Summer is upon us, and our team is braving the heat from coast to coast and beyond.
Let’s start with the beyond: Jim Flowers and Keith Valeri are in Kallang, Singapore, preparing for a UFC Fight Night live from Singapore Indoor Stadium. Both guys spent quite a while on an airplane before meeting up with our friends from Speedcast who will be working with us on the worldwide transmission. It’s Donald Cerrone (“Cowboy”) versus Leon Edwards in the main event, with an outstanding set of undercards that our team will broadcast to MMA fans around the world.
There’s also more fighting back here in the States this weekend.
Mark Huss will have K19 at Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on Friday for Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN when Vergil Ortiz Jr. takes on Juan Carlos Salgado in 10 rounds of junior welterweight action. Also on the fight card will be Hector Tanajara Jr. taking on Roger Gutierrez in eight rounds of lightweight action and Meiirim Nursultanov facing Josue Obanda in six rounds of middleweight action, as well as matches with Kevin Ventura and Ferdinand Kerobyan. Mark will be doing our standard three-channel mux for ESPN, ESPN Deportes and international boxing fans around the world. Project manager Michael Hollander will be there with Mark to ensure quality signal distribution to all takers.
Zane Michaels and Joe Kelderhouse were with CK30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, earlier this week, and now Joe is making his way west for a little West Coast swing in San Diego and Ontario, California, for Monday Night Raw and Tuesday’s SmackDown, respectively. Zane and San Diego-local Larry Sheets will be working the truck while Joe rests up for the drive to South Dakota coming out of SmackDown.
Rick Kolinek will have K22 at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday for Showtime Boxing as two-time Olympic gold medalist and super middleweight world champion Claressa Shields hopes to gain her second division world title when she takes on world champion Hanna Gabriels in 10 rounds of sheer power. The co-main event is Tori Nelson fighting Christina Hammer in a middleweight match up.
Lots of exciting racing action this weekend, too.
Justin Roszak and Rick Ball are on-site at Gateway Motorsports Park (formerly Gateway International Raceway) this weekend with C12 truck for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards race on Friday and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday. Aside from transmitting a massive amount of video and audio via satellite, Rick and Justin are providing phones and internet to the compound via satellite in collaboration with our team at PSSI International Teleport (PIT). There’s always a lot going on at these races, and we keep adding more services to the action!
Dave Brin is at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the weekend with the Atlas truck for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Geico Motorcycle U.S. Round featuring the MotoAmerica Championship of Monterey. Many of the world’s best Superbike racers will be there for this weekend of racing fun, and we’ll be making sure television viewers catch every second of the action.
Meanwhile, not too far up the coast, Jonathan Ayala and Chris Hovden are in the C27 mobile teleport at Sonoma Raceway for the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350. Also this weekend at Sonoma Raceway will be the Carneros 200 NASCAR Pro Series West race, a Wild Things stunt plane airshow and autograph opportunities with the drivers. Jonathan is showing Chris the ropes on the C27, including an introduction to the fiber services we provide out of the truck utilizing AT&T’s global video service.
We’ve been remarkably busy in Northern California this week. Earlier we had Nathan Holsey and Brian Blomstrom in San Francisco, California, for Facebook’s big launch of IGTV, a new app that allows users to watch “long-form, vertical video.” Our flagship truck, the CK35 mobile teleport, was there to help usher in yet another development in the future of content distribution.
Before he made it to the racetrack, Dave Brin had been at the Bayonet & Black Horse golf courses in Seaside, California, to finish up the PGA Professional Championship early this week with the Atlas truck. It was a flawless week for Dave, as anticipated, and one of several golf events on our schedule this weekend.
All the way across the country, Nick Ray will take C42 to the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington, Rhode Island, on Sunday to get ready for Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” show on Monday. The show is coming live from the start of the CVS Health Charity Classic.
Somewhere in the middle, Mike Sheehan has C49 on-site at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arizona, for the Walmart NWA Tournament. This annual event, one of many stops on the LPGA tour, features a field of almost 150 players competing for a prize pool of $2 million dollars.
A little ways up the spine of the Midwest, Todd Harvey has C43 at the University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wisconsin, this week for the American Family Insurance Championship. This 54-hole event with a total prize purse of $2 million dollars benefits Children in Crisis.
Kevin Spangler’s flying up to Chicago on Saturday night to begin a grueling week at Kemper Lakes Golf Club outside Chicago, where he will be providing extensive transmission and comms services for our friends at Golf Channel. It’s the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a great event featuring the top women golfers, and the KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit, which KPMG CEO Lynne Doughtie says “aims to advance and empower women, across multiple industries, by connecting today’s luminaries with the next generation of talent.”
Last but not least, we’d like to feature a few sporting events that sometimes don’t make the big headlines. PSSI Global Services is proud to provide transmission services for the biggest live events on television as well as regional and niche broadcasts for sporting fans around the world.
Dave Buckman is bringing K46 to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Friday for arena football as the Washington Valor take on the Philadelphia Soul.
Ron Ford and K26 will be at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Friday for live coverage of the final day of the 55th National Hockey League Entry Draft. It seems to be fairly unanimous that Rasmus Dahlin will be the No. 1 pick for the 2018 draft.
Also on Friday, Brian Blomstrom will team up with Paul Blomstrom on CK35 at Mandalay Bay Events Center for WNBA action when the New York Liberty will face the Las Vegas Aces. Brian and Paul will be doing a 10-channel multiplexed transmission for our friends at ESPN.
And why not close with a little archery? Yes, archery! Ray Loyko’s taking a truck to Easton Salt Lake City Archery Center in Utah on Friday for the Hyundai Archery World Cup this weekend. Archers from more than 40 countries will be competing in individual, team and mixed team events.
An even bigger week is coming soon as we kick off July. Look out!