The Show Must Go On
In a facility built to be a simple 3 camera, 25’x25’ studio with a 2 channel Sony switcher and limited transmission abilities, the Ferro team was challenged to produce multiple live network telecasts while still maintaining their normal weekly production schedule.
Distillation and intoxication just about captures the essence and climate of what’s happening behind the scenes in production on the march toward Super Bowl XLVI.
XXXII NFL teams distilled down to the essential II – The New York Football Giants vs. the New England Patriots and the show must go on. LITERALLY! Thanks to the well-oiled machine that IS Ferro Productions, with incredible speed and accuracy the Ferro team aka the Giants’ Broadcast Department prepares for the trip to Indianapolis to bring its award winning content, serving the demands of the Giants, the NFL and worldwide media.
“Our patch bay [in the control room] was being completely overworked to the point where we had to dedicate one Engineer to just monitor the router so we didn’t lose any feeds,” Kiley said.
Patch Bay for Video & Audio
Jamie Kiley and Dave Ryan in the control room faced perhaps the biggest challenge of the day as they were responsible for supplying live feeds to MSG, ESPN, and the NFL Network simultaneously IN ADDITION TO their role in producing our, Ferros’, usual programming as most of the crew worked in the field building and shooting press conferences.
Mr. Kiley, director / acting EIC, and Mr. Ryan, audio engineer, both consummate professionals, are no strangers to what it takes to air a press conference live to a network while the growing attention at the Giants facilities left the two with a bit more to manage this time around.
“We had to patch several different video and audio configurations from multiple parts of the building,” Kiley commented.
With press conferences being held in the facility’s auditorium as well as the team’s field house, Kiley and Ryan had to make sure the video and audio signals from each press conference where making their way back to Ferro’s control room and then out to their respective networks. All pretty much par for the course except this time some networks needed a fully produced version with graphics, intro and close. While some just needed mixed audio and others requested all raw elements.
The bonus round came, in having to send out all these various configurations in four different formats. ALL Simultaneously! AHHH INTOXICATING, doing what a pro does best under pressure, all performed perfectly.
Naturally this did not make Ryan’s job easier as he’s mixing one press conference sent live to MSG, while making sure the NFL Network was getting their audio embedded with the video from their feed.
Ryan was also responsible for making sure that the NFL Network’s talent could hear his network correspondents through his IFB earpiece.
And would the Networks like their content “shaken or stirred”!!!!!!
With great concentration and flawless execution, the crew in the control room have essentially “just one last sip” to have made it through the day problem free.
Left to Right: Dave Ryan (A1) and Jamie Kiley (Director)
As things wound down and the Ferro crew prepared to shoot their final show of the day in studio, a concluding live hit with ESPN remained in the field house. With the end in sight, a feeling overcomes all. That of an event reminiscent of peering down into the Martini glass and contemplating just how good it’s going to be to finish off the very last olive on the skewer. The task of patching this hit to the network was married to the additional responsibility of Ferro moving one of the studio cameras to the field house for the ESPN crew to use for the said hit. Seems a bit excessive? Maybe, yet when you have to send a video signal a great distance from the camera’s location to the control room, sometimes you have no choice, this being one of them.
Control Room
A simple solution for sending a video signal anywhere would be the use of a copper. Although, at some point you reach a distance between A and B that is too much for copper to handle, in times like these – it’s best to turn to fiber.
Fiber cables, such as those used by the Sony XDcam 1400s in our studio, have the ability to send video signals farther and faster without any signal break up. Moving the ped camera out of it’s home in the studio for a little while was well worth the extra effort. Just like using Olive’s to make a Martini and Onions to make a Gibson. The subtle change to the garnish makes all the difference to the basic texture, flavor and composite of the cocktail. We at Ferro are glad to have Onions and Olives, Copper and Fiber to make our mix perfect for public consumption.
Tricaster – Live Streaming Interface
Audio Mixer
