Are You Ready For Some Football!

Step Inside the Production Truck....

Earlier this month both our Tampa and Orlando-based production crews joined forces for the 2017 Florida High School Football State Championships. Over 3 days we produced a total of 8 live games.

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While it was a TON of work, I've always enjoyed the thrill of live TV production whether in the studio or out in the field.

I figured what goes on behind the closed doors of our production truck might be of interest to some folks here on Steemit so I'll take you on a tour of the truck for a closer look at all the gear and personnel it takes to put live sports on TV. I hope you enjoy the tour!

For the past few years the Florida State Football Championships have been hosted at Camping World Stadium located in Orlando, FL.

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This stadium also hosts NCAA football games, MLS soccer games along with other sporting events and a whole bunch of concerts throughout the year. It's an awesome opportunity for these talented high school athletes to perform on a big stage under those bright lights!

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Ok, enough about the venue...let's take a look inside the production truck already!

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While the majority of the production crew is out on the field for the games, the real magic is performed inside the truck by people in the most vital positions. Usually within the truck you'll find crew members filling the following positions:

- Director
-Technical Director
- Producer
- Assistant Producer
- Audio Engineer
- Engineer-in-charge
- Engineer 2
- EVS Operators
- Chyron Operator
- Scorecube Operator

I'll be showcasing the gear most of these positions utilize during production along with a brief summary of their responsibilities.

We'll start with one of the most vital positions, the Director who sits behind the colorful switcher...so many buttons to push!

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The director basically controls everything that goes live on the air; from the different cameras to graphics, pre-produced packages, highlights and a lot more sources. In much larger productions the Director would actually just be calling which cameras and such to put on air and the Technical Director would be pushing the buttons. However, since we're not ESPN or a national network...our Director functions as both Director AND Technical Director.

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The Director also communicates with the whole crew inside the truck via a headset hooked into an intercom system. This is so everyone is on the same page as to what is happening and what's coming next so we can be ready to do our jobs properly. He also communicates with all of the camera operators out on the field about what shots he wants or needs during the broadcast.

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For these productions we had a total of 10 cameras to cover everything including two handheld cameras (pictured above) which are used for field-level gameplay shots and color shots like the crowd, cheerleaders, sideline and such. The rest are static cameras positioned throughout the stadium to cover all the angles and they all have big glass attached to their cameras, which means big lenses (pictured below). Some have up to 100x magnification lenses depending upon how far away they are from the field.

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Let's head back to the truck to take a closer look at the Producer position. In the picture below you can see our Producer standing on the opposite side of our Director.

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The Producer kind of controls the flow of the game, so to speak. Together with the Director they tell the 'story' of the game. He suggests to the Director when he'd like to see replays and other package roll-ins. He also directly communicates with the talent...meaning the commentators (Play-by-Play & Color) as well as our sideline reporters and other additional reporters that participate in parts of the production. Together they all craft the 'story' of the game. The Producer is like a puppeteer almost, controlling the actions of others to get the 'story' across in an interesting way and understandable fashion.

The Producer also communicates with Master Control and the on-field Red Hat. Master Control counts us in and out from breaks for commercials and the Red Hat makes sure the referees stop and start play when the production crew is ready to come back from or go to a commercial break.

The Producer also writes all of the information for the graphics that end up on air, including live stats and much more. This is yet another way the Producer acts as the game's 'story teller/crafter.' Here you can see our Producer checking graphics before kickoff with our Chyron Operator.

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Next up we have our Engineers...Our Engineer-in-Charge is always referred to as 'Old Man' because, well he's the oldest crew member and we all like to mess with each other. The back and forth between crew members and the comraderie is one of the best things about our shoots. Here is a look at our EIC's work station in the truck.

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The EIC controls the coloring, shading and all other camera controls...including white balances and various camera filters. When the Director calls for a camera to standby the EIC makes sure that camera looks good before it goes on air by manipulating the camera control unit, aka CCU. There is one for each camera involved in the production.

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I swear he loses his keys at least 4 or 5 times EVERY shoot...lol!

Next up we have our playback station where both EVS operators 1 & 2 do their thing.

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The EVS operators build all highlight playlists, player packages, roll-ins, roll-outs, along with any other video elements. This is where any pre-built or pre-produced packages are rolled out into 4 different decks that the Director can take live on air by pushing one of the hundreds of buttons on the switcher.

Here's a closer look at the actual EVS machine itself...

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Here you can see one of the EVS Operators looking through their clip list while building a playlist.

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The next crew position to showcase is the Chyron Operator. This position is responsible for building all the graphics the Producer needs for the production (which is usually in the several hundreds). While most of the graphics are built well in advance there are always some that need to built on game day due to roster changes and other factors. This position is also responsible for updating the graphics throughout the game with current stats and such.

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Last but not least is the Audio Engineer position, a role I filled for these games. This was my position within the crew for about 5 years until I moved into producing all of the station's Outdoors & Fishing programming but I am asked to fill in for this position from time to time. I never mind either, I really love live production...it's just a rush you can't get anywhere else! Here's a look at my audio booth.

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The Audio Engineer is responsible for mixing all audio sources including all the field microphones for natural game sound, deck feeds, camera microphones, all talent mics and consoles, supporting music, house feeds, ref mics and much more. I usually have a total of around 60 audio inputs to manage during a game but for the state championships we always have expanded coverage. I had to use all 72 inputs on my mixing console these games.

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This position can get hectic and be a bit stressful at times. Not only do I have to manage all the levels and proper mixing of a ton of sources, I also have to listen to other crew members (mostly the Director and Producer) so the sound on air properly follows what the folks at home are seeing on the TV. Dividing your listening attention between your sources and the intercom can be a bit difficult at times but I've always enjoyed it.

For a better understanding of the position I have edited a short video of what it's like to be inside the audio booth during live production...please have a look, it involves a clip of our open sequence, a bit of live game play and part of the halftime show...just click the image below to watch the video.

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Take a peek behind closed doors of a live production of a football game from inside the audio booth!

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▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS

Watch it on DTube

Besides the basic overview of the positions inside the production truck there are plenty of other factors involved with a successful remote live TV production. We have to send our signals to Master Control back at the studios somehow so they can route our live signal to the channel. This is usually done by satellite, microwave, a streaming device called Live-U or any combination thereof. Here's a shot of the satellite truck we were using for these shoots.

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When we're at a usual weekly venue like a school for games we power the truck with a large diesel generator. However, when we're at a venue where they are already pre-wired for TV production, they usually have 'shore' power we can hook into...here's the power panel for the truck.

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We also have separate video and audio patch panels on the exterior of the truck to get all the signals inside so we can then route them to the appropriate places. It looks like a mess because it usually is after hooking everything up!

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video patch panel

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audio patch panel

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The luxury of in-house wiring and patch panels saves us a TON of work. Usually we have to run thousands of feet of camera, audio and other cables to make it all work. I love working wired venues like Camping World Stadium because we only have to run field cables to the field patch panels and then cables to the house panels near our truck. From there it's just a short cable run back to the truck.

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photos captured with Canon 80D/18-135mm - all rights reserved

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This actually happened to be the very last production I will ever take part in with this crew which is in part why I documented it. I've truly enjoyed this work over the past almost decade, live TV provides a rush I've yet to find something equal to. While I look forward to whatever projects I may take on next, I will always look back on my work here as not only an awesome experience but also a time where many memories were made with friends!

I hope you've enjoyed this tour as much as I did sharing it with you all!

Please feel free to ask any questions about gear, the work or whatever in the comments below, I'll be happy to answer anything I can!

Thanks for stopping by!


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