Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there. We’ll have quite a few of them working this Sunday, so an extra special thanks to our PSSI Global Services dads who are out on the road on the big day!
It was a pretty nice week for parades following the exciting conclusions of the NHL and NBA Finals, and we were there on both coasts to celebrate with the winning teams.
Dave Buckman and Dennis Smith were in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, swarmed with Washington Capitals fans as they all celebrated in the Stanley Cup Victory Parade. The Capitals won the Stanley cup, beating the Las Vegas Knights in the final series last Thursday, a victory 26 years in the making. The Capitals also took out a full-page ad in the Las Vegas Review Journal congratulating the Las Vegas Knights on “the most successful inaugural season in the history of professional sports.” What great sportsmanship!
Out here on the West Coast, we had two trucks positioned along the parade route in Oakland as the Golden State Warriors and the great city of Oakland celebrated yet another NBA Championship victory on Tuesday. Wes Hill in the Midwest truck and Dave Brin in the Starlight truck were there in the wee hours getting ready before hordes of fans flooded the streets to celebrate.
From there, Wes heads back down to LA for some well-deserved R&R, while Dave Brin gets geared up for some golf in northern California. He’ll be heading to Bayonet and Black Horse Golf Courses in Seaside, California, starting Saturday to get ready for live coverage of the PGA Professional Championship presented by Club Car and OMEGA. The championship features a purse of $550,000, and Dave will be there on behalf of Golf Channel to help bring all the action to viewers.
Swinging back to the East Coast, we are deep into our extensive coverage of the men’s U.S. Open. Rick Varney’s there at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York, for Fox’s 4K broadcast, which will conclude on Sunday (so long as the weather holds and we don’t get into a playoff). Fairly nearby we’ve had Craig Henry and Kevin Spangler rocking and rolling on split shifts to provide Golf Channel with long hours of fiber encoding, comms services and satellite uplink services.
This morning, a fiber failure had senior engineer Rick Ball heading over to the U.S. Open with the Junior truck at a moment’s notice to help keep everything running smoothly for Fox. Meanwhile, Craig Henry and Kevin Spangler were there and ready at the drop of a hat with C31 to provide a more robust transmission scheme via satellite to help our friends at Golf Channel who were also depending on the fiber. They will have earned a little relaxation once it’s all said and done at the U.S. Open.
Sacramento-based Steve Chaisson is working back into the golf rotation after some NBA Finals work closer to home. He will be in Belmont, Michigan, this week at the Blythefield Country Club for the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give. This is the 5th year for this tournament, and sponsors have once again set a $1 million donation goal for the event. Each of the past four champions of the event will be competing in this year’s tournament for the $2 million prize pool.
Our C27 mobile teleport is “off” this week as NASCAR heads to the West Coast for next weekend’s races at Sonoma Raceway. Gerry Gore is driving her across the country to be in place for those great races.
Nevertheless, we’re still racing.
Justin Roszak will head to Iowa this weekend to meet up with C12 and head to the Iowa Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series M&M’s 200 presented by Casey’s General Stores on Friday, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen on Saturday evening. The weekend’s events will include a BMX Show, an oversize beer pong tournament, karaoke, and a concert both Friday and Saturday night. What an action-packed weekend for fans and racers alike.
Plenty of fighting, too!
John Poss with K17 and Ron Ford in K26 will both be on hand Saturday at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, for Showtime boxing when Errol “The Truth” Spence Jr. defends his IBF world welterweight title against Carlos “Chema” Ocampo. The co-main event will be Daniel Roman defending his WBA super bantamweight title against undefeated challenger Moises “Chucky” Flores. Rounding out PSSI Global Services’ fight card is John May, who will be encoding a fiber path for Showtime as project manager Victor Verno is on hand to ensure a flawless broadcast.
Zane Michaels and CK30 were at the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arizona, on Monday for WWE Raw. Tuesday they are off to FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee, where highlights are expected to include Paige hosting a Women’s Money in the Bank Summit, Andrade Almas vs. Sin Cara and more. Both shows are leading up to the NXT show this Saturday in Rosemont, Illinois, from Allstate Arena and Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, also from Allstate Arena. Project manager Logan Schinto will be on hand, as well, to ensure the big event reaches screens all over the world.
Chris Hovden will then take K19 to Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in Indio, California, on Thursday for yet another Golden Boy on ESPN boxing event. The main event features Mercito “No Mercy” Gesta and Robert “Tito” Manzanarez fighting to earn the vacant WBO/NABO lightweight title. The co-main event will be Edgar Valerio facing Manny Robles Jr. for the vacant NABF featherweight title. Project manager Michael Hollander will check in with international licensees to make sure they’re getting all the action they can handle.
Orlando-based Abi Falcon is heading back to the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, Saturday to assist with another boxing event. Abi’s providing ringside commentary services for international broadcasters as Angel Acosta defends his WBO light flyweight title against Carlos Buitrago.
The action will be a little gentler for John Jennings this weekend. He’s heading to Fullerton Titan Gym in Fullerton, California, for the Yonex U.S. Badminton Championship. With a total prize of $500,000, this HSBC World Tour Super 300 tournament is one of 11 events throughout the year.
Earlier this week, John Jennings, Mark Huss and Chris Hovden finished up our contributions to E3 at the Xbox Live event on Monday at Microsoft Theater. This year’s Xbox briefing was the largest ever in Microsoft history with an estimated 6,000 people in attendance. Microsoft announced it’s doubling its game development studio and showcased a record 52 games on stage.
We’re continuing our technological innovations with the LA Sprinter as we conduct testing with some potential customers this week for data over satellite. Senior engineer Tracy Michaels will be with Chris Hovden in California this week working in concert with Bill Sciolla and Lance Banks at PSSI International Teleport. They’ll be demoing some exciting new equipment that will be able to provide customers with significant data bandwidth at remote sites that would otherwise not have any access to IP infrastructure. Senior engineer Rick Ball, Blake Blomstrom, Dennis Smith and Vice President Brian Nelles will be conducting some high-level testing with our partners at AT&T global video services this week, as well.
We have a lot of exciting developments and new services to announce soon, so stay tuned!