I'm ummed and aahed about writing something. Must have started and stopped 10 or 15 postings. Heck, half of this ended started as a comment to Richards post. So, for once in my life, I'll try to be brief.
It has been a very difficult decision to make and I leave a whole bunch of great people and wonderful memories. I genuinely that believe we've built the best Match Night in the league by a country mile. And whats more we've done it on few resources, a modicum of talent and a metric shitload of hard work. The enormity and pressure of what is required can never be understood by someone looking on the outside in and the fact that everyone has not only risen to the challenge, but excelled is a tribute to them. I'll miss working with Richard a hell of a lot more than I'll ever let on :-)
One thing I do want to make clear is that the reason I've made a clean break is to simply make sure I get out of the habit of checking the Forum, dealing with the web site and so on. Its a hard thing to do after so long (heck, I'm here, and browse the Forum still) but I figure I either draw a line somewhere or end up hanging around like a smelly ghost.
I had a blast and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
EEERRRRRRRRKKKKKKKK!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Rounding Up A New Posse
And so it came to pass, the Three Musketeers became two, and then became one.
The game against the Sheffield Steelers on 28th October was the last game on the mic for Mike. He and his bride-to-be are stepping down from Phoenix duties to concentrate on their own business, and the end of an era has been reached. First it was Fishcake, stepping down at the end of last season, and now Landers has gone, leaving The Rev to soldier on alone. Sort of.
Well, not really alone at all. Andy Costigan has stepped up to take the mic for the time being, until a new announcer is appointed, but the Three Musketeers has become a fully-fledged posse now. With the new visual aspects of the match night came a few additions to the team, and now that these new faces are becoming more and more familiar, the match night operation as a whole is really coming into full swing.
The camera crew has been expanded, and we have had an up and coming young talent added to our cohort of lensers. Joining Peter Pallister (callsign "Millhouse") and Jennie Fenton (callsign...er..."Fenton") on the cameras is James Walkling (callsign "Garth"), who joined us as a runner but quickly graduated to camera operator and has so far shown quite a knack for it. The vision mixing duties are being predominantly done by Jon Galione (callsign "Lion" among other things), the music playout is done by Tracey Allan (callsign "Tracey" - not much imagination there I'm afraid) and Carl Johnstone has expanded his repertoire to include our video and graphics playout. He doesn't get a callsign. We don't even let him have a headset.
So, what started out as a three person operation has grown into an eight person operation, and we're still bringing on board some new faces to serve as runners. The job continues, the roles get bigger, and the new crew members are keen to make their mark on the match night. And they will. The legacy of Landers and Fishcake will never be forgotten, it will be built upon.
The game against the Sheffield Steelers on 28th October was the last game on the mic for Mike. He and his bride-to-be are stepping down from Phoenix duties to concentrate on their own business, and the end of an era has been reached. First it was Fishcake, stepping down at the end of last season, and now Landers has gone, leaving The Rev to soldier on alone. Sort of.
Well, not really alone at all. Andy Costigan has stepped up to take the mic for the time being, until a new announcer is appointed, but the Three Musketeers has become a fully-fledged posse now. With the new visual aspects of the match night came a few additions to the team, and now that these new faces are becoming more and more familiar, the match night operation as a whole is really coming into full swing.
The camera crew has been expanded, and we have had an up and coming young talent added to our cohort of lensers. Joining Peter Pallister (callsign "Millhouse") and Jennie Fenton (callsign...er..."Fenton") on the cameras is James Walkling (callsign "Garth"), who joined us as a runner but quickly graduated to camera operator and has so far shown quite a knack for it. The vision mixing duties are being predominantly done by Jon Galione (callsign "Lion" among other things), the music playout is done by Tracey Allan (callsign "Tracey" - not much imagination there I'm afraid) and Carl Johnstone has expanded his repertoire to include our video and graphics playout. He doesn't get a callsign. We don't even let him have a headset.
So, what started out as a three person operation has grown into an eight person operation, and we're still bringing on board some new faces to serve as runners. The job continues, the roles get bigger, and the new crew members are keen to make their mark on the match night. And they will. The legacy of Landers and Fishcake will never be forgotten, it will be built upon.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
We moved the production desk!
Surprised Richard hasn't blogged this, but on Tuesday night we moved the production desk. He asked if I'd come along to help, and foolishly I accepted. That said, I couldn't make the 6:30pm start so offered to help from 9pm or so when I could get there.
So I turned up at 9pm, with Richard, two of the camera guys (Pete and James), Ron from Comtec and Neil already there. They'd already labelled all the connections and disconnected everything, took apart the platform, and were just finishing assembling it in the new location. So we moved the equipment back onto the platform and whilst Neil and Ron screwed seats back into place, we started working on the cables.
Now it might not seem like a big deal, but we have cables running from each camera position to carry audio and video, into the production desk. There's then cabling running out to the plasma screens and speakers. This had all been bundled together and fed up to the location where the desk was.
We had to unbundle and untangle this mess of cable, and re-run it to the new location, fortunately when it was originally laid the guys had had the foresight to leave enough length that they would reach the new location. I think it took me and Pete (with help from others) around 2 hours just to sort out the cabling. (Extra kudos to Pete, who did all the spiderman work on the beams around the edges of the rink!)
Whilst we were doing that, the equipment on the desk was reconnected, and cameras and stuff setup around the rink so everything could be tested properly. Then as we fed up each cable it was quickly connected (due to the earlier labelling!)
By the time we had everything tested it was well past midnight, and then we had to pack
everything away again. At around half one we'd packed tidied and loaded and headed for home.
So the production desk is now situated in the corner of the rink...
So I turned up at 9pm, with Richard, two of the camera guys (Pete and James), Ron from Comtec and Neil already there. They'd already labelled all the connections and disconnected everything, took apart the platform, and were just finishing assembling it in the new location. So we moved the equipment back onto the platform and whilst Neil and Ron screwed seats back into place, we started working on the cables.
Now it might not seem like a big deal, but we have cables running from each camera position to carry audio and video, into the production desk. There's then cabling running out to the plasma screens and speakers. This had all been bundled together and fed up to the location where the desk was.
We had to unbundle and untangle this mess of cable, and re-run it to the new location, fortunately when it was originally laid the guys had had the foresight to leave enough length that they would reach the new location. I think it took me and Pete (with help from others) around 2 hours just to sort out the cabling. (Extra kudos to Pete, who did all the spiderman work on the beams around the edges of the rink!)
Whilst we were doing that, the equipment on the desk was reconnected, and cameras and stuff setup around the rink so everything could be tested properly. Then as we fed up each cable it was quickly connected (due to the earlier labelling!)
By the time we had everything tested it was well past midnight, and then we had to pack
everything away again. At around half one we'd packed tidied and loaded and headed for home.
So the production desk is now situated in the corner of the rink...
Friday, October 05, 2007
Karmic justice from the Hockey Gods
Last Saturday night, many members of the match night crew were down at the O2 Arena in London, watching the LA Kings versus Anaheim Ducks. With the lighting failure that we'd experienced the previous week at the start of the Phoenix v Panthers games, we were keen to see how the NHL handled their game night entertainment, and we were pleased to see that the NHL do the same thing that we do. They popped their lights too.
So, during the resultant darkness, Mr Landers, Tracey and myself (via the wonderful technology of the mobile telephoning device) had a collective smirk at the notion that it's not just us little fish who get problems like lights that won't turn on. It has to be said that the NHL guys covered well, and on the TV broadcast you can't tell there's a problem until the presenter mentions it, they're padding so effectively.
Last night we're crewing our first game back after the 'NHL break'. Phoenix at home to the Stingrays. All is going well, until the Hockey Gods decide to punish our weekend smirks by pulling the breakers and killing the power to the entire rink, less than two minutes before the end of the first period. Not just the lights, the entire lot. No cameras, no plasmas, no communications, nothing. For the best part of an hour.
Damn you Hockey Gods, damn you!
So, during the resultant darkness, Mr Landers, Tracey and myself (via the wonderful technology of the mobile telephoning device) had a collective smirk at the notion that it's not just us little fish who get problems like lights that won't turn on. It has to be said that the NHL guys covered well, and on the TV broadcast you can't tell there's a problem until the presenter mentions it, they're padding so effectively.
Last night we're crewing our first game back after the 'NHL break'. Phoenix at home to the Stingrays. All is going well, until the Hockey Gods decide to punish our weekend smirks by pulling the breakers and killing the power to the entire rink, less than two minutes before the end of the first period. Not just the lights, the entire lot. No cameras, no plasmas, no communications, nothing. For the best part of an hour.
Damn you Hockey Gods, damn you!
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Of NHL and why the customer is rarely right
Went down to the O2 this weekend, with Tambo and Chelle, to see the Ducks and Kings kick off the new NHL season as part of NHL Premiere. It was a nice weekend for myself and the other half, quite relaxing after a hellish September which has left us completely drained.
The weekend did see the disappearance of something I quite liked keeping going - Saturdays home game against Edinburgh was the first I had missed since the Phoenix returned to the ice. I don't think any of the Match Night Crew was still holding a 100% record (possibly Carl) - even people like Neil Morris, Andy C and Dave The Scorer had missed games. But such is the way of things, as the games were announced long before the EIHL schedule was set. I had tried to minimise the impact by only getting tickets for the Saturday and booking early trains back for an anticipated Sunday home game but c'est la vie.
Like I said, I needed the break. I've become increasingly frustrated with all things Phoenix over the past few weeks - trying to grab moments to do stuff, not having time to do the things that need to be done, things not being delivered as promised, failing to deliver things I had promised to other people. Juggling 95 chainsaws at once and most of all, getting increasingly short-tempered with a section of Phoenix fandom.
There seems to be a subset within the Faithful who think they have some kind of divine right to pass judgement on what we do and then sit back and fold their arms. I've been in a Customer Service job - and I'm being absolutely honest, came out of it despising humanity in general. The single biggest mistake that people in this kind of job make is trying to please everybody. We're human, so when someone criticises, we take that to heart, and try to do better.
The trick to surviving is to realise a) when you are doing the best you can under the circumstances and b) that you will never, ever please all of the people all of the time.
I found it especially instructive when we were taking flak about the match night music. I realised that quite a bit of the criticism came from people who don't go to every game. How you can someone say, with a straight face, that something is wrong when they aren't there to see it? It explains why - in a number of cases - we got asked to play music that has already been on the playlist for a year and a bit!
We got astonishingly hypocritical postings - one of my favourites was about the opening sequence, which Richard had sweated blood over. A posting criticised the use of the Aardvarx, saying we could have drafted in the ENL or juniors. Without ever mentioning the fact that the poster is connected with the juniors - no conflict of interest there, then!
I can't say it enough. The Phoenix is not the Storm. The much vaunted Storm opening sequence that ours gets compared to cost a five figure sum and didn't have any hockey in it whatsoever. Ours cost buttons, was sweated over and updated like you wouldn't believe and got slammed by people who haven't the slightest Scooby Doo what is involved.
As a crew, we worried and fretted and then thought - you know what? Sod it. A bit of perspective makes a difference. One person doesn't like our music. Tough, because I can see 400 people clapping to it. The team like it. And I realised that no matter what I did to rev up the crowd, no matter what Richard did to get people going, the people moaning would simply sit on their hands anyway.
So to heck with them and work with the people who want to make a difference. You can lead a horse to water.
I'd be inhuman not to admit that I did feel a slight bit of vindication when I saw how the NHL presented things, and many of the tracks and techniques that they do are things that we do on a smaller scale.
There is a danger in taking customer feedback too seriously - especially as it is easier to sit behind a keyboard or a telephone and moan. The office gets it particularly bad, I know for a fact that when the rink has suffered yet another delay, Mags and co have been subjected to abusive phone calls. That isn't on.
Trying to please everybody all the time is a zero sum game. Because eventually you will end up with one customer, all the rest having left. And that one customer will never be happy, so they will dictate even more.
What you do is simply the best job you can. And if people hate it so much - why are they turning up every week to experience it?
I hate the argument "if you think you can do better, do it!". My clients can't do what I do - that is why they pay me. But they do have the right to pass judgement on my work.
But if putting on a match is "just" playing some music and reading out some words, walk a mile in my headset, or that of Richard. If filming a hockey game is so easy to do, we'll add you to the list of people who can cover for absences.
The weekend did see the disappearance of something I quite liked keeping going - Saturdays home game against Edinburgh was the first I had missed since the Phoenix returned to the ice. I don't think any of the Match Night Crew was still holding a 100% record (possibly Carl) - even people like Neil Morris, Andy C and Dave The Scorer had missed games. But such is the way of things, as the games were announced long before the EIHL schedule was set. I had tried to minimise the impact by only getting tickets for the Saturday and booking early trains back for an anticipated Sunday home game but c'est la vie.
Like I said, I needed the break. I've become increasingly frustrated with all things Phoenix over the past few weeks - trying to grab moments to do stuff, not having time to do the things that need to be done, things not being delivered as promised, failing to deliver things I had promised to other people. Juggling 95 chainsaws at once and most of all, getting increasingly short-tempered with a section of Phoenix fandom.
There seems to be a subset within the Faithful who think they have some kind of divine right to pass judgement on what we do and then sit back and fold their arms. I've been in a Customer Service job - and I'm being absolutely honest, came out of it despising humanity in general. The single biggest mistake that people in this kind of job make is trying to please everybody. We're human, so when someone criticises, we take that to heart, and try to do better.
The trick to surviving is to realise a) when you are doing the best you can under the circumstances and b) that you will never, ever please all of the people all of the time.
I found it especially instructive when we were taking flak about the match night music. I realised that quite a bit of the criticism came from people who don't go to every game. How you can someone say, with a straight face, that something is wrong when they aren't there to see it? It explains why - in a number of cases - we got asked to play music that has already been on the playlist for a year and a bit!
We got astonishingly hypocritical postings - one of my favourites was about the opening sequence, which Richard had sweated blood over. A posting criticised the use of the Aardvarx, saying we could have drafted in the ENL or juniors. Without ever mentioning the fact that the poster is connected with the juniors - no conflict of interest there, then!
I can't say it enough. The Phoenix is not the Storm. The much vaunted Storm opening sequence that ours gets compared to cost a five figure sum and didn't have any hockey in it whatsoever. Ours cost buttons, was sweated over and updated like you wouldn't believe and got slammed by people who haven't the slightest Scooby Doo what is involved.
As a crew, we worried and fretted and then thought - you know what? Sod it. A bit of perspective makes a difference. One person doesn't like our music. Tough, because I can see 400 people clapping to it. The team like it. And I realised that no matter what I did to rev up the crowd, no matter what Richard did to get people going, the people moaning would simply sit on their hands anyway.
So to heck with them and work with the people who want to make a difference. You can lead a horse to water.
I'd be inhuman not to admit that I did feel a slight bit of vindication when I saw how the NHL presented things, and many of the tracks and techniques that they do are things that we do on a smaller scale.
There is a danger in taking customer feedback too seriously - especially as it is easier to sit behind a keyboard or a telephone and moan. The office gets it particularly bad, I know for a fact that when the rink has suffered yet another delay, Mags and co have been subjected to abusive phone calls. That isn't on.
Trying to please everybody all the time is a zero sum game. Because eventually you will end up with one customer, all the rest having left. And that one customer will never be happy, so they will dictate even more.
What you do is simply the best job you can. And if people hate it so much - why are they turning up every week to experience it?
I hate the argument "if you think you can do better, do it!". My clients can't do what I do - that is why they pay me. But they do have the right to pass judgement on my work.
But if putting on a match is "just" playing some music and reading out some words, walk a mile in my headset, or that of Richard. If filming a hockey game is so easy to do, we'll add you to the list of people who can cover for absences.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
New Phoenix Site
Yay we got it out. OK it isn't quite finished, but a good portion has been done and we've at least now got a platform to build on.
As well as the usual gang who help with the site, I've got a couple of other people to thank. They're not Phoenix fans, they're guys who I work with, but they both gave me a little help.
Firstly Paul Rushton, he did most of the core template for me, achieving in a couple of hours what would've been a couple of nights for me. For the Man Utd fans out there, Paul runs a site called UnitedLinks which attempts to bring the United news from all over the web into one place.
Secondly I need to thank Rob Clarke who gave me a couple of hours of help to get the subscription stuff setup for Phoenix TV.
As well as the usual gang who help with the site, I've got a couple of other people to thank. They're not Phoenix fans, they're guys who I work with, but they both gave me a little help.
Firstly Paul Rushton, he did most of the core template for me, achieving in a couple of hours what would've been a couple of nights for me. For the Man Utd fans out there, Paul runs a site called UnitedLinks which attempts to bring the United news from all over the web into one place.
Secondly I need to thank Rob Clarke who gave me a couple of hours of help to get the subscription stuff setup for Phoenix TV.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Where is your head at?
Have I mentioned that I really, really, hate computers. Last night got in, tried to finish the new look Gallery off, stopping when my face hit the keyboard through tiredness. I'm only half-joking.
Now I've spent a few hours trying to get the layout fixed, and it won't. And I have to go out. And that means the thing I thought would be done yesterday will now be done tomorrow, as well as making me slave over a hot printer to get the photos ready.
I could scream.
Now I've spent a few hours trying to get the layout fixed, and it won't. And I have to go out. And that means the thing I thought would be done yesterday will now be done tomorrow, as well as making me slave over a hot printer to get the photos ready.
I could scream.
Match night production
For those that didn't already know (you mean you didn't see the photo linked from the forum?), for the last couple of weeks I've helped out on match nights with the production. My "job" has been to look after the output to the plasma screens, so that's putting up the flash screens during the game, running videos and all other stuff like that.
So the first week I helped we were down at ground level, and things went fairly badly. In particular we had a problem with the Mike's mics, the wired mic didn't work properly, and the radio mic kept picking up interference.
So last week the crew from Comtec did some work re-wiring, thanks to their hard work the technical problems (bar a problem with a speaker or two) were pretty much fixed, leaving us to concentrate on what we had to do.
However in my mind the biggest improvement was moving us to the back of Block 6. Being at the higher level we could see the ice better, you can spot stoppages in play, and why play has stopped. It makes it easier to pick the right music, get any on-screen stuff ready and run it all at the right time. The other big advantage of being up in the blocks is that we can hear the audio output, so keep the sound levels balanced (sound at ground level was particularly awful) and actually see what's on the plasma screens!
So all in all I think everybody was much happier with last weeks match night. We know we've still got things that aren't quite right and areas to improve. Some of that will come with a little more experience, and as the basics become routine I'm sure we'll try new things.
Oh yes, and for now at least, my job is going to be running the screens every game.
So the first week I helped we were down at ground level, and things went fairly badly. In particular we had a problem with the Mike's mics, the wired mic didn't work properly, and the radio mic kept picking up interference.
So last week the crew from Comtec did some work re-wiring, thanks to their hard work the technical problems (bar a problem with a speaker or two) were pretty much fixed, leaving us to concentrate on what we had to do.
However in my mind the biggest improvement was moving us to the back of Block 6. Being at the higher level we could see the ice better, you can spot stoppages in play, and why play has stopped. It makes it easier to pick the right music, get any on-screen stuff ready and run it all at the right time. The other big advantage of being up in the blocks is that we can hear the audio output, so keep the sound levels balanced (sound at ground level was particularly awful) and actually see what's on the plasma screens!
So all in all I think everybody was much happier with last weeks match night. We know we've still got things that aren't quite right and areas to improve. Some of that will come with a little more experience, and as the basics become routine I'm sure we'll try new things.
Oh yes, and for now at least, my job is going to be running the screens every game.
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