March Madness wraps up this week with a few key games you won’t want to miss!
Dennis Smith and the Columbia truck were at Vines Center in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Wednesday for CIT semifinals action when the UIC Flames took on the Liberty Flames.
Mike Sheehan and DC9 were at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, Colorado, on Wednesday for the other CIT semifinal, when the Sam Houston State Bearkats took on the Northern Colorado Bears. The Bears held on to win, and Mike held tight for a day in Greeley so that he’d be there for the finals on Friday night. The San Francisco Dons are in town, and it should be a great game.
Steve Hagerty and K18 are at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, all week for the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four. The semifinals will take place on Friday with the UConn Huskies facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs facing the Louisville Cardinals. The championship game will be on Sunday, and Steve will be there for every minute of the action, including pre- and post-game interviews with the winners and losers.
We’ve got another Texas-sized PSSI Global Services truck roundup this week. Ron Ford in K26, Michael Humphrey in NT26, John May in CK48, and John Bright and Rick Ball in CK35 are all parked and transmitting outside the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2018 NCAA Final Four, live on CBS. The men’s Final Four matchups are the Kansas Jayhawks vs. the Villanova Wildcats and the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers vs. the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday. The final championship game will be on Monday from the Alamodome. All of our guys are working long hours to deliver hours upon hours of the action down in Texas leading up to the big game. What a month it has been!
Speaking of big shows, it doesn’t get much bigger than the Masters. Craig Henry, Kevin Spangler and Tracy Michaels have been in Augusta, Georgia, for days getting ready for wall-to-wall coverage of the Masters tournament for Golf Channel. This includes Sunday’s Drive, Chip and Putt Championship, a free nationwide junior skills competition open to boys and girls ages 7-15, created by the Masters Tournament Foundation, United States Golf Association and PGA of America. Once the guys are all set up, Tracy heads on to the next show while Kevin and Craig tag team crazy long shifts to bring Golf Channel all the content they need from Augusta. Our guys are looking forward to an amazing week of golf.
Before the Masters tournament even starts, Wes Hill will be wrapping up a great week at the Mission Hills Country Club in Ranch Mirage, California, for the LPGA ANA Inspiration (aka the Dinah Shore Tournament). This event is one of only five major championships in professional women’s golf. This year, players are competing for a combined purse of $2.8 million dollars.
John Poss will be on hand for some golf this weekend, as well. Following an issue with the fiber at the Golf Club of Houston in Humble, Texas, we got a call to roll one of our trucks to the Houston Open to make sure NBC and Golf Channel were covered through the weekend’s tournament action. Big thanks to John for being ready to roll within minutes of the call. That’s yet another reason why so many broadcasters have our number at the ready — we have the largest fleet and strongest engineering staff in the country. We like jobs that give us plenty of time to prepare, but we are just as eager to help in an emergency.
Soccer season is ramping up quickly for us.
Andy Kehn was on-site Tuesday at Sahlen’s Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, with C45 when the U.S. Men’s National Team played Paraguay and got their first win of 2018.
Rick Kolinek is heading back to the TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday for more soccer action when Atlanta United faces Minnesota United. PSSI International Teleport (PIT) will take in Rick’s feed from the site for distribution across AT&T’s fiber network. This is one of several MLS games we will be uplinking and distributing through the teleport for AT&T this season.
Spring training has come to an end, but the MLB regular season is in full swing! Blake Blomstrom had one of our newly acquired and upgraded News Group trucks down in Fort Myers, Florida, for a satellite media tour before the Cubs faced the Red Sox. This truck is yet another addition to the ever-expanding PSSI Global Services fleet. We are everywhere!
Rick Varney is in Arlington, Texas, this week for yet another 4K transmission for our friends at Fox and DirecTV. Rick is setting up with our 4K gear in C24 at Global Life Park for Saturday’s game between the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers.
And of course we have some fighting to keep us busy.
Mike Howley and our Arizona truck will be at Marina Bay Sportsplex in Quincy, Massachusetts, on Saturday for Golden Boy boxing on ESPN when Mark “Bazooka” DeLuca faces Michael Moore in the main event. The main event also includes Jason Quigley facing Daniel Rosario. The undercard matches will feature Yamaguchi Falcão Florentino and Damon “No Smiling” Allen Jr. Mike and Nick Ray spent a day in the shop ensuring our truck was all set for the multiplexed transmission for ESPN, ESPN Deportes and international boxing fans around the world.
Zane Michaels and driver Joe Kelderhouse were with CK30 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday for WWE Raw. Then on Tuesday they were at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for WWE SmackDown. With only one more week before WrestleMania 34, things are starting to get a little heated.
In preparation for next week, Joe Kelderhouse is driving CK30 towards Atlanta, Georgia, for WWE Raw on Monday and SmackDown in Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday. Then it’s on to New Orleans for the biggest WrestleMania to date. Project manager Logan Schinto is building an enormous transmission overview for our friends at WWE that will chart the course for the big show’s distribution to wrestling fans around the globe.
As always, a huge thank you to all of our team members who are spending the holiday weekend making sure our coast-to-coast transmissions go off without a hitch. And from all of us at PSSI Global Services, happy Easter, happy Passover, happy April Fools’ Day, and just plain happy weekend!