home again

This should be that last blog for this version of Ken's Big Adventure. Yesterday was nothing but airports. I headed to the Raleigh airport at 7 am with one Mike since he had a car and the shuttle had proven to be unreliable. So I sat there until flight time which was 2:20 PM. Once I got to LaGuardia I found out that Air Canada had cancelled my Toronto flight and so they put me on a later flight. This caused me to miss my evening flight to North Bay. So it's off to a hotel for a few hours of sleep and a birthday beer.

So as I sit here at gate 103 at Pearson, I reflect back on how great a trip this was and even with all the hassles and long hour's I'd do it again in a heartbeat. So bring on Ottawa next year.

It's a Wrap

Our job is now done and everyone involved with the skills competition is heading home. It certainly was quite the night. I know how the zamboni driver fealt when he drove into the big time rink. There were 15 thousand fans all watching what I was doing. Once the timing started the crowd disappeared. It didn't quite go off as planned. There were a couple of false triggers on the timers that causes problems and we had to use the back up hand times. That's the first time I have ever had to do that. Part of the problen is that there are a lot of people arounf the photo eyes and they sit on flimsy tripods than can cause the eyes to move a bit. That's not good. Just to add soem interest, one of the goalies actually went under the eye, and we hand triggered the clock to stop it. |So there;s a lot to worry about. All in all it was ok,

The other part I was involved in was the hardest shot. That went good until Ovetchkin's shots. The cable feeding the display decided to go intermittent just then and it took a couple of shots to isolate the problem. We were able to pull off displaying Chara's record breaking shot. He can really shoot. They all were impressive. I had a chat with Chara after his turn at the shootout challange and he knew exactly what his old record was and what his new record was. These guys are still competitive even for the skills competition. I have to thank Mike Walker for getting the great shot of me and Zdeno Chara chatting. I was giving him pointers for next time.

Mike also took some picture of the Mascot Scrimmage. This doesn't go to air but was fun to watch. The fans in the stands got a real treat. Some of the mascots were actually great skaters and hockey players.

Tomorrow is going to be another long one, but just because of the flight connections and waits in airports. Time for a nap.

It's Superskills Day

Got an early morning start today. We did another run through of the Fastest skater and the hardest shot this morning to make sure it all worked. I spent a lot of today working with my buddy Brian who is the in house techy guy getting the long hall modems running so the data could get out to the versus Trailer.

During the trial run this morning we got to watch Jeremy Roenick and Kevin Weekes try out the skills competition and weekes sure took a ribbing on his skating speed and shooting. |Roenick said he should have skated half speed, and I told him that I thought he was. He got a good laugh on that one.

Later there was an optional skate fo rthe players and a bunch of goalies came out with a few other skaters. They still play around like a bunch of kids at the corner rink, especially when trying to score on each other. It was fun to watch.

I also got to meet a referee named Tom. Great guy and he had his kids out on the ice for the optional Refs skate. We chatted for quite a bit and he was a great guy. His kids were having a great time.

As for the data feed. Versus finally was able to see my data but didn't know how to move it into their graphic system, so it was an interesting exercise but a waste of time in the end. So you'll see the timing boards being shot with cameras. We did out job.

We're just getting ready for the big production and it' s sort of the calm before the storm. It will be panick for a short time and then relax and watch hte rest.

I did get to watch 3doors down do a sound check and they really do sound good. That's my free concert of the day.

day complete

I finally got back to my hotel room at 8 pm after a really long day. But sure is interesting. We worked out some technical glitches and all the test runs worked well. The only piece of the puzzle left to do is get the physical connection hooked up between my equipment in the penalty box and the VERSUS broadcast trailer/ The Versus guys wanted to test the data stream so they could work out their processing requirments, and since the cable wasn't done yet from me to them, I ended up taking my radar gun and processing box over to their control room and we did a test run over there. We wired the gun into their system and they were able to see the data stream ok. That made everyone happy. VERSUS takes the data stream from me, converts it to a tv graphic which then gets distributed yo all the othe broadscasters to use as they see fit. So who knows what the data will look like on CBC. Maybe someone can record the whole thing for me as I won't be able to see it.

I had a really good system going today. I had my laptop running in the penelty box and was streaming video over skype to a few people who called me. Won't have time to do that tomorrow but it just added to the cool factor.

Looking forward to tomorrow and have to be there ready to go at 8am.

test run

It's Friday morning and there was a complete runthrough of the skills competition that will start tomorrow night. They brought in a college team to do all the skills and they were pretty good. They had Scott Oak practicing his announcing with his sidekick who I can't remember who he was.
The two events that I am overseeing are the fastest skater and the hardest shot. I suggested they call it the fastest shot since they were measuring speed. That didn't go over too well. The fastest skater went well, but I'm going to have to be on my toes for the real thing tomorrow night as it involves switching the eyes to different inputs on the timer. They use the same eye for start and finish and the skater skates through the other skater's eye on the way round so the right pulse has to get to the right channel and ignore the passage throught the other skater's eye. And at the end I have to keep the display up until they tell me to get set for the next pair. So if you see it screw up, chances are it's my fault.

When we tested the radar gun for the hardest shot, the data didn't show up on the display board. Now I take this one to heart as I designed and built the interface processor that changes the radar gun protocol to the display protocol. And on top of that I have Brendan Shanahan giving me the evil glare when it didn't work. Lots of concern, but in the end the guy who set the gun up had the wrong setting. The retesting on the hardest shot worked good after that.
So I'm pretty well done with the equipment for the day. I am just hanging out in the rink like any rink rat would . I'm actually waiting for a rep from the host broadcaster to work out some data feed issues from my equipment to his. I thoink he's on afternoon shift since he's not here.

We have more testing tomorrow in preperation for the show which I think goes to air around 7pm. My camera will be working overtime for that one.

long day

Today was a great day to be at the rink, but it was long. I managed to find a spot in the NHL production office to set up and test all my timing gear. I'm not sure the rest of the crew new what to make of me with my timing boards lighting up the room. The office is interesting in that just about anyone who is connected to the broadcast comes through there at some point. There's the guys from VERSUS, CBC, and RD something. The french tv crew. Scott Oaks from CBC was in several times getting briefed on stuff he was doing.Ya gotta like an office with a beer cooler in the back. I didn't have any during the day but brought home a couple to relax with. It's bud light but it's still sorta beer. How much lighter can american beer be.

The picture of the stage section is the crew getting set for the team picking tomorrow. Also the Canadian Tenors are singing at the game. So I guess the stage will be used for them as well.

The picture in the penalty box is basically my office for the weekend. I'll be running the timer for the fastest skater, and feeding data to the broadcast center from both the speed timer and the hardest shot. I kinda threw a wrench into their Hardest Shot competition. I said it wasn't the hardest shot but the fastest shot. It was sorta like" I know but we call it the hardest shot ". I guess even the guy who wrote the software and built the hardware for the competition doesn't carry any weight.

Tomorrow we do a dry run at 9 am. That gives us all day to tweek stuff before the draw. Stay tuned for tomorrow.

If it's Thursday, it's hectic

Thursday is the day that everyone starts to show up to get things done. I spent a lot of the day searching through the maze of shipping boxes at the loading dock to get all of my equipment gathered up and unboxed. I had to get familiar with the timer that I'll be using for the fastest skater. It's one I've never used before but was able to get up to speed on it in short order. I ran some tests on it with a display board in the office here. By the way the office is dressing room #3. But it still has internet. Even the low life dressing rooms are nice. I have taken a few pictures so will post them as they come.

life in the NHL lane

Seeing as how this is my first blog for 2011, I thought coming in with a bang was in order. Just like the Zamboni driver in the add that gets called up, I got the call to come to the NHL. So here I am in Raleigh,NC home of all sorts of car racing, but I'm living for three days inside the RBC center.
It didn't start out as I had hoped. I sat on the runway in North Bay for over an hour waiting for weather so we could leave. Then I had to do the 100 yard dash to pick up my bag, get through US customs and then find my gate. When it was all said and done, I got to my hotel room at midnight. Can't wait to see what the next day brings.