
PPI's ProCrewz App Connects Crewers, Freelancers To Make Getting a Gig Easier Than Ever By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, November 15, 2021 - 10:57 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The phrase There's an app for that finally applies to the freelance hiring process as Program Productions, Inc. (PPI) took the wraps off a new version of ProCrewz that will allow for crewers to offer assignments via the app, freelancers to accept the gig via the app, and plenty of other functions as well as the company looks to streamline the crewing process from start to finish.
The new ProCrewz app from PPI will allow for freelance job offers to be made and accepted.
We've seen some incredible technological advancements in the broadcast sports industry and the way sports and live events are covered, says Bob Carzoli, PPI, chairman and CEO. Every part of the sports broadcasting industry has seen advancement after advancement except the management of the industry's most important resource: it's people and today that changes forever.
Scott West, PPI, president and COO, says the platform will help manage events crews in various locations and improve communication with field technicians, help track their rates, hours, and expenses, as well as manage employee data and process payroll.
The cloud-based labor event management platform and mobile application system is built to integrate across operations, production and finance departments, and allow your team unprecedented access to real-time information and the ability to communicate efficiently in a fast paced environment, he says.
Users, for example, have a My Jobs page where they can view current and upcoming jobs with multiple clients and events. Technicians can use filters by event; date range jobs can be viewed by month using the customizable calendar and technicians can sign in and out with a virtual time clock. It's also geo-fenced within an allowable radius of the venue (a feature that can be disabled to allow workers to punch in from anywhere) and it can even allow for expenses to be uploaded. And, of course, crews can direct dial or text their coordinator or job site point of contact notifications to ensure each technician is kept up to speed with important reminders and updates through notes and real-time chat features. A message board acts like a chat feature sending group messages to all members onsite.
Amy Scheller, PPI, SVP of strategy and development, says the use of templates can make it easy to upload job details, date, description, venue, market time, and event site. Positions can be added and subtracted via check boxes and then those positions can be tied to the PPI employee database to see who is available.
The employee can view the availability request notification and be able to respond if he's available or not, explains Scheller. When someone is available, we have the ability to officially offer the job and have them respond directly in the mobile app and then automatically be populated on the crew list.
All crew will also be able to see all the necessary information pertaining to their assignment.
The visibility of all of this information is the result of all the behind the scenes technology, says Scheller. We know that you can develop an entire system and if the user interface is wrong, it's useless. We spent a lot of time making sure that the user interface is friendly to app users, but we also put a lot of focus on the user interface for the crew managers. The calendar view is a great example of that.
The ProCrewz app connects crew members with their COVID vaccination status, making it easy to clear them ahead of time.
The mobile app also integrates COVID health screening before punching in on site. Users will answer a series of standard questions and hopefully get the result that they're clear to work.
Once they've completed the questionnaire and are cleared to work, they will be able to punch in, explains Scheller. This also means no more papers to sign and sheets to maintain on site. Real-time records of punch in and out data allows for accurate hours and labor costs tallied immediately after the events. And overtime, meal penalties, and short turnaround, are reported via the mobile app.
Once on site for the job the job message function can easily send messages to the crew for things like catering hours, emergencies, and more.
You can view the messages that have been sent out and the responses that have come back, adds Scheller.
The app and backend are both built on Salesforce, a move that allows for things like critical security or performance updates to be delivered to multiple mobile platforms and devices.
We looked at a lot of off-the-shelf products, but we decided we needed to build our own, says Carzoli. And we took the executives out of the design process and said the employees, clients, and our production people are the ones who are going to build this. So, we ended up with a system that was built for event professionals by event professionals. And I really think that's what the real success of this entire platform has been: it's been the people that use it every day saying this is actually what we need.
More from Sports Video Group
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
09/06/2026
FOX Sports and ReachTV, an airport media network, have announced an agreement to...
09/06/2026
Cosm Atlanta, a 70,000-square-foot, three-level immersive entertainment venue located within Centennial Yards adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Sta...
09/06/2026
NESN captured five awards at the 2026 Boston/New England Emmy Awards, including four program honors and one individual award.
These awards reflect the passion...
09/06/2026
Ateme has announced that its support for Apple Immersive Video workflows was referenced by Apple during its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26).
Atem...
09/06/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Axel Springer SE has deployed Player Web X, Bitmovin's web video player, to power audio readouts of news articles and an audio-o...
09/06/2026
Grass Valley and Lawo have announced a technology collaboration to validate orch...
09/06/2026
LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) t...
09/06/2026
Globecast has announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform, powered by ...
09/06/2026
NBC Sports will present live coverage of Overtime's OT7 football league Championship Weekend from Sullivan Field at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angel...
09/06/2026
We're in three different locations, three different production teams. Coveri...
09/06/2026
The intro video for Men's Basketball won Outstanding In-Venue Video in the C...
09/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
09/06/2026
Since their debut, the clock-and-score graphic has drawn the affinity and ire of...
08/06/2026
The two execs discuss the goals and the challenges of building a huge multi-cult...
08/06/2026
This industry legend has been a road warrior since the early '90s and is, today, a lynchpin on College GameDay
The sports-production industry continues to ...
08/06/2026
DAZN has agreed a multi-year rights partnership with Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC), expanding its global combat sports portfolio.
DAZN will broadcast EFC...
08/06/2026
As fans move across broadcast, streaming, social, mobile and creator-led platforms, and they expect every angle, in real time, TVU Networks has released a new e...
08/06/2026
Infront has further strengthened the 2026 Diamond League's international bro...
08/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced the appointment of Sam Craig as Vice President, Global Pre-Sales. Based in the United States, Craig will lead Grass Valley's glob...
08/06/2026
SMPTE has announced its summer 2026 education lineup covering IP networking and SMPTE ST 2110, including two standalone courses, a 13-week boot camp, and a hand...
08/06/2026
Sportradar Group AG has announced a multi-year global agreement with Kalshi, a p...
08/06/2026
FIFA and Gamefam have announced the launch of a FIFA World Cup 2026 event on Roblox, running June 5 through July 31, 2026. The event centers on FIFA Super Socce...
08/06/2026
A collaboration of NHL Productions, Monumental Sports, and Michael Levitt Produc...
08/06/2026
CBS Sports production staffer Bryce Adair has died at the age of 31 after sustaining injuries during a car accident on Wednesday while in Ohio working the the P...
08/06/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...
08/06/2026
WMT Digital today announced the launch of WMT Fan Intelligence, designed to unif...
08/06/2026
The Heat are the seventh NBA team to air their games over-the-air next season...
08/06/2026
Paramount and UFC have announced an expansion of their media rights partnership making Paramount the exclusive home of UFC Numbered Event main cards in Canada ...
08/06/2026
The Qatar Football Association (QFA), in cooperation with Sponix and broadcaster...
08/06/2026
Project B has announced the appointment of Host Broadcast Services (HBS) as Offi...
08/06/2026
The Buckeyes now produce and stream upwards of 200 sports events annually with a...
05/06/2026
The university-wide initiative has pushed their creative content to a new level
Although collegiate athletics at a single institution can contain numerous spo...
05/06/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
05/06/2026
Synamedia has announced that Lumine Group has agreed to acquire its Video Network business. The company is positioning the transition as the start of a new phas...
05/06/2026
Ateme, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), and Scaleway have announced a strategic partnership to deliver a cloud-based media supply chain covering ingest through...
05/06/2026
Audinate has announced three new additions to its Dante AVIO Install adapter series: a 4-Channel Analog Input, a 4-Channel Analog Output, and a 2-Ch In/2-Ch Out...
05/06/2026
Sportradar Group AG has announced a multi-year extension of its exclusive global...
05/06/2026
The M6 Group will broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026 matches live and in Ultra High D...
05/06/2026
The Athletic has announced that PGA TOUR highlights will be integrated into its golf coverage beginning with the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. PGA T...
05/06/2026
When the FIFA World Cup arrives in North America in 2026, it will bring more tha...
05/06/2026
FIFA and DAZN have announced the launch of FIFA exclusively on DAZN, consolidating FIFA's content portfolio within DAZN's sports platform. The move fol...
05/06/2026
Telemundo's exclusive Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 G...
05/06/2026
Dolby Laboratories and NBCUniversal have announced that Peacock will stream Tele...
05/06/2026
Formula 1 has announced a 10-year extension to keep the Las Vegas Grand Prix on the F1 calendar through 2037. Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc., Clark County, and the ...
05/06/2026
The broadcast-engineering team overcomes wind, speed, and salt water - and dista...
05/06/2026
Deploying both onsite and remote crews, the company is providing calibrated-came...