We are coming into the home stretch of college football’s regular season, and PSSI Global Services is all over the country this weekend at all the biggest games. But that’s barely half the story, as our schedules are chock full of golf, fighting, racing, basketball, and so much more. Here’s a look at what we’re up to.
Let’s begin with NASCAR, where a flawless season will come to an end on Sunday. Our three NASCAR mainstays, Kyle Meyer, Jonathan Ayala, and Ben Bradshaw, are among the top engineers in the business, and they are all on hand at Miami Raceway this week to set up for the Ford Championship Weekend, which will culminate in the season finale Ford EcoBoost 400 on Sunday afternoon. Our team – including project manager Dan Patin and C27 driver Gerry Gore – have worked tirelessly with our partners at NASCAR, Fox, NBC, and AT&T to develop a well-oiled transmission machine with multiple inbound and outbound paths via satellite and fiber from tracks all over the country. Congratulations to our guys, and thank you to our friends at NASCAR who continue to work with PSSI Global Services to expand our capabilities and transform the broadcast industry. We would not be the proud recipients of a Technology and Engineering Emmy without their support, trust, and consistently high expectations.
Kyle Meyer is only in Miami to help set up, as he’s heading up to Jacksonville on Sunday to provide transmission services for our friends at KDKA in Pittsburgh. The red hot Steelers are in town to take on the Jaguars, and Kyle will be providing uplink and comms services for pre- and post-game interviews from the field and locker room. Earlier in the week, Kyle handled a 4-path Satellite Media Tour (SMT) in Miami in advance of the NASCAR weekend. For both jobs, Kyle is working the newly upgraded NT33, one of several state-of-the-art trucks that PSSI Global Services has acquired from CNN. Our team in Orlando made some adjustments to the news-focused CNN setup to make the truck compatible with all the other types of jobs our engineers handle in the field. This is one of 18 trucks we’ve absorbed into our fleet that we will upgrade and position throughout the United States, giving us an even greater nationwide presence.
No more pro football on our schedules, but plenty of big time college ball!
Let’s start with Fox, who really has us moving these last two weeks of the regular season.
The CK25 mobile teleport is still in the great state of Michigan. This weekend it’s Steve Hagerty in Ann Arbor, where the Wolverines will host the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday afternoon. Next week – back to East Lansing!
LA-based engineer Wes Hill will be all bundled up for the Nebraska game on Saturday. He’ll be at Memorial Stadium as the Michigan State Spartans are in town to take on the Cornhuskers.
San Diego-based engineer Larry Sheets is a little closer to home, as he’ll be at the Rose Bowl Saturday for the big LA rivalry game between the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins.
In Waco, TX we have engineers from each coast in town for the big 4K game of the week. Boston-based 4K guru Rick Varney is there at McLane Stadium alongside Sacramento-based engineer Steve Chaisson to transmit the 4K/HD mux of the matchup between Baylor and TCU. It’s been a great year for 4K college football on Fox Sports 1, and we’re looking forward to next week’s finale in Lawrence, KS.
Also in Texas, John May is close to home in the CK48 mobile teleport, as he’ll be doing an at-home transmission from Gerald Ford Stadium for ESPN’s broadcast of the Memphis versus SMU game on Friday night.
Just down the road from John, Jim Flowers is Texas for an at-home transmission of his own, this one via fiber at Texas A&M in College Station, TX. Jim left snowy Maine behind for the big game between the University of Alabama-Birmingham and the Aggies.
Earlier in the week, we had a couple of big games in Ohio. Dave Mitchell and the Arizona truck were at Dix Stadium at Kent State University in Kent, OH on Thursday when Toledo beat up on the home team.
Just down the road, Steve Toth did yet another at-home transmission for our friends at ESPN in Athens, OH. It was a rare Wednesday night CFB game between Buffalo and Ohio University.
From Ohio, Steve headed down to Knoxville, TN, where he is at the helm of the SEC Game of the Week on CBS. The Volunteers host the Missouri Tigers on Saturday at the enormous Neyland Stadium, and SEC fans around the country will be watching Steve’s handiwork.
A few hundred miles east of Knoxville, Justin Roszak is at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, NC, where Eastern Carolina hosts UConn on Saturday night. Justin’s doing yet another 14-channel at-home transmission for our friends at CBS SportsNet. Justin’s massive data stream gets ingested at the PSSI International Teleport (PIT), where our team there hands off the signal to CBS headquarters in NYC via AT&T’s Global Video Services network. One more of these for Justin this season – back in Athens, OH next Friday night.
It’s an Army and Navy doubleheader this weekend, as we are back in West Point and Annapolis as the exclusive transmission provider for all Army and Navy home games on CBS SportsNet. Mike Lemieux as the C45 at Michie Stadium, where Colgate’s in town to take on Army. Mike Howley is down at Navy Marine Corps Stadium for Tulsa versus Navy in the later afternoon game.
Not too far down the road from Howley, Dave Buckman is all set up at Capitol One Field in College Park, MD, where he will be providing transmission services for ABC’s broadcast of the big Ohio State versus Maryland game on Saturday.
And a long, long way from anyone, Joe Cox finds himself in Missoula, MT on Saturday for the last regular season game of a great Big Sky conference package we’ve enjoyed this year. Joe’s at Washington-Grizzly Stadium where Montana will host Montana State on Saturday afternoon.
And that’s it for football, but still a long way to go!
Dennis Smith and another one of our former CNN trucks are at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA for some Friday night boxing on Showtime.
Ron Ford with the K26 truck and Mike Sheehan with the C43 truck will both be at Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane, KS on Saturday for what will be one of the biggest fights ever in the state of Kansas. Matchroom Boxing presents a heavyweight bout between Jarell Miller and Bogdan Dinu as the co-main event with Clarissa Shields versus Hannah Rankin for IBF and WBA titles. The fight card is stacked with talent, including homegrown star Nico Hernandez, who hails from nearby Wichita. All of the action will be available on the DAZN platform, for which PSSI is proud to provide satellite transmission services on behalf of our friends at Aldea.
Matt Huennekens and the NT31 truck will be back at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Friday for another installment of the Final Fight Championship series. We’re looking forward to many more of these to come in 2019.
And it’s pay-per-view weekend in Los Angeles, as WWE’s Survivor Series is live on Sunday night to PPV buyers around the world. Logan Schinto, Zane Michaels, and Nick Ray will all be on hand at the Staples Center for this huge event. With WWE, of course, it’s never just one show. Our team on the CK30 mobile teleport will also handle extensive transmission duties for Saturday’s NXT show as well as Monday Night RAW and Tuesday night’s Smackdown show. PSSI International Teleport (PIT) in Pittsburgh is also an integral part of the distribution for all of these shows. This is quite a stand at the Staples Center, in Pittsburgh, and around the world for WWE fans!
Speaking of pay-per-views, there’s a big one coming up next week. In what is being called simply The Match, Tiger Woods will take on Phil Mickelson for a winner-takes-all round of golf at the Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, NV. We will detail all of our services – which will include a 4K path – for this huge event in the next roundup. So why mention it this week? Because Chris Golden is on his way back from the Bahamas, where he was called last-minute to provide transmission services for an interview with Tiger Woods. There aren’t many transmission companies in the world who can provide an uplink from the Bahamas with 24 hours’ notice, but PSSI Global Services got it done!
Chris will wave out the window on the flight back to Florida at senior engineer John Bright, who is headed to the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas for ESPN’s broadcast of the Battle 4 Atlantis, a week-long basketball tournament from the Atlantis Imperial Arena. There are worse places to spend your Thanksgiving, but thanks to John for getting on the road over the holiday!
Before the golf event, Craig Henry will be just up the road at the IMG Academy High School in Bradenton, FL for more CONCACAF Men’s U-20 soccer action on Friday. Chris Golden’s back there on Monday and Wednesday for the final rounds of what has been an exciting tournament.
More soccer on Sunday in Texas. John May takes a break from American football at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, where Chivas de Guadalajara takes on Club Leon in exciting international club soccer.
Still more basketball: Benny Griffis and the K38 are spending the weekend at the HTC Student Rec & Convocation Center in Conway, SC for the Myrtle Beach Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Rick Ball and Todd Harvey are a long way from South Carolina as they set up at the Lahaina Civic Center in Maui, HI for the Maui Invitational. We do this tournament every year for ESPN, as well as the Aloha Bowl and other major events from the islands. More to come in future roundups!
But the award for being furthest from home this weekend goes to Tracy Michaels and Garrett Hunt, as they’re in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the weekend to provide event management and transmission services for Concom’s production of UFC Fight Night 140: Magny versus Ponzinibbio. Garrett and Tracy are working alongside our friends and partners from Casablanca Online at the Estadio Mary Terán de Weiss for the weigh-in, undercards, and main event on Saturday. Casablanca’s Pepe Gallegos and his team are always our first call in South America, as they understand PSSI/Strategic Television’s high standards when it comes to managing the origination and worldwide distribution of a major event.
Across the country (and a couple of hemispheres), all of us at PSSI Global Services are working day and night to keep up the pace with second-to-none transmission, event management, and engineering services. Wait’ll you see what we’re up to over the Thanksgiving holiday!