Remember last week’s roundup when we were looking ahead to American Spring Live? Well, in this roundup we’re happy to look back at what ended up being an unequivocal success. We are extremely proud of our efforts in bringing this amazing show to screens around the country.
When we say there’s no transmission challenge too great for the PSSI Global Services Team, we mean it! And this show was proof. With less than a month to prepare and tons of moving parts, we put our engineering prowess and project management expertise to the test as we provided satellite transport, IP and bonded cellular transmissions, event management and coordination, teleport services, and more for an at-home production of unparalleled complexity.
Big thanks and congratulations to everyone involved (which was pretty much the whole company at various points throughout the process). Project manager Garrett Hunt and EIC John Bright have earned a couple of days off. But Garrett’s getting ready to go to Brazil for another UFC PPV, and John’s coming back to California for the 2019 Amgen Tour of California, which starts next week!
We had plenty more going on earlier in the week. Strategic Television project manager Michael Hollander was over in Vegas to manage the international distribution of the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday night. It was a very exciting evening of live performances and well-deserved awards, and Michael made sure that music fans around the world could enjoy the show as much as he did!
Vegas has been busy with live events all week as we approach Saturday’s big time Canelo fight. Matt Huennekens was at the MGM Grand for Golden Boy’s pre-fight presser. Then he was back for Thursday’s satellite media tour featuring the fighters.
Meanwhile, Paul Blomstrom’s been busy on the CK35 mobile teleport. On Wednesday he had the truck parked outside the Luxor for the 2019 Big3 basketball league draft. It was a great look at what’s to come for the 3-on-3 league. Paul and the 35 quickly transitioned to boxing, with a Thursday night Golden Boy Promotions fight at the Hard Rock, the Canelo-Jacobs weigh-in on Friday, and the big fight itself on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. Paul will be providing a couple of transmission pathways for DAZN’s distribution of the fight. Joe Cox will be nearby for Golden Boy’s production of the undercards and post-presser action.
Joe’s coming into the fight from a much gentler assignment: the 2019 Miss USA Pageant! He and Todd Harvey were side by side outside the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV for Fox’s Thursday night broadcast of this great event. Congratulations to newly crowned Miss USA, Cheslie Kryst, and congrats to Joe and Todd for flawless C-band and Ku-band transmissions!
As if Vegas wasn’t busy enough, we have one more event to pile onto our schedule: more AMA Supercross action, live from Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday night! Brian Blomstrom, fresh off a great showing at the Mad Island Marsh remote in Texas for American Spring Live, will be in the C47 truck providing domestic and international feeds of all the motocross action.
Still more mid-week action under our belts!
The WWE train keeps on rolling. Nick Ray was at the helm of the CK30 mobile teleport for Monday night RAW in Lexington, KY, then again at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH for Tuesday night Smackdown. Expert driver Joe Kelderhouse has a leisurely drive to Cincinnati and then Louisville for next week’s shows before the whole WWE squad heads across the pond for some big events in London!
Craig Henry wrapped up a clean few days of transmissions from the Belfair Golf Club near Hilton Head, SC. It was the PGA Professional Championship, live on Golf Channel. Craig’s home in NC for a couple of days before heading back south for the World Long Drive Tour event at Fort Jackson Golf Club near Columbia, SC next week.
Plenty more golf to go around. Dave Brin’s at The Woodlands Country Club outside Houston, TX for the Insperity Invitational through Sunday. Larry Sheets is at the beautiful Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, CA for the LPGA Mediheal Championship, which will also wrap up on Sunday.
Better believe we’re racing! Let’s start with the C27 mobile teleport, which has been parked at the Dover International Speedway all week as Ben Bradshaw and Jonathan Ayala provide our friends at NASCAR with a wide array of transmission services, including fiber distribution on AT&T’s Global Video Services network and satellite backhaul. As usual, PSSI International Teleport is right in the middle of the action, providing hub services between the track and NASCAR headquarters in Charlotte.
That’s not all we’re doing at Dover. 4K guru Rick Varney is back in action! Rick’s heading down to the track to provide the 4K transmission for Fox’s coverage of the Gander RV 400 Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon. We are excited to be included again in Fox’s cutting-edge 4K production, and we’ll be doing the same thing next week at Kansas Speedway.
Senior engineer Rick Ball is working some magic down at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, GA this week, where NHRA has set up for a long weekend of exciting drag racing action. Rick’s providing the NHRA crew with multiple services out of just one truck. Since Wednesday, Rick (with some help from the PSSI International Teleport) has handed off 100mbps of internet to production via satellite. He’s also sending a video feed to PIT to stream NHRA’s OTT content. And Rick’ll also be providing a video backhaul to Fox for FS1’s broadcast of the races this weekend! The C41’s antenna is getting quite the workout!
While a lot of eyeballs will be on our feed of the Canelo fight from Vegas, we will also be transmitting a couple more big bouts on Saturday night.
Great crew setting up outside the Stockton Arena in beautiful Stockton, CA. It’s Top Rank boxing on ESPN+, and we’re there providing multiple services for both Top Rank and ESPN. Steve Chaisson’s in the C15 to uplink a 3-channel mux that includes a feed for ESPN Deportes. Meanwhile, John Jennings and Strategic Television project manager will be sitting side by side in another truck to provide the international feed for boxing fans around the world. It’s Beterbiev versus Kalajdzic in the main event, but our crew will be there for all the undercard action leading up to the big fight.
We’re back north of the border with our friends at Concom for another UFC Fight Night. Senior project manager Keith Valeri is working alongside Mike Howley and Jim Flowers in the CK25 mobile teleport to provide multiple domestic and international transmission pathways, with QC and turnaround services out of PSSI International Teleport (of course). Mark Huss is also in town to provide ringside commentary services to international broadcasters. We have Al Iaquinta versus Donald Cerrone and Derek Brunson versus Elias Theodorou in the co-main events, live from the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. Check out these fights, the weigh-in, and all the undercards on ESPN+ here in the United States. We’ll be sure you get all the UFC action you can handle!
Let’s close out with some baseball, rugby, and lacrosse!
Dave Mitchell’s back in his second hometown, Morgantown, WV, for Saturday’s baseball game between the TCU Horned Frogs and the WVU Mountaineers. Weather could be dicey, but Mitch is hoping we get a ball game in around the raindrops.
Dave Buckman’s camped out at the Ridley Athletic Complex at Loyola University in Baltimore, MD, where there’s going to be a full weekend of men’s and women’s lacrosse action. It’s the NCAA finals, and Loyola is proud to be the host of this exciting tournament.
Chris Hovden will be finishing up quite a run in northern California at Stevens Stadium at Santa Clara University on Saturday. It’s the National Collegiate Rugby Championship airing live on CBS Sports Network Saturday afternoon. The Cal Bears take on the Life Running Eagles in the D1 championship game.
Last, but not least, Kyle Meyer and Alex Mestizo have our K34 production/transmission vehicles at the Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix, AZ. We’ll be providing a multi-camera production and transmission of the GCU Antelopes’ home stand against the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners all weekend. From there driver Devon Porter will bring up the K34A and B-unit to our Van Nuys shop, where our Tour of California crew will begin prep for this year’s bike race. Check out next week’s roundup for a full rundown of all of our Tour services and so much more!