Another week behind us, and another busy weekend ahead!
Our corporate events crew is wrapping up the final week of a series of uplinks and downlinks in some of the country’s finest hotels. This week, Steve Toth, Steve Hagerty, Justin Roszak, and Mike Howley have their trucks running perfectly at resorts in SC, GA, and FL. Thanks again to project manager, Michael Hollander, for pulling together the loose threads over the past three weeks, and thanks, as well, to Wendy Glatt from our logistics team for making sure our guys had their travel and accommodations all set for these 60+ days of transmission services across the country. Great team effort!
More Pat McAfee show action for our friends at DAZN. This week we were in Greenville, NC for the live talk show, and Dave Buckman handled the transmission, and he also provided production with some internet. Next week we’re targeting Raleigh, then a few more after that!
DAZN has certainly taken the live events world by storm, and we’re pleased to break out our expansive toolkit for the various opportunities they’ve provided us. The upcoming Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight at Madison Square Garden this weekend doesn’t require our normal boxing configuration, but nonetheless we’re heavily involved. We’ll be providing ringside commentary equipment and engineering for multiple international broadcasters, and STV project manager, Michael Hollander, is working with the PSSI International Teleport to design the routing for a discrete commercial premises feed. As always, PSSI Global Services has a host of services to offer in addition to satellite trucks.
But when we do trucks, we do it right! The CK30 mobile teleport is parked at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles for a milestone event on Friday night: Fox’s first WWE Friday night SmackDown show. Our WWE team – engineers Zane Michaels and Nick Ray, driver Joe Kelderhouse, project managers Logan Schinto and Jennifer Hyder-Michaels – are very pleased to be a part of the transition team to get WWE’s unparalleled content onto the Fox network. We know both customers very well, and we will ensure the shift will be seamless for our clients and WWE fans alike.
Not much time to rest on our laurels after the show! Joe takes CK30 up to Sacramento, where Zane and Logan will be gearing up for Sunday’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, live from the Golden 1 Center. Zane and Logan will be handling multiple, redundant, encrypted satellite and fiber feeds with domestic and international distribution, with the PSSI International Teleport serving as a key link in the chain. No time to rest after this huge event, either, as the WWE train rolls down to Bakersfield for Monday Night RAW. Great job, guys!
Let’s stay in LA, where we have another big show on Friday night. It’s “Just Roll With It,” Disney Channel’s first live, interactive sitcom that will feature Raven-Symone and Miranda May. Strategic Television project manager, Eric Hall, has been working with production to secure and adjust multiple fiber and satellite pathways, including a live remote insert into the show from New York City. Mati Kerpen’s our man for that, with Mark Huss on the receive at LA Center Studios. Chris Hovden’s on still another truck in LA to provide the C-band backhaul. We love to be the first call for the emerging trend of live TV sitcoms, and after Friday night we’ll be preparing for the next one!
Before we move on to our bread and butter events – plenty of football, golf, fighting, and racing – let’s make a stop in Glendale, CO, where senior project manager, Keith Valeri, is meeting up with Mike Sheehan for the kickoff of the HSBC Women’s World Rugby Sevens, live from Infinity Park. Keith’s there to ensure the international distribution goes perfectly. Mike’s uplinking three discrete services via satellite for ingest at the PSSI International Teleport. Our team at PIT will convert the frame rate on each feed, multiplex, and hand off to our trans-Atlantic GTT fiber circuit for distribution to London and points beyond.
Now we’re ready for some football!
We’ll kick off with the SEC game of the week on CBS: Rick Ball’s in the Swamp: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida, where the Gators will host the Auburn Tigers on Saturday afternoon. As always, there will be a lot of eyeballs on this big game and, as always, Rick’s there to ensure everything is perfect for our friends at CBS.
Another big game on Saturday, this one on ABC: Texas versus West Virginia, live from Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, WV. Mike Lemieux and Dennis Smith will have the CK25 mobile teleport ready for C-band and Ku-band transmissions Saturday afternoon.
Army and Navy home games this week, and as usual we are the transmission provider of choice for our friends at CBS Sports Network. Kevin Spangler’s on his way to Annapolis, where Navy will host Air Force on Saturday. Nick Ray’s up in West Point, where Army will host Tulane on Saturday afternoon.
And we have lots of games across the Fox networks, as usual.
John Jennings is heading to the Big House – Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor – for Saturday’s Big 10 matchup between the Wolverines and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Larry Sheets will make his way to the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium for Saturday’s game between the Huskers and Northwestern.
4K guru Rick Varney’s back in the great state of Texas for Fox Sports 1’s 4K game of the week. Rick’s joined by John May in the CK48 mobile teleport for dual C-band UHD transmissions from Lubbock, TX, where Texas Tech will host the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday afternoon.
Newly-announced PSSI Global Services engineer of the quarter, David Meyer, will have the C47 truck in Eugene, OR for a Saturday night matchup between the Oregon Ducks and the Cal Bears. Earlier in the week, David will have his Ku-band truck in Lacey, WA for some high school football on Thursday night. Another Dave – Dave Brin, that is – heads up to the Seattle area to cover another high school game on Friday night while David Meyer makes his way to Oregon. Nice tag team action!
Down in Vegas, Brian Blomstrom will have one of our newly refurbished Ku-band trucks at Sam Boyd Stadium for CBS Sports Net’s broadcast of the game between UNLV and Boise on Saturday night.
And let’s throw a little NFL football on the pile: Blake Blomstrom continues his run of production and uplink services for the NFL Network’s tailgate show at pro stadiums around the country. This week we’ll be at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, where the Giants will host the Minnesota Vikings. Mati Kerpen’s coming down from NYC to lend a hand on this multi-camera production.
Another week, another couple of golf tournaments with our friends at Golf Channel.
Ron Ford’s at the Old American Club in The Colony, TX this week for the Volunteers of America tournament. Ron’s providing Golf Channel with tournament coverage as well as a separate feed for Japanese golf fans.
Vegas resident Joe Cox has a local tournament this week. He’s at TPC Summerlin for the Shriners Hospitals for Children tournament, with play through Sunday.
Of course we’re racing! Kyle Meyer and Jonathan Ayala are at the helm of the C27 mobile teleport for our friends at NASCAR. Kyle and Jonathan are providing their usual data and transmission services via AT&T GVS fiber and satellite, with Bill Sciolla and the gang at PIT providing extensive teleport services as the hub between the track and NASCAR HQ in Charlotte.
And why not a little…hockey? Rick Kolinek was in Chicago for the Chicago Blackhawks pregame show Friday. It’s not even cold enough for ice yet, but we’re ready for the season all the same!
We’ll finish up with fighting. Dave “Mitch” Mitchell is heading to the Dort Federal Events Center in Flint, MI for Saturday night’s Showtime Boxing: Special Edition. Lots of local fighters on the undercard leading up to the main event between heavyweights Jermaine Franklin and Pavel Sour.
And then we’ll head to the other side of the world, where UFC veterans Jim Flowers and Garrett Hunt are in Melbourne, Australia for UFC 243. That’s right – another international pay-per-view! No other company in the world has the experience, relationships, and resources to manage the extensive requirements of a PPV event on foreign soil. Garrett and Jim have been working with Concom for months to prepare for this big show and ensure that UFC fans around the world get the high end content they expect. Live from Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, UFC 243 features Robert Whittaker squaring off against Israel Adesanya in the main event, with an exciting set of undercard fights and Friday’s weigh-in leading up to the PPV action. Big thanks to our friends at Sydney Teleport for providing the local antenna resources as well as Pacific Rim teleport services – including the full-time trans-Pacific fiber line between Sydney and PIT – as Garrett and Jim will manage redundant, encrypted pathways around the world. Great job, fellas!