HIGHLIGHTS REEL DECEMBER 2009

12/2 – Flew into Austin, TX for my first show on the new Liberty.  It was SURPRISINGLY cold.  I also ripped up my jacket and pants packing up the truck stairs, which are essentially giant cheese graters.  The next morning, my flight got canceled just as I was heading out to the airport so I spent the afternoon wandering the city because I had already checked out of the hotel.

12/4 – I land in Seattle.  Blah blah there was a football game.  The city was pretty nice.  I had some pretty awesome local beer.  Was able to get home from the 7th to the 10th and was able to be around for Rachel’s birthday!  I may not be around for much, but I’m there when it’s important (for at least this month)!

12/10 – “Happy birthday Rachel! Guess what?  You’re coming with me to Oakland tomorrow!”  Not quite how it happened.  A surprise like that likely would have ended my life.  We got to have a bit of a weekend together and while I was working, she was able to meet up with Ka-Ryn and check out the Bay Area.  Lucky THEM!  Note to self: Chicken + Waffles = Heaven in my mouth.

12/14 – Rachel flew home last night and I fly out to Jacksonville for my last NFL Network game.  Enough said…lucky her.

12/18 – Back to Seattle for my last show before my year’s end VACATION!  I got to meet up with Ami during my time there.  He’s one of my old buddies from when I worked for Activision.  Hadn’t seen him in over a year since I left L.A. and it was great to catch up.

12/21 – Mike and I head in to the airport for our flights home at 8 and 8:30 respectively.  What I DIDN’T know was that my plane hadn’t gotten into the Sea-Tac area until 3:30AM due to weather on the east coast.  My 8:30 flight didn’t end up departing until 2:15PM…AND I my bag got lost in Philadelphia…AND I didn’t end up getting home until almost 1AM.  Lucky ME…

It was absolutely wonderful having some time off for the holidays.  I didn’t get to see all the people that I said I would see while I was home but those that I DID see, it was awesome.  Tom and I fell right back into our old musical groove when we got together to jam on Christmas Eve.  Rachel and I went rock climbing with a bunch of my extended family at Central Rock Gym in Worcester.  It kicked my ass but it was tons of fun.  I’m hoping to make a regular thing out of it.  It also ended up working out that my flights got changed at the last minute and I was able to spend New Years Eve at home with Rachel.  Perfect way to ring in the new year.

The next day I flew out to Phoenix, AZ for the last regular season Cardinals game and the Fiesta Bowl.  Pat Sullivan flew out to meet us all for dinner and it was great to hear he and Ross’s stories.  I was also very surprised by the nice things the rest of the guys said about having me on the team.  I definitely feel like I’m coming along as an engineer and it’s very reassuring to know that they see me progressing too.

1/14 in Phoenix & 1/16 in Denver were big days for me.  I ran Freedom while Mike worked in the B-Unit.  I’ll spare you the technical details but it went well and it was a huge milestone in my progress.  1/17, Mike ran the ship for the ESPN basketball game and on 1/18, Liberty came into town and I worked on that truck.  Nicole Gordon, a friend from my UMass Lowell ResLife days came to the game that night and I showed her and her boyfriend through the trucks before they headed into the arena.

1/20 – Flew to San Antonio to work a Spurs game with Ross for my last show on Freedom for the foreseeable future.  We stayed right on the Riverwalk near the Alamo, which if you haven’t seen either of them then make sure you do it sometime in your life.

1/21 – Off to New Orleans for the NFC Championship on Sunday.  I’m working on Game Creek’s coveted FOX trucks.  The engineering crew is made up of some of the most talented guys in the industry.  I’ve found that Kevin, the Engineer in Charge, is an excellent teacher and he has been more than willing (maybe even eager) to show me things.

This show is huge.  There are 5 Game Creek trucks here for the weekend.  3 of the 5 Fox trucks are here covering the game and Liberty A & B are here to handle the pre-game show.

One of the big reasons I’m here on this truck this weekend and the reason I titled this post Chapter 2 is that from January 30th-May 31st I’ll be working on the FOX trucks on one of the biggest shows in sports entertainment:  NASCAR.

I’ll update again from Daytona.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and have a wonderful today!

The Alamo

San Antonio Riverwalk

I got home from Eugene and had one day to enjoy it. Tuesday morning, I flew to Greenville, NC (quite possibly the smallest airport I’ve ever seen). The finer details of the game are so forgotten at this point that I won’t even try to make something up. I got to meet up with Brenda, an old friend from college who moved down here recently. I flew home Friday and was home for my first weekend since I started traveling. It’s something that I (and I’m sure my girlfriend, Rachel) appreciated very much. Sadly, it came and went much too quickly.

Monday November 9th, I flew out to San Francisco for the first NFL Network game. Only one word can describe that show: CHAOS. Between getting our trucks prepped for the rest of the season and getting everything working in the non-Game Creek C-Unit, we definitely had our work cut out for us. Why they sent their engineer home after the first day, I’ll never know. On Friday, I went straight to Miami from SF for the FOX show. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the other show but as with all weekends, it came and went too quickly and by Monday I was on a plane to Charlotte for the next NFL Network game. This brings us up to November 20th, when I finally got to go home again for another weekend. I had another wonderful weekend at home which, you guessed it, came and went too quickly.

One big piece of excitement for me. I went to Guitar Center with Rachel while I was home and finally bought the new acoustic guitar that I’ve been saving for over a year to buy. I tried a LOT of guitars while I was there but it seemed like after every guitar I tried, I kept looking back at Number Two. Number Two was (big surprise) the second guitar that I tried and it was everything that I said that I didn’t want when I showed up. I was deadset on avoiding a cutaway and electronics because I just wanted a pure acoustic guitar sound. The problem I found was that all the straight dreadnought acoustics sounded way too dark and lacked the high end definition that I wanted. I ended up going with a Martin DC-16OGTE and I am completely and totally satisfied with my purchase (even though I spent the rest of the weekend with a rock in my stomach about how much I spent that weekend). Unfortunately, I only got one day to enjoy it before I had to leave home again.

Monday November 23rd, I flew out to Denver for the NFL Network, where I would be spending my Thanksgiving holiday for this year. They had a big dinner Wednesday night for the whole crew back at the hotel but we had a lot to get done on the truck so Bruce, Carmine and I ended up missing it. About an hour before air on Thanksgiving day, we had an unnamed camera guy change a bunch of dipswitches in the inner workings of two of the endzone lenses causing us to lose iris control to them. We got them back up and running just before the game and I actually ended up running out of the tunnel WITH the New York Giants with a freshly repaired lens over my shoulder.

Friday November 27th, I flew from Denver to Nashville for another FOX game. Not much to say about it except that it was easy. November 30th I flew home again and that night I finally got my Thanksgiving dinner thanks to Rachel’s parents. I’ve got a little break from the NFL Network shows for a few weeks so hopefully December will be a little bit easier.

The night before my early flight I took Rachel, my brothers and a bunch of their friends to the Celtics home opener in Boston.  After the game Jeff, Kyle, Rachel, and I went down to the truck compound for a quick tour since Joe Flynn and Mike Marini were working the show.  While Joe was giving the others the tour, Marini pulled me aside and asked if I had status with the airline for my flight out to Eugene.  When I told him that I didn’t, he made a phone call and got me upgraded to Silver with USAirways for the rest of this year!

On our way out, Joe also tipped me off to a place called Rogue Brewery in Eugene so it was decided before we even left Boston that we were going there for dinner on Thursday night whether Pat knew it or not.  It’s right in “downtown” Eugene which is very similar to Spencer, MA.  Started off the night with a Joe recommendation, the Double Dead Guy.  Served in a goblet, this killer brew comes in at a whopping 13% alcohol by volume.  After that, I tried their “Smoke Ale” which comes in a 22oz bottle.  The best way I can think to describe it is that it is extremely smooth and then about 10 to 15 seconds after you swallow, you get this delicious smoky flavor akin to smoked salmon.  I drank a beer that tastes like fish and it was awesome.  Joe also recommended that I finish the night off with their chocolate stout but after 40-plus oz of beer and a full meal I just couldn’t handle another drop.  It will just have to be something to look forward to the next time I’m in riveting Eugene, OR.

The show itself was VERY easy.  Pat and I made SO many 5-10 foot coax cables that I started to think I was back at the shop in Hudson.  I guess that’s what happens when the two of us are back working together.  I should also mention that the game was ON Halloween so the crazies were out in full force.  I saw some really great costumes.  Some really great ones, some really scary ones, and some mentally scarring ones.

Best Overall Costume: The 100% authentic Storm Trooper costume

Scariest Costume: Lieutenant Dangle from Reno 911

Most Scarring Costume: The fact that I saw at least 5 Lieutenant Dangle costumes.

The Double Dead Guy

The view from the announcer's booth at Autzen Stadium.

]]> http://keitheo.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/abc-primetime-college-football-week-9-eugene-or/feed/ 0 keitheo ABC Primetime College Football Week 9 - Eugene, OR Double Dead Guy autzen http://keitheo.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/fox-nfl-week-7-miami-fl/ http://keitheo.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/fox-nfl-week-7-miami-fl/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:55:26 +0000 keitheo http://keitheo.wordpress.com/?p=99 ]]> I THOUGHT this weekend was a return to the normal routine.  After my travel debacle last week, I was ready for easy.  I need to learn that nothing about this job will ever be easy.

We got to the stadium at 7AM on Saturday.  ABC is covering the UMiami  game today while we’re setting up for the Dolphins tomorrow.  This means a couple terrible things:

1.  We can’t set up our cameras until they have theirs out.

2. We can’t get our B-Unit anywhere near the A and C units until their TV truck is gone.

What this means for me is that it is going to be a very long day.  The graphics crew came in around their normal time and for the most part everything was business as usual.  The only difference in the day was that the camera crew and Sportvision wouldn’t be coming in until 7pm.  They’re starting their day at my 12 hour mark.

The B-Unit, where we store all our camera equipment, is parked about half a mile from the other trucks.  Tailgaters and security guards are everywhere.  The utilities aren’t even scheduled to come in until 7 with the rest of the camera crew so rather than be here until 2am, Mongo and I moved 7 hard camera chains, 3 handheld setups, light kits, and crap-tons of cable on the back of the FOX Sports Club Car.  To make matters worse, the batteries that power the liftgate were just below 12V so it wouldn’t go down.  I handed all that equipment down to Mongo through a regular mandoor.  It took us about 3 hours to get it all done and afterwards I was ready for a nap.

Once the camera crew came in, we still had to wait for the ABC crew to strike their truck and pull out before any work could be done.  They got out pretty quickly and we finished up right around 1AM.  Grand total: 18 hour day

Game day is a short day for me because I have to perform my civic duty on Monday.  Kenny and Mike, our drivers, kept giving me tips on how to make myself completely unusable as a juror.  Ross was giving me a hard time about the whole thing.  He’s got a friend who’s a lawyer who told him “The fates of America’s defendants are determined by people who are too dumb to get out of jury duty.”  Looks like this will be my big test.  The morning moved along very quickly and before I knew it, it was game time and I was “white glovin’ it.”  I wandered the packed parking lot for 15 minutes searching for the rental car.  Eventually, I found it, made my way back to Ft. Lauderdale Airport and headed for home.

I HAVE SEEN THE FIRST GATE OF HELL. It’s a Boeing 737 three quarters full of 15 year old girls.  Unwarranted shrill outbursts were in surplus and the plane was generally in an uproar for the entirety of the flight.  All said and done, I was home and in bed around 1AM.  Only 4 hours until I need to be up for my trek into Worcester for jury duty.

EPILOGUE:

Apparently, I am actually too dumb to get out of jury duty.  I’ll spare you most of the boring details but I was placed on an assault and battery case, we broke for lunch, and by the time I got back, the defendant had changed his plea to guilty.  I feel like my day off was wasted but at least I won’t have to deal with it again for another 3 years.

We're not lying.

This week is the first time I’ve flown on a weekday morning and so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect for morning traffic into the city.  I had an 8:30 flight on JetBlue so I left the house just after 6AM to make sure that I’d have plenty of time to get to the airport.  Last night, while I was home I tried logging onto the JetBlue website to check in early but they couldn’t bring up my reservation with my confirmation code so getting to the airport a little earlier than normal was crucial.

As soon as I got within a mile of I-93, I knew I was probably going to be in trouble but I tried my hardest to remain optimistic.  Merging from 95 is a little weird there so I figured traffic was just backed up because of that…Long story short, what should have been a 20 minute drive took over an hour.  I rolled into the parking lot around 7:35AM, about 25 minutes before boarding.  I waited impatiently for the terminal shuttle, checking the time constantly and watching precious minutes waste away.

The bus rolls up about 10 minutes later and there’s absolutely nowhere to sit.  I’m having an argument with myself in my head at this point, angry with myself for staying up so late the previous night, waiting to pack until morning, and for not leaving the apartment earlier.  The bus pulls up to Terminal C and I push my way through the crowded shuttle and sprint into the building.  The check-in line is a mile long.  The self serve kiosks are completely unused.  I book it over to one and punch in my confirmation number…”We’re sorry.  Your travel record could not be located.”  No mother-effing way.

It’s 8:02AM.  My flight is in the air in 28 minutes and I have to wait in line still just to get my boarding pass, let alone get through security.  I’m waiting in this line for what seems like forever.  I’m looking at the JetBlue website on my phone checking for the next flight out.  5:30PM.  I’m supposed to be working at the stadium at 1PM TODAY.

It’s 8:18.  I’m next in line.  The woman at the ticketing counter gives me the nod to come over so I rush over and give her my confirmation number.  She can’t find my reservation so she asks for my flight number.

“You’re leaving at 8:30???”

“I was hoping so.”

“Hmmmm…I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s not happening.”

She checked me in anyway and got somebody to rush me through security.  It’s 8:27.  Home stretch now: Gate 26.  I can see the sign hanging from the ceiling.  I’m in a full on sprint with a backpack and my carry-on.  I get to the gate as they are just about to seal the door but I made it.  Nobody, myself included, thought it could be done.

I board the plane and I spot the only open seat on the entire aircraft.  Smack dab between Bubble-Butt Mcgee and a screaming infant but I’ve never been so happy in my life.

My hotel was right around the corner from Madison Square Garden, where I was scheduled to work the next morning, so I went for a quick walk to scope out where the trucks would be parking. No more than 5 minutes into my wanderings in the Big Apple, I ran into 5 fellow SRT students from Lowell. We roamed the streets, found an open liquor store, had some good times, and went our separate ways.

I was the first one on site Monday morning and the electricians were there and ready to hook up power. I felt confident that I knew everything that needed to be done for the power up process so I went ahead and got everything done before Tom Kline arrived.

When he did arrive, he told me that I would be in the A-Unit building the show. I got to sit and do all the routing and tally display info for the whole away show. There wasn’t a ton of work but it was a great learning experience. Never had any issues until the post-game show when the bug guy unplugged his computer and somehow caused the sync generator to go haywire. After a good 10 seconds of chaos in the truck (an eternity when you don’t know what the problem is), Tom flipped the changeover into manual and switched over to the backup generator. Now that I’ve seen the problem and understand a whole lot more about how all the signals move throughout the main truck, I’ll be prepared if it ever happens again. New York was fun and all but I’m glad to get home. I’ve got about 36 hours at home and I’m off to Tampa for 5 days. Here’s to warmer weather!

It all started really nicely. I got into Philadelphia and met up with my cousin Megan and her boyfriend Dave who have been living there for a couple years now. We went to a little bar called Bridget Foy’s and had some awesome duck tacos. After that we went to this Edgar Allen Poe themed haunted house in an old abandoned warehouse in a neighborhood that looked like the birthplace of “Bum Fights.” There was a sketchy 1970′s motorhome parked nearby and everything. The haunted house was great. While it wasn’t super scary, it was plenty creepy. Being part of the masquerade from The Masque of the Red Death and being present for the events of The Tell-Tale Heart was nothing short of disturbing. The cast was great. If you’re in the Philadelphia area before November 1st, I suggest you check it out.  Also, thanks to Megan for the 5 lbs. of Goldfish.  I haven’t quite figured out how I’m supposed to get them home yet.

The next morning is when things started getting hectic. First off, the trucks showed up about 2 hours late. The drivers busted their humps to get in on time, but it just wasn’t logistically or physically possible. That said, we got the trucks up and functioning faster than I’ve ever seen it done before. Everything seemed to be back on track…operative word being “seemed.”

Once Mike started routing sources to the monitor wall, we noticed two things: The router was extremely sluggish and two of our HD monitors weren’t getting power.

The abridged version of the monitor problem is that it seemed there was a failure of one or both of the HD input boards in the left and right HD monitors in the production monitor wall. Neither of them would power up whereas the center monitor was working correctly. Removing the HD input boards from the two non-functioning monitors allowed them to power up.

At the same time, Mike was trying to fix the issues with the router. Inexplicably, the problem fixed itself. That’s always the worst kind of fix because there’s no knowing for sure what caused it or when the problem will pop up again. With some genius tech support from Tom Kline, we were able to determine that the two problems went hand in hand. When the HD input boards failed, it caused that extra voltage to be sent to the router. We used an AJA converter on each of the bad monitors to step HD down to component and then used the component inputs as a temporary fix. After the crew had left, we brought in an electrician to switch our power over to a new source, then did a complete restart of the truck to see if all the router issues went away. At first, it seemed like they did. Mike walked me through the entire startup process of the truck including the router and tally files.

Since we were there, we decided to clean up an issue with a few of the 9-inch monitors in the monitor wall that had been problematic the week before. It was a long, dirty job that at one point involved throwing myself at the monitor wall to get things back in place. In the hour and a half that it took to do the job, the router ate another peanut butter and molasses sandwich. We decided it would be best to shut the truck down completely for the night and then start up fresh in the morning. After a nice 13.5 hour day, it was time to go to bed. Only six hours until I need to be up again…

I started up the truck on my own this morning and the first thing we noticed was the problem we had worked on last night had migrated to different monitors in the wall. It seems like a potential grounding issue, but once we moved those monitors again and hooked them up, the problem followed the monitor. We got that all cleaned up and we had a pretty smooth morning after that. The router has been up for about 8 hours now without issue. I got a nice long tutorial on all things router from Mike. Hopefully, I’ll be getting a chance to sit in the big chair soon.

30 minutes before air and the “All 22″ camera still isn’t up. It’s all the way at the highest point in the stadium so I’m booking it. Turns out nobody ever plugged it in. Surprise, surprise. I get back down to the truck and the Duet has lost font output! It never ends. We get it back up with 2 minutes to air. There really is no rush like high pressure. The game is on the air and Tampa Bay is getting squashed. Did anybody expect any different?

I’m off to the Big Apple tonight after the game. I’ll hopefully be meeting up with some old SRT buddies in town for the Audio Engineering Society convention and then tomorrow morning I’ll be at Madison Square Garden for a New York Rangers game. All I know is I can’t wait to go to sleep.

Courtesy of Sosna, the stats guy from Long Island

Tom Kline is with us this week because Mike is off in Maui on his honeymoon and Rosco is off in China hunting pandas or something. We’ve also got another new crew working with us and it resulted in TONS of changes. While it was a headache, this stuff keeps me on my toes and keeps me learning. If I never had to make changes in the patchbay or figure out how to rig up tallies, then what’s the point of me being out here every weekend? I’m also getting pretty good at driving the sideline cart, or at least as good as you can get driving it on and off the loading dock at the beginning and end of every show.

I’ll be honest, there really isn’t a whole lot to say about my weekend in Washin…ahem, Landover. Show went pretty smoothly. I didn’t break anything. I got to see the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building from the highway on the way back to the airport.

Since we’re doing the C Level show for Fox (the game projected to get the lowest ratings), I’ve pretty much figured we’ll be going wherever the Tampa Bay Buccaneers go every week. We were with them today, we’re with them next week in Philadelphia…and the next week in Tampa Bay.

Things are about to get insane.  I’ll be doing my normal weekend in Philadelphia, followed by an NHL game at Madison Square Garden on Monday.  I go home for maybe 36 hours and then I’m off to Tampa for the Southern Florida/Cinncinnati game which is immediately followed by the next FOX NFL weekend.  I’ve got a really busy week ahead so expect a few updates.

Look.  The joke was bound to be made eventually.  Better to just get it out of the way early so we can move past it.

I’ve started cutting it closer as far as how early I’m getting to the airport.  I never check a bag and I always check in online the night before so the only hold up is in the security checkpoint.  Getting to the terminal any earlier than 30 minutes before boarding begins is torture so I’m going to continue to see how close I can cut it…When I put it that way, it makes it sound like a really bad idea.  Oh well.

Landed in Buffalo and made my way across the street to the hotel.  Ran into DiGiacomo while I was checking in and he tossed me the keys to the rental car.  Looks like it’s decided: Going to the Anchor Bar tonight.  When it came time to go eat, I couldn’t get ahold of anyone so I ended up going by myself.  It was my first time eating at a sitdown restaurant alone and it’s definitely not something I want to do on a regular basis.  That said, those were the best wings I’ve had in my life.  In fact, I don’t think I even liked wings before the Anchor Bar.  Now I kind of want wings for breakfast.  I can see why this place is like Mecca to buffalo wing enthusiasts.

We started with a new crew this week and because of that, I had a lot of changes to make with monitor feeds and coms.  Got it taken care of relatively quickly and fixed a problem with the SportsVision computer.  Joe, the new 1st & 10 guy, was so happy with my work that he offered to buy me a beer after the set day was over.  We had other plans though.  Sue flew out from the office to see how things were going with the Fox show and to go check out the Buffalo Sabers’ arena.  When we were on our way back to the hotel at the end of the day, she called us to let us know that Mike, one of our drivers, had just received a call and was told that his mother was dying.  He was booked on a flight for the next morning, but he was obviously pretty shaken.  The goal for the night immediately became to keep Mike occupied and distracted (in other words, liquored up).  All of us ended up going to a restaurant called Protocol right down the street from the hotel.  Had some amazing steaks and lots of good wine…holy crap, lots of wine.

Sunday morning SUCKED.  I went to bed with the spins so I didn’t sleep all that well and I woke up with the obligatory pounding headache.  The show itself moved along pretty normally.  I ended up with a good amount of downtime so I got to take a look at the KP-12 panels that we had issues with during week 1.  Im pretty sure I must have been distracted because I never would have made this mistake under normal circumstances.  While I had one of the panels open and plugged in, I dropped a screwdriver and it landed so that the metal driver touched the power supply and the chassis.  Sparks flew, a little flame flared up and I instantly smelled melting plastic.  Looks like I made my big mistake for the weekend…

Strike moved along pretty quickly, but it was a late game so we didn’t end up finishing at the stadium until around 9:30.  DiGiacomo said that I did so well this weekend that he promised he wouldn’t call me “Junior” or “Newbie” or any other new guy name he could come up with anymore.  Looks like I’m starting to fit in just fine.

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. The flight home was miserable!  First off, there was a thunderstorm in the morning so the flight was delayed by an hour.  Then the actual flight home was super turbulent.  We were in a tiny little plane so that made it worse.  At one point, we were flying through a huge cloud and shaking like cheap massage chair.  The bathroom door swung off the track and hit the back row of seats, and then we dropped for a good 2 seconds.  Doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re on a plane, even a fraction of a second drop makes you nervous.  I normally hate having a window seat, but it actually made dealing with the situation a lot easier.  I was able to look out the window and I could see blue skies ahead.  It was the only thing that kept me grounded.  We landed.  I made it home.  It’s moments like this that make me wonder if I’ll ever be comfortable with flying.

The Anchor Bar - A Buffalo Wing Enthusiast's Mecca