May is already shaping up to be a banner month for PSSI — more playoff hoops, fighting, racing and lots of golf!
But first, how about a little football? Dave Buckman and the K46 truck will head to Royal Farms Arena (formerly Baltimore Arena) in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday for Arena Football when the Philadelphia Soul (3-0) face the Baltimore Brigade (2-1). Dave then hangs around town for Sunday’s Patriot League 2018 Women’s Lacrosse Championship at Ridley Athletic Complex at Loyola University Maryland.
On Monday night, Mike Lemieux and the C41 truck were at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, for Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference NBA Semifinals where the Philadelphia 76ers took on the Boston Celtics and lost 101-117. Game 2 of the semifinals was back at the Garden on Thursday, and this time Mike Howley was on hand to bring us all the action as the Celtics won again. If the series makes it to Game 6, we will be ready back in Boston. In the meantime, Blake Blomstrom will be in Philly at the Wells Fargo Center for Game 4 on Monday night.
Blake’s brother, Paul, was up early on Wednesday morning when Barry Manilow announced his residency at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino in Nevada, and ticket sales started soon after Paul’s satellite media tour. This weekend Paul is in Los Angeles as the engineer-in-charge (EIC) of the big fight down at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Paul will be joined by quite a crew of engineers and project managers, including John Jennings, Steve Chaisson, Nathan Holsey, Tommy Lopez and Eric Hall. Mark Huss and Oscar Zapata will be handling the ringside needs of the international broadcasters. Everyone’s there to see Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, who is being called the “New King of Cinco de Mayo,” defend his World Middleweight Title against Vanes Martirosyan.
Chris Hovden and Michael Hollander are at the StubHub tonight for the Golden Boy on ESPN event, which features Ryan Garcia versus Jayson Velez. Chris is doing yet another multiplexed transmission for ESPN, ESPN Deportes and international licensees around the world. Hollander will be dialing furiously to ensure that each and every one of the international takers is receiving Chris’ signal perfectly, and our team at the PIT teleport will be monitoring their feeds, as well.
After a challenging but successful few days in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, WWE veterans Zane Michaels and Logan Schinto are right back in CK30 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for the Backlash PPV on Sunday night. Driver Devon Porter is giving Joe Kelderhouse a much deserved rest, and she will make the drive to Uniondale, New York, for Monday night RAW and then on to Baltimore for Tuesday night WWE SmackDown next week. Then it’s back across the pond with Zane and Logan when WWE invades London! More on that excitement next week.
Justin Roszak and Rick Ball are at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Showdown this weekend. Highlights for the weekend include the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama. It sounds like a weekend you won’t want to miss. Rick and Justin are managing a staggering 28 paths of video with 75 audios over satellite for our friends at NASCAR.
Ben Bradshaw, Kyle Meyer and the C27 truck all head to Dover International Raceway this week, aka “The Monster Mile” for a NASCAR triple header! First up on Friday is NASCAR Camping World Truck Series JEGS 200, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series OneMain Financial 200 on Saturday. Finally, on Sunday is the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism. Favorites to win the AAA 400 include Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.
We’re broadcasting soccer, too. Rick Kolinek and the K22 truck head back to TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, this weekend for more MLS Soccer when the Vancouver Whitecaps face the Minnesota United FC on Saturday. Rick will be back for next weekend’s game as well. He’s becoming a regular at TCF!
It’s not all sports, of course. David Meyer and the K20 truck head to the Washington State Convention Center starting Saturday for coverage of the Microsoft Build 2018 Developer Conference. This annual conference, held in Microsoft’s home state of Washington, is aimed at software engineers and web developers who use Microsoft and Windows technology.
A little politics on our schedule, too. Ron Ford is the pool feed for all the news networks out of Dallas today at the NRA convention. PSSI News Group engineers Michael Humphrey and Al Meshberg are just a few trucks down from Ron as they cover the event for our friends at CNN.
And then there’s golf.
John May, with some help from John Poss on the front end, will have the C24 truck at the Woodlands Country Club in The Woodlands, Texas, for the 15th Annual Insperity Invitational. This year six World Golf Hall of Famers will lead the pack of 79 PGA Tour Champions in the competition for a combined purse of $2.2 million dollars.
Mike Sheehan has the C49 truck at Old America Club in The Colony, Texas, for the 2018 Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic. This pinnacle of women’s golf brings a field of 144 of the best women golfers to compete in a four-day, stroke-play event with a total purse of $1.3 million dollars. Some of the favorites include Chirapat Jao-Javanil of Thailand, Annika Clark of Highlands, Texas, and Cristie Kerr of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Last, but not least, Chris Golden, Kevin Spangler and Tracy Michaels are in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, this week at the TPC at Sawgrass to begin their elaborate setup for the Players Championship next week. The guys are in one of our newest showcase trucks, the C31, managing multiple fiber and satellite feeds both in and out of the golf course. Our GC team pulls out all the stops on the Majors, and the Players Championship will not be an exception.
Time to give another round of praise to our shops! Our Los Angeles crew is putting the finishing carpentry touches on the new-and-improved C21. It heads to Las Vegas on Monday for those guys to give it some wiring upgrades. In Vegas they’re putting the finishing touches on the CK25 mobile teleport, a truck that will return to its status as one of the finest in our ever-expanding fleet. Down at the Satcom division in Orlando, AJ Miceli and crew (Sam Miceli, Nick Dailey, Abi Falcon, Gary O’Donovan, Norm Bearce and out-of-town ringer Rick Varney) have been working feverishly to transition two high-powered Ku-band trucks from our News Group fleet into the Global Services fleet. Customers in the Atlanta and Boston markets will see NT29 and NT21 in action as early as this weekend. NT22 is right on their heels, as the guys in Orlando finish her up next week. As if that weren’t enough, the Orlando crew has finished some repairs and upgrades to C42 and CK48, which will be powerhouses this football season. And fabrication extraordinaire Norm Bearce just put a new C-band antenna on the Frontline truck this afternoon. Formerly our Ku-band truck of choice in the Seattle market, the Frontline will now be yet another strong Golf Channel truck, and it is wired to do a 10-channel “at-home” transmission, as well. Keep ’em coming, guys! Great job!