Q: What got you started in this field and how long have you been doing it?
A: I started in this field in college and have been working in the field for over 35 years. I just seemed to have a real knack for audio engineering systems and it made a lot of sense to me. I set up live PA systems and interfaced with trucks for TV but I have also set up several audio systems and studios for various companies.
Q: What has been the most difficult part of the job?
A: Well that would depend on what job I was doing at the moment I am currently working as a V1, that’s the lead Video Engineer for the home crew during the regular season for the Blazers, but doing indoor work is usually a lot easier than outdoor work because of all the lighting conditions. They change constantly, from time of day, to clouds moving through the sky it can and often does change the conditions that you need to set for the iris and RGB for each camera to make sure the color temperature matches evenly across all cameras within reason, you will never get them perfect and each Engineer has his own style for how he does it. When you are responsible for 4-8 cameras that are all in operation it can get pretty intense and those are usually the days that are nonstop go go go.
Q: Everybody makes mistakes, can you remember making any? What happened and how did you handle it?
A: Actually just recently I made a mistake of not switching the lens filter in the camera, I forgot to put the stars filter on during the free throws that our director always wants, but thankfully he didn’t notice. To be honest mistakes happen, especially in a live environment and sometimes there is nothing you can do, for me I have only made a couple errors that were large enough to be noticed or caught and of course that is never a comfortable moment but you take your licks learn from your mistakes and move forward.
A: Actually just recently I made a mistake of not switching the lens filter in the camera, I forgot to put the stars filter on during the free throws that our director always wants, but thankfully he didn’t notice. To be honest mistakes happen, especially in a live environment and sometimes there is nothing you can do, for me I have only made a couple errors that were large enough to be noticed or caught and of course that is never a comfortable moment but you take your licks learn from your mistakes and move forward.
Q: How have you gotten so many different jobs through the years?
A: In this line of work it all about making good impressions and who you know, I have made various contacts in the industry at many different levels across the country. There are crews that specifically ask for me and each year they come back and resign for another season, but every year is different and now work 6-7 different shows each year, if one drops off I try to find another but I never have just one job.
Q: How much time is set up vs maintenance work?
A: 25% set up 50% maintenance and 25% down time. Yeah you get down time! But it isn’t really downtime so much as time that something isn’t going wrong, you still have to be paying attention to your cameras, half the time I don’t even know the score because I am so focused on my job, something always seems to come up when you least expect it so you need to stay on your toes. Take the last game you were here for instance, we had that interference in the signal that took us about an hour to pin down, and it was just some moisture build up in the triax cable but we had swapped the entire camera before we figured it out, and while you are fixing one thing something else can go out so you have to stay on top of it so you don’t get behind.
Q: What work or job are you most proud of?
A: That’s a tough one because I have done a lot of different work throughout my life, but if I were to pick something I look back and thing most highly of it would probably be working as a Chief Engineer for Downstream Digital. I helped them design and set up their facilities with Avid, Minerva, a film to tape transfer room, Fairlight audio suites, equipment rooms, and Macintosh computer systems for graphics work along with maintaining those systems it was some of the more challenging work that I have done and it was a lot different from what I am doing now, not that I’m not proud of what I do now it’s just a different kind of proud when you build something from the ground up.
A: In this line of work it all about making good impressions and who you know, I have made various contacts in the industry at many different levels across the country. There are crews that specifically ask for me and each year they come back and resign for another season, but every year is different and now work 6-7 different shows each year, if one drops off I try to find another but I never have just one job.
Q: How much time is set up vs maintenance work?
A: 25% set up 50% maintenance and 25% down time. Yeah you get down time! But it isn’t really downtime so much as time that something isn’t going wrong, you still have to be paying attention to your cameras, half the time I don’t even know the score because I am so focused on my job, something always seems to come up when you least expect it so you need to stay on your toes. Take the last game you were here for instance, we had that interference in the signal that took us about an hour to pin down, and it was just some moisture build up in the triax cable but we had swapped the entire camera before we figured it out, and while you are fixing one thing something else can go out so you have to stay on top of it so you don’t get behind.
Q: What work or job are you most proud of?
A: That’s a tough one because I have done a lot of different work throughout my life, but if I were to pick something I look back and thing most highly of it would probably be working as a Chief Engineer for Downstream Digital. I helped them design and set up their facilities with Avid, Minerva, a film to tape transfer room, Fairlight audio suites, equipment rooms, and Macintosh computer systems for graphics work along with maintaining those systems it was some of the more challenging work that I have done and it was a lot different from what I am doing now, not that I’m not proud of what I do now it’s just a different kind of proud when you build something from the ground up.
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