Gadgetory

four three two it's very stressful you got to be you got to be zoned in you have to be focused for three hours three four hours whatever the game may be if you go to air and it's not it's not right or there's a mistake millions of viewers see it you don't get a chance to edit it you get one shot everybody wants to put on a clean product you know something without a mistake a lot of times if you were at home doesn't know what the mistakes are they don't see them they don't hear them very rarely some you wonder if they even care they just want to watch a game we know what it takes to get on the air I laugh because my father used to think it's a big Vudu box watching TV because all this stuff just comes out it just spills out on the air and you can watch it home until he saw what it takes to put one of his own this is a actually a very well oiled machine eight fibers interconnect the two trucks and move over 3500 signals on those eight fibers I think we probably have somewhere between 150 and 200 people credentialed for this weekend that includes stage managers statisticians runners camera guys technical director audio utilities cameramen may ultimately when it comes down to it everything that we're trying to do is all about telling the story and giving the producers and directors the tools that they need to tell that story we want to give the viewer the best experience graphically visually orally audio ever thing is all for the viewer if we see things happening other places we cover it show it discuss it its instincts its reactions and it happens really quickly I'm the director of the show so basically in charger that the visuals that you see for the most part and basically I'm I'm in charge of all the cameras during the course of the game you know for a given game I'll have 15 cameras on a given Sunday you know when we will have whatever it is 13 technicians the Fox TV trucks there are three 53-foot trucks and they contain the entire show and then we have another 53-foot truck that's just cable cam we've done all 32 stadiums now in the 11 years we've been doing this so it's gotten easier over the years you can walk in and you know right where to go and write what to do and we're pretty quick at it the computer is controlled through the joysticks just basic inputs I have up and down and then left and right and forward it back that signal goes to the computer the computer takes it to our winch station where our motors are we have three motors XY and Z and if you remember your basic algebra from high school we have what's called a Cartesian grid and it flies in an XY pattern this way and a Z up and down pattern that way and so I can control in any stadium I know which way I'm going left and right this basic joystick camera there's a lot of remote control operated cameras they're really all basically the same you got your hand your tilt your zoom focus the only thing that makes this one different and it's a big difference is that this camera has a roll on it where I can control the horizon we can finish each other's sentences it's like hey do that thing where you okay shorthand language I mean you know when we get down toward the end zone if they're gonna run into the end zone he'll tell me to come up give me some Z you know I'll come up a little bit to show him the play develop I'm foxes a lead technical director for NASCAR in the NFL during the show I punch the buttons mix the video switch the video and the director makes the decisions but I physically make that happen it's more of a monologue from rich to us but rich is doing a lot of talking and we're all listening as he's talking about ready one take one ready to take two you know that's letting the camera guy know that he's ready to take that camera settle down and you're about to go on the air so that the camera guy doesn't swish pan or something like that but also lets me know be ready to take that camera and a lot of times you know that wants to happen right at a precise moment that he's trying to go from one thing to another and so sometimes the guts can be very very precise Larry 771 I'm in charge of the live cameras so when Richie calls the replays that were shooting the things that we need to be shooting whether it's a quarterback reaction whether it's a wide receiver isolation you know with defensive player whether it's a coach you know whether it's a sideline reaction one of the things we try to really push is all the subtleties and I think we do a good job but we're constantly pushing just the reaction shots both sides of the ball some of our greatest shots honestly are sitting on the bench where you've got a guy that's just cost his team the Super Bowl and he's got this emotion on his face and now you're you're sitting there locked on him and we have we haven't moved but there's no other camera in here they can get that because of it a specific angle or there's coach in front of him or whatever so some of the greatest stuff we've done is right there I'm actually now I'm actually an office guy I'm director of engineering and technology for Fox Sports remote operations so I oversee technical planning for large bands Super Bowl World Cup US Open golf but also specifically oversee technology initiatives such as 4k the thing that always comes up is clarity of replay we want to be able to see what's happening we see what's going on and give the viewer at home the best possible image 4k is essentially 10 times the amount of pixels of video information as regular 720p is so we can zoom into an area and get a lot more detail which is why we're using 4k another big initiative of Fox Sports high frame rate cameras four more frames per second more images per second which enable clearer replay we can do things like like zoom in look at a guy's foot and with a bunch of frames per second you can see okay you know what he was he was right there whereas before that image might have been blurred looking across a couple frames technology is so good the pictures are so good the ability to playback replays is so fast we have 11 EVs machines most handle 4 inputs to outputs as soon as the plays over barely before the guy stands up to go back to the huddle he'll know which replay machine to go to we sell directly to the producer producer masse who has it or a lot of times he knows who should have it wants to see it from those angles so selling is just getting to the producer letting them know I got the best look at this this is the one you should go to air with we're fortunate our producer trusts us for the most part if he hears our voice in years he hears how intent we are exits great on X Y has the look whatever Killa he'll go to it right away without even question I prefer the subtle real things as opposed to the guy grandstanding for the camera so the guys that have been with me for years know don't sell me a reaction we're guys self-serving ly acting like an asshole you know show me the shots when they come to the bench they don't realize cameras are on them and there's a little wink a little smile a little tap on the helmet from a coach those are the shots I like to see so you know it's not just the quarterbacks celebrating effort touchdown is the defensive back with his head down like holy Christ what just happened well my name is Fred Aldous and I am the audio consultant for Fox Sports and their senior mixer I mix NFL for them and I make some design ballade the NASCAR coverage for them during NFL I want the viewer home to be a part of the the audience in the stands and in a 5-1 show on the surrounds I want them to feel like they're sitting in the crowd so I put crowd 360 degrees around my announcers in the center speaker and then fill in the front left and rights with my effects mix because that field of play never changes so that's that's kind of being an observer of a game on this console I have 96 physical faders and they are dual-layer faders so I have 192 inputs into this console that I can manage at any point in time while I'm sitting in here during a game I listen to a director a producer an associate director and I do my mix and there's something else going on I have to deal in troubleshoot that so I'm listening to anywhere from five to eight things at one time trying to juggle any balls it's hard to really listen to my mix to where I'd like to but I've learned over the years what to listen for and how to listen for a lot I do do a lot of that by feel I heard here the director call a camera cut and I just automatically go to it so at this point my career has pretty much become reactive as far as some of the camera cuts and what I'm listening to and how I react to those sometimes I open different mics to make more sense with the picture versus the cameras that are close up if you're on the sidelines of the game you hear things that people at home watching on TV never get to hear or experience so we are walking a fine line between that audio and yet not giving away state secrets because believer coaches watch TV tapes now to pick anything they can up off what they hear from the line of scrimmage what our industry has done over the years is provided up-close video and personal video they want to hear the audio the same and sometimes we can provide that sometimes we can't I think from from learning from people who did this job well as you let people do their jobs I think on Sundays it all comes together with a balance of everything you know sounds but let's not overdo it you know tight pictures but let's not overdo it X's nose but it's not overdo it my job is to find the balance to bring everything together and make sure it all fits it's really neat because it's like working on a great team you're seeing all those everybody come together and they all know their job they know what they're doing they're the best of what they do you know broadcasting is similar to being on a you know a team Troy Aikman would say the same thing you know he might be the star of the team but it takes a whole team to actually put the broadcast together so we just spend the weekend all together we have dinner together we spend a lot of time together and that's the best thing spending time together as a broadcast team I mean we've known each other for years even before we got on this crew a lot of how to put things together those if there's a hierarchy there I was going to move up I'm not yet a half-hour guy cut that out yeah that'd be the boss there are times I spend more time with these guys and I do with my family because not only this I go right into NASCAR and that's 20-some weeks and you're spending four days a week with them and only two at home I think I think most of us in this business enjoy doing what we do because we like it we have fun doing it and we'd hate to have a real job sitting behind a desk all day so when you hear that three-count going into the open of the show I'll tell you what the rush is absolutely incredible knowing there is no going back there are no retakes you have to do it right right the first time and and it's a pretty big rush and I still get that rush live TV is the only kind of TV you want to be in now there are people a lot more creative than I am who can sit in an edit room and create a show from scratch and those people are really smart and really talented but there's nothing like the adrenaline of being part of a live broadcast you just don't know how it's going to go you can talk to broadcasters former athletes you know there's nothing like playing but the closest thing you can get the planer coaching is being in TV and covered an NFL game bring the pictures crazy science our producer non-directory tourism tentacle maker mutual audience our prettiest Phoenix Arizona you you