"Remote" TV Production.....

There is a reason the term "remote" is used in television production from a given site...and we experienced some of that on Friday night. While working with our new encoder for HD and our transmission partner, we experienced the dreaded "technical difficulties" for our baseball telecast. There are always going to be some bumps in the road, you just dont want them to turn into potholes.

It becomes a very large technical question, when all you really want to know is what the heck happened? You dont want to hear that the framitz and the localizer were not connected...you just want to know why the game was not there. There are a lot of issues in wrestling with this world of HD broadcasting, but I though it would give me the chance to show you some of the cabling that occurs at our venue.

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I wish I had the cable concession for the amount of cable that we use for a telecast. And the amazing part is, when the truck pulls in, there is nothing there....when it leaves, it is all stored on board the mobile unit. Anyone that puts out a few cables for anything, even exterior Christmas lights, knows that the cables can be intertwined or plugged in the wrong place or even missing.

Welcome to the world of the crew and the engineering staff that arranges and plugs in these cables on the truck's arrival - only to store them all on its departure. It truly is a studio on wheels that can be assembled, used, and stored in one 10 hour day. That's where the professionals come in - and from coast to coast, truck to truck, we have them.

So the next time you are watching a game, think of all the cable, the time it took to set it, and the people who were involved in the preparation.....then sit back, grab your favorite beverage and, tapping the remote as needed, fire up the ball game - it will be there! Go Tribe!