. Big thanks to Steve for being away from home for such a long stretch in order to bring cricket fans in India all the cricket they can handle.
Mike Lemieux dropped in and out of town just up the road from Steve this past Wednesday. He was there for the kickoff of Bud Light’s Epic House Party Tour with Ty Dolla $ign, who just happens to be one of Mike’s favorite rappers! Mike had Igor Semenets from Nextologies in the truck with him to show our new friends in the IP transport business what we do with our trucks. Our budding partnership with Nextologies promises to bring some great new transport and encryption services to the table in the near future. Stay tuned!
Back in the states, it’s golf, golf and more golf, and we love it!
Kevin Spangler and C49 are at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois, this week for the John Deere Classic. The elite will be out in force this week on the course with upcoming stars and fan-favorites such as defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, Davis Love III, Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Angel Cabrera, and of course, three-time John Deere Classic winner Steve Stricker all competing for the $1.044 million winner’s share of this year’s $5.8 million purse.
Not far from Kevin is Steve Toth with the Frontline truck at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, for the 2018 Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I. At it’s inaugural opening in 1984, there was a total prize pool of $175,000 and only 100 players. Several decades later, the primary field of players is at almost 200, the prize pool has increased to $1.6 million and well over $10.3 million has been donated to more than 170 charities.
Larry Sheets and C43 are at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Illinois, for the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of five major PGA Tour Champions events, with a total prize purse of $2.8 million.
Todd Harvey and the Atlas truck are at Oakridge Country Club in Farmington, Utah, this week for the Utah Championship presented by Zions Bank. This is the PGA Tour’s only event in Utah, featuring 156 Web.com Tour players competing for their PGA Tour Card and a prize purse of $700,000.
Dave Brin and the Starlight truck are at Edgewood Tahoe golf club in Stateline, Nevada, for the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. Some of the celebrities you can expect to see include Marcus Allen, Bret Baier, Blake Bortles, Charles Barkley, Vince Carter, Roger Clemens, Lisa Cornwell, Stephen Curry, Doug Flutie, Jay Demarcus, Ben Higgins, Justin James, Brian Kelly, Jim McMahon, Bruce McGill, Dan Quayle, Alfonso Ribeiro, Ray Romano, Ozzie Smith, Kathryn Tappen, David Wells and many, many more.
Finally, it wouldn’t be summer without some baseball (and softball).
Rick Ball and C31 will be heading to Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on Sunday to get set up for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on Tuesday, when the National League all-star team will face the American League all-star team. This is sure to be a great event, with activities for fans and players alike through Wednesday. Mike Howley’s also going to come down to join Rick so he doesn’t miss out on all the fun!
Before returning back east, Rick was with Wes Hill and C15 at Deanna Manning Stadium at Bill Barber Memorial Park in Irvine, California, for the USA Softball International Cup. This is the inaugural event for the USA Softball International Cup, as it replaces the World Cup of Softball as of this year. More than eleven different nations are competing in this tournament, including the USA, Japan and Canada, and eight of those teams will continue on to Chiba, Japan, in early August for the Women’s Softball World Championship. Wes is handling an eight-channel “at-home” transmission for our friends at ESPN, and we’ll finish up there on Sunday evening.
In Las Vegas, Nevada, we have Joe Cox heading to T-Mobile Arena with NT25 starting Friday to get ready for transmission of the Microsoft Inspire convention that starts early next week. We’ll have trucks positioned throughout Vegas to distribute keynotes and demos to conventioneers throughout the week. It’s a big show that only PSSI Global Services has the resources and talent to pull off.
More on that — and some other exciting new projects — next week!