SUper Sports stopped by the Carrier Dome today for some good ol’ SU Woman’s basketball. SUper Sports is the television play-by-play production by CitrusTV and OTN. Our four camera set up (plus replay) was enough for a pretty good simulation of a network broadcast. I directed the show. That means I was repsponsible for calling which camera is on air, when to insert graphics and when to play replays among other things.
It’s a pretty sweet set up. CitrusTV provides the crew while OTN takes care of the equipment. We use a Sony AnyCast to cut the show. For replays, we use a Buff. The thing is a basically a poor man’s EVS. The Buff is better than a tape deck because you can instanly play clips instead of rewinding like you’d have to do with a tape deck. Playlists can be created to string clips together to make neat bumps into and out of breaks.
We spent most of the day setting up. Most of us where in the dome not 18 hours after Saturday’s football game. Already the place had been outfitted for basketball. The eastern bleachers where rolled over to Jim Boeheim Court. (That reminds me, should we call this place “Jim Boeheim Court on Ernie Davis Legends Field at the Carrier Dome?”)
It’s not easy setting up a show like this. We don’t have a TV Truck. Instead, all of our equipment is packed into a “Fly Pack” or several big, black, heavy cases. We have to lug them wherever we go and set everything up from scratch every time. There’s a ton of cable to be run. From cameras to control room, audio from talent, video back to the talent and more.
After a while of setting up, EIC Ryan Balton and I got to thinking. Union! Here’s a pic demonstrating how we are over-worked. After talking with the crew we decided something needed to be done.
Notice the two IATSE logos…
