Rocket surgery??? I thought this class was teaching brain science.....no wonder I keep getting a D- I started in high school with a tv production class...it taught me absolutely nothing, but got me an internship at the local cable company. ENG cameras, studio, edit room, production truck eventually. Worked there staff for about 5 years (til 1996). While there, I began working at the Telemundo station out here in LA, KVEA. Was first hired as a studio cam op, but eventually moved into tape. Resigned my full-time position and started working 3 days a week editing and "engineering" at The Jewish Television Network. They produced a couple shows that aired on the Local Origination channels of various cable systems around the country. Stayed there for a little over a year while I built up my skills and client list. That gave me Friday through Monday to freelance. Did tape exclusively for about 5 years or so with NMT and others that had needed a warm body, and started TD'ing at KVEA (1680 and A51) after about a year and a half or so (around 1999). I finally decided to give sports TD a shot in 2001. Started on the Fox West High School package for a few years, eventually working up to the small college shows, then away feeds, and this year I've started filling in on the home show stuff in town. Last year I did some of the West Coast CBS Basketball games, but with team schedules and the late start on crewing, I only have the Stanford game Feb 19. All's well that ends well though, right?? Started on a 1680 with an A51 and now switching on a Kalypso, Dveous and 4 channel Spotbox. What will tomorrow bring?? Jeremy Ward Los Angeles Oh yeah....Hi Dave

[quote="FoxSixTD"]I moved out to San Diego, and now work at XETV, the Fox affilite here as the senior TD[/quote] So is Al P. still the News Honcho down there? I used to work with him at Telemundo, Los Angeles...tell him Tom says "hi!" Anyway, while I'm here... My brilliant career started at (what was then) Rogers Cable in Syracuse, NY as a volunteer TD for local ballgames and stuff (used a horrid contraption called a Shintron switcher). Since working for free got old rather quickly, I moved to Las Vegas and soon started working in Master Control at an indy station. A couple of years later I moved over to the local CBS affilliate, where I slowly added more and more bullet points to my resume...tape op, audio, CG, graphic artist, and eventually newscast Director/TD (even took over the sat. truck for a while). The switchers I used there were the Grass 1600, 200 and 250. While still in Vegas I tried a more respectable and lucrative career of advertising for a few months, but the call of live TV brought me back to that same affilliate where I was a director and post-room editor. Never one to sit still for long, I then ventured over to Los Angeles where I was a TD at Telemundo for eight years. I started off switching on a 1680 (man those things were built to LAST!) until they bought the Kalypso. From 2000 until I left LA I was also freelancing occasionally, mostly at a satellite horse racing channel, where I got to play on a a Grass 4000, and then a Sony 9000. A couple years ago I moved up here to Vancouver, BC and I'm now running Deko at the local CTV affilliate...but they're kind enough to let me switch from time to time on a Sony 7350.

My story is similar to Mike Tiffee's-- in that I started at a "local news station", in Mammoth Lakes, California... Yeah... The ski area.... I'm talking LOCAL news. Remember the Video Toaster... Yeah.. (Long live the woman cartwheel wipe). In Mammoth (at a very young age, 14) I learned the basics, and ventured to college with a really FIRM grasp of TV, and how the technical parts of TV worked. While at school, in Orange County (Go Chapman!), I worked freelance here and there, mostly on the Sony DVS 7000 as well as at the loved Orange County Newschannel, on a GVG 200-A. Chapman had a GVG 1600. I spent most of the time I should have been reading things like "Wethering Heights" and "Pride and Prejudice" tooling around the wold of TV, TDing and directing loads of cable stuff. My senior year of college, I was Directing/TD at OCN (The director called and punched the shows there), the Friday before 9/11, Adelphia (the company that owned us) closed us down. So, I took that oppritunity to get myself in the door up in LA, and worked at KTTV, the Fox affiliate as a Production Assistant, and Tape Co-ordinator on their morning show, and on the nationally syndicated "Good Day Live"-- you know, the one with Jillian Barbarie... Niiiiice. While there, I bugged the TDs so much for info, and begrudgeingly they showed me how things worked there on the 4k. Anyways... after that I moved to Phoenix, AZ and worked as the morning TD on the XtenDD. What a great switcher-- so powerful and when you really push it, you can do some pretty crazy things. Not being able to handle the heat that Phonix offers in the summer, though, I moved out to San Diego, and now work at XETV, the Fox affilite here as the senior TD, doing the 10pm News. Still working on the DD serries switchers (they haven't upgraded here yet... grr...) And now, I'm trying to find freelance work here-- one of the companys I have a good contact with has a GVG 3k, and I'm in the process of learning that... So, that's me ... in a (rather large) nutshell... Ahh... I'm in a nutshell... Help me out!! AHH! Scotty A. Senior TD XETV Fox 6 News San Diego

I started TD'n while in high school for a local PBS station on a grass 1680. After HS, got a job with them as TD/Director of the "Local News." Bizzare place, there are about 13 people employed there- the news director is also the anchor, they have 1 photog who is the studio manager, the reporters write, edit, shoot their own stuff, the weather guy is an insurance salesman who comes in at 5:30 and watches the weather channel. We would record the weather channel at about 2:30 and grab stills of their maps then recreate them on an Amiga paint program. As TD/Director, I also had to enter the lower 1/3 graphics and full screens into the MAXINE! Being in such a small station allowed me to get a lot of hands on exposure in all aspects of production. After that, I worked 5 years at a station in Charleston, SC starting off doing Audio, then vacation relief, then Director. The last few years I spent working as Senior Producer in the promotions department. That job was pretty cool, we did lots of cool stuff- We had a 16mm camera in-house and easy access to 35mm gear which we used more than our DVCPRO gear. We worked with hollywood film transfer houses getting film scanned to 2K image files so we could do 3D motion tracking and compositing. I got to go up about 3 times in a helo and shoot 35mm from a tyler mount- our pilot was this crazy ass guy who would fly us into some crazy places, like between the cooper river bridges- totally illegal. Budget cuts took our toys away so I looked elsewhere. In 1997 I started freelancing and in 2001 took the leap and never looked back. I started doing regional work in the SE which involved a LOT of driving because there's almost ZERO work in Charleston. I also freelanced as a web designer and programmer. I eventually reached a point where I had to decide which direction to go and I chose the freedom and travel that television offered. I currently do the PGA tour for ABC including The Open Championship (aka British Open) and World Golf Championship tournaments. Our schedule currently runs from Jan-Dec but includes some months off and a couple of long runs in a row. I supplement the golf with mostly ESPN stuff- spring training here in Phoenix, X games, French Open, CBB, CFB, etc. I split my time between Phoenix, AZ and Charleston, SC but for the last few years nowhere really feels like home. I try and hide out underwater as much as possible - I started off on Grass Valley products but have spent a lot of time on the Sony and Philips. I love the Grass Valley hardware but love the flexability and programming power the XtenDD software has- especially the macros and "partial keyframes". I don't prefer any switcher- they all have their strengths and downfalls. This is one of the coolest jobs in the world! Mike Tiffee Freelance Technical Director Phoenix, AZ | Charleston, SC

My $0.02... My name is Mike, I work in the Baltimore/DC area, for baseball I do the away shows, for NHL and NBA I do whichever show the crewer puts me on, the NBA/NHL crewer crews both the home and away shows. I started this adventure about 13 years ago back in Buffalo when the owner of the cable company I worked for decided to start a REGIONAL SPORTS NETWORK... At the time I was a maintenance guy who also did video and audio stuff. My boss had to decide, take the commercial producer away from commercials or take the maintenance guy. He picked me and I started switching shows with absolutely no training on the Grass 200-1 we used or the A-52. Talk about on the job training. When I started doing freelance I had two good mentors, Pat and Seth. Not sure if I should thank them or curse at them. ;-) A few years back I relocated to Merryland when I saw things starting to change at the old company. Good thing I left, Empire Sports no longer is on the air.

[quote="Scott Dailey"]Anyone ever punched on a Central Dynamics switcher?[/quote] Yes, several Canadian trucks we used had them. A CDL with a single channel NEC System 10 DVE and Leitch Still File. It was lots of fun trying to make an A-53 effect on the NEC. Seth, remember the game you did with Thom Hastings?? (I was lucky, I was the still store op.) Somewhere the REQUIREMENT for an A-53 was missed, Seth had a fun day creating effects on the System 10. I still have the visual of Seth turning around and saying "Mike, why don't you come up here and switch the show." Another fun part of the CDL was the lack of linear keyers. No problem until that dang iNFiNiT! came around. One game I had an external DSK controller secured on the CDL control panel. We gave up trying to cut clean rather, that DSk had a mind of it's own. The director, PK out of Pittsburg, asked a few times "Is there any way to have the clock ON TOP of the graphics?"

We actually wound up with the switchers from Blue Cactus at reunion Arena in Dallas. We limped along on the A-82 for at least three years with no parts available. We became the gravyard of old A-82's. We had about 6 or 7 frames laying around and regularly scavenged parts off of them. They actually had some good features and the timelines were slick, but a bit quirky. It taught you a lot of creative ways to get around problems. In the broadcast room we actually ran the switcher with a DNF controller. One giant timeline was written to include timecode for the switcher(it emulated a tape machine for editing purposes) The DNF would "cue" the switcher along with the fast forward for various effects. God forbid you ever fat fingered the controller because the switcher just did what it was told. Come to think of it, they still do that. Anyone ever punched on a Central Dynamics switcher?

[quote="Scott Dailey"]To make it even more fun, this truck did not have the peripheral set up to control the A-53.[/quote] I think I still have a printed copy of the instructions on how to do that lying around in a moldy old folder somewhere. I should transcribe it into a computing device and post it on an archive somewhere. You never know when it might be needed.

[quote="scottgfx"]I think my brother Kevin ran one in a post house in Dallas, TX; Blue Cactus Post (a.k.a. Pinnacle). That was the composite digital model and the A-84 was component right?[/quote] The A-82 was composite digital. The A-83 was component digital. The A-84 was also component digital but it was more of a layering switcher and not your normal M/E setup like the 82 and 83. -= Ken =-

[quote="Scott Dailey"]Anyone out there ever switch sportsor anything else for that matter on a Abekas A-82 ? My shameless quote stolen from another A-82 operator, "Remember, a dissolve is just a cut waiting to happen.[/quote] I think my brother Kevin ran one in a post house in Dallas, TX; Blue Cactus Post (a.k.a. Pinnacle). That was the composite digital model and the A-84 was component right? I sat in on a session for the station I was working at. We were having a design package done by Egad. They had a mix of Ampex and Sony D-2 and at least one channel of A-57, and I think one A-51. There were a lot of TV station design packages pumped through that room. In the analog GVG-300 room next door, I was told that Mike Judge cut the first "Bevis and Butthead". My understanding was that it was a great switcher for post, but not at all friendly for live. I believe that WFTS in Tampa had a couple of them. It seems that they moved to Philips DD pretty quickly after that.

I've been looking for a schoolthat teaches rocket surgery. I've been thinking about changing careers. Oh I almost forgot to answer. HI DAVE! I walked onto a truck the other day with my sunglasses still on and saw a white switcher. I thought I was running a Sony until I took off my shades. Surprise!!! I had to dust off the door to the 300 room in the old gray matter. It had been a few years. To make it even more fun, this truck did not have the peripheral set up to control the A-53. Oh, there is another dusty door I have to open. It really doesn't matter what you are cutting on as long as the client goes home happy. Anyone out there ever switch sportsor anything else for that matter on a Abekas A-82 ? My shameless quote stolen from another A-82 operator, "Remember, a dissolve is just a cut waiting to happen.

Hi My name is Dave and I've been TDing for 10 years. all: [Hi Dave!] Started my habit - errr, TDing while working in Studio/Tech Ops at ESPN in Bristol, CT as an A2. I used all that free time to teach myself how to switch on a 300 with K'Scope (loved that box!!!). In the fall of '96 I went freelance and worked for various disreputable crewers in the northeast. I finally wound up doing a lot of visitors shows and home subs in the big apple and from there was "discovered" by Fox Sports and recruited for MLB Saturdays and NFL Sundays. In the fall of 2001 I moved to the City of Angels, whence I continued to freelance for the networks and have only recently started getting involved in local work. Things are very friendly here in LA and I'm starting to feel very much at home. I am at ease on all the available platforms (being too stupid to be afraid of taking a job where the equipment is not that familiar). I once took the Sony 8k trainer training, but sadly have not been called upon very often to fulfill that role and my skills as a trainer are eroding - I can still fumble my way around the switcher though! Anyhoo! If anyone were to ask me what I thought was the most important skill as a TD (go on someone please ask - OK I'll tell you) I would have to say it has more to do with dealing with the person sitting next to you than knowing which button to press or knob to twist. If you can make your director comfortable even though you take the wrong source every five minutes and routine fly on hash or take a camera with both CGs, then you will still find work. (I'm living proof!) LOL (- just a little TD humor if you happen to be a potential client reading this!!!!) Above all remember this: It's just television! It's not Rocket Surgery! (quote shamelessly stolen from someone at the ESPN school of broadcasting in Bristol, CT)

Nathan, I am a TD at MSNBC also, like Bill and Jonas was, from the above posts. ( I replaced Jonas , Long Live the Mideast Flag Wipe!! hahaha) I have been a staff TD since the middle of 2000, but was filling in for a few months before that. With MSNBC I have had the opportunity to go on the road a bit for some of their remote shows. I enjoy doing the remote shows, and it is also a nice change of pace from time to time. I have also done a little freelancing here or there. The best experience I had with freelancing wasn't even while TDing. I did some E2 ( assisting the EIC on a truck) work for about 5 days about a year and a half ago. Talk about a humbling experience! As Bill said, we regularly use a 4k, DVEous and Thunder. Thunder is pretty cool for what we use it for, a SS with animation capabilities. Since we don't use it for transitions or anything like that, it has worked out real well ( There is a delay with clip recall, so using it like a Profile or other DDR, wouldn't work too well. ) It has helped out in a few areas making things a bit easier. In addition to the 4k I have worked on a Kalypso a few times, and we also had a truck here w/ a Sony 7350 for awhile. I haven't had the chance to work on a Sony 8k, but look forward to that day. One cool thing I was able to do before the last time I was on the Kalypso, was to familiarize myself with the menus before getting to the site. Someone on this list posted a link to an FTP site where you could download the GUI software, complete w/ frame emulator. I installed this software on the laptop and was able to familarize myself with the GUI while on the plane ride down to the show. This saved A TON of time I am sure when the truck powered up, since I didn't have to search around the menus getting familiar! I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't spend a lot of time on the switcher, or hasn't in awhile. take care Curt

Hi Nathan, My name is Zach and I live in Vancouver, BC. I started TD'ing news at CBC here in Vancouver in the summer of 2001. I was very eager to work in trucks so I persued a Canadian Company called Dome Productions. I was lucky enough to get a 'break' with them and have moved into full time mobile TD'ing since the Fall 2002. I work most of the NHL away in Vancouver, Edmonton and some Calgary (mostly FSN). I also work the 7th games of NFL for Fox. I went to the Athens Summer games and will be going to Turin, Italy for the Winter Olympics. I freelance all over! I work a lot throughout the Western US as there seems ot be a real TD shortage! I have used all the Grass Switchers, the DD 35 and the Sony 7350. I have not had the pleasure of using the new Sony 8000. My preference is the Kalypso. I really like all the options and the overall versatility. The Kalypso is easy to use and very powerful. Good luck in all you endevours....

Nathan, I started tding in 95 with a small cable operation, and freelancing for a local college doing their sports cable feeds. In 1997 I came to WNEP(the parent company of the Supershooters out of pittsburgh) and am now one of the night directors here. I currently direct and td on a 4m/e kalypso and do several news shows a day. (we crank out alot of news here) I occasionally get some freelance work as a tape op/cam/or utilitybut am still trying to get some tding in there (anyone care about sharing any contact info would be great) We also have a small production truck with a ross switcher, i do get some stick time in the truck doing parades, expos or other live remotes.

Hey Nathan.. I started TDing in 1996 when America's Talking changed hands and became MSNBC. I am still here at MSNBC, as the Senior TD. We have used 4K's and DVEous since 1997. Not sure when we will ever get something new, I been hearing 'next year' for many years. We recently replaced our still stores with Thunders. A few years ago after seeing how much fun Jonas was having, I decided to pick up a game or two a month of local 'away' sports games. I have been lucky to also do a few YES Nets home feeds. Now I pick up maybe 5 games a year of whatever is offered if I have the time. Still fun (most of the time) and a good challenge to leave the studio now and then. later Bill

All - don't worry, I'm not gonna respond to every post. As of this writing there are 222 registered users...no one needs to hear from me that much. Keep posting, I'll keep reading... -- nathan

Thanks Jonas. I've heard your name dropped a few times (today in fact) during NFL on CBS. I'm usually waiting in the wings for the end of football to go on with a sports wrap or newscast. Thanks for the welcome. -- nathan

Hi Nathan, I started TDing like you at local news affiliates (WPLG in Miami and WPBF in West Palm) and then moved on to cable news with MSNBC (CB, BD). While in the NY area I started TDing sports freelance (there is a large market up here) and became full time freelance several years ago...My regular gigs are the NFL on CBS 'A' game during the winter and Yankees Baseball on YES in the summer. I do football on a Sony 8k on NEP SS24 and baseball on a Kalypso on Gamecreek Yankee Clipper. Welcome to the forum. jonas

Hey thanks Scott, and thanks for the heads up on Len. I'll see if I can try to track him down. Thanks again. -- Nathan

Hi Nathan, I do mostly visitor feed stuff in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. NBA, NHL and MLB. Sometimes you'll find me in San Antonio and Houston. A lot of college ball for various clients all over Texas. As for switchers, I am partial to GVG since I spend most of my time on them. However, I am comfortable on Sony's and a little less so on the Xten. Since you are out of Phoenix you should try to hook up with Len Marrinaccio. He free lances in that area and knows the DD-35 and Xten well. He used to maintain a website called TDhelp.com. Scott