Opening Day

The first telecast of the regular season is in the books and we had a good show.
We televised five games from Florida for spring training to help get the cobwebs out, but there is really nothing like an opening day telecast.
We televised from Cincinnati and we were in a side-by-side situation.
Thank goodness.
Cincinnati can be a less than positive experience when we are in a dual feed situation. More often than not, the Cincinnati dual feed becomes a duel feed. This is not because of the Cincinnati TV Production team as they bend over backwards for the visiting TV Production team trying to make the broadcast experience a favorable one. The facilities situation in Cincinnati just does not make a comfortable dual experience possible.
Like all venues, the dual feed is a less than desirable situation in providing the highest quality telecast. Let's just say that the Cincinnati dual situation is the least desirable in all of baseball. We all know that the reason for dual feeds is financial and we live with it.
However, kudos to Fox Sports Midwest for providing us with our own truck and crew for the important opening day telecast and, indeed, the opening series of the year.
Our Cincinnati crew was excellent.
The TD is a conscientious, hard working crew member who did a great job.
Our play by play and color analyst raved about the audio and they were correct. The mix was superb.
The camera operators worked hard and we captured some great shots throughout the telecast.
The video operator was forced to ride levels because of the sun and clouds and was on top of it all game.
The tape room, led by our travelling EVS operator, did a fine job with replays, recaps and packages. We televised some of the best super slo-mo replays that we have ever had in this telecast. The replay of a slide at home plate on a "play at the plate" was truly remarkable and captured one of the better replays we have EVER had!
Thanks to the home show for giving us a feed of their super slo-mo camera...great stuff!
Once the duet operator, font assist and I were in sync, the graphics flowed with the show.
In summarizing the performance of the Cincinnati crew, we had a very, very good telecast for the season opener.
However, the person on our crew who deserves the highest praise for the success of the first regular season telecast is our EIC. (Engineer in Charge)
I believe that the season opening telecast creates the most tension and puts the most pressure on the EIC of the truck. The TV production team can be the best in the country but if the truck doesn't work nothing else matters. As I wrote in my book Cutting The Game, Inside Television Baseball From The Director's Chair (http://www.cuttingthegame.com/), the EIC's of the truck are the hardest working and least thanked of all the crew members.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. EIC of our season opening telecast.
Your hard work did not go unnoticed.