After facing an embarrassing interruption of its coverage of the first game of the World Series when its main and backup generators shut down, Fox Sports has revamped its power plans for the second game by bringing in new generators and by having its main production truck hooked up to the stadium's power.
Sports producers rarely hook up their trucks to the stadium's power supply because the generators are typically more reliable, explained Michael Davies, senior VP, technical and field operations, Fox Sports.
Davies said they may also bring in some new technology called a UPS or uninterruptable power supply when they return to New York City at the Citi Field.
The supplier of the power generators, Cat Entertainment Services and Fox engineers are still trying to determine the exact cause of the generator failures.
We have a primary and backup and the whole machine went down, Davies said. That is not supposed to happen. When one goes down, the other is supposed to start right up.
One possibility is that there was a problem with the electronics and that the computer shut the generators down. Other possibilities may be contaminated fuel.
At this point we are not really sure, he said. Those guys [the generator suppliers] are industry leaders and the largest supplier of entertainment generators out there, Davies said. We've done many events with them-the U.S. Open, Super Bowl are powered by their generators. We like them because they have an incredibly good maintenance record.
Major networks spent an enormous amount of time and money preparing back-up systems to avoid any interruption in coverage but network executives and viewers once again got a good reminder during the first game of the 2015 World Series that such plans are never foolproof.
During the 2013, Super Bowl for example, CBS had deployed back-up systems for everything including the generators. But one part of the production system was plugged into the main power supply of the stadium and when the stadium power went down, they lost the feed from their announcer booth even though the generators continued to supply power for their on-field crew. It also took some time after the game for the engineers to ID the problem.
We do an enormous amount of contingency planning, said Davies. Whenever this happens to another network, I always say it is a good thing that it didn't happen to us but that we should pretend that like it did.
In the aftermath of the glitch, Davies noted that what it does do is give everyone an opportunity to think about what their power plans were and to go over their own protocols and get a lot smarter. I think it will catalyze a lot of discussion in the industry.
Davies added that other networks, including CBS and Turner, quickly reached out to see if they could help.
Following the loss of power, Davies said it took only about 20 seconds to switch to their live studio in Los Angeles. The power loss only impacted the Fox Sports production compound and the NEP EN2 truck that was being used to produce the U.S. feed.
After six or seven minutes of frantically switching wires, they were able to switch to the international feed that was being produced by MLB from the Game Creek truck called Amazin' This truck is used to produce regular season Mets games. The switch to the international feed, however, reduced their graphics capabilities and replay angles, which prompted complaints from viewers on social media.
The outage was particularly frustrating for the Fox production crew because they had made a number of technical improvements to their production systems for the series. They added more slow motion cameras, including a 4K camera for reframing replays, and were using a total of 45 cameras to shoot the game. They had also ramped up their audio game.
You can hear the ball hit the base and people sliding into home, Davies said.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
15/06/2026
Detach from Direct-Attached: How Remote Editing with EVO Keeps Creative Teams Mo...
14/06/2026
Library captures 1960s R&B/pop drum sound
Following on from their recent wave of plug-in effects, Iconic Instruments have just launched an all-new virtual d...
14/06/2026
HBO Comedy Rooster Shot with URSA Cine 17K 65
Brie Clayton June 14, 2026
0 Comments
Large format brings viewers intimately close to characters.
Black...
13/06/2026
Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets
Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...
13/06/2026
Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts
MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
After facing an embarrassing interruption of its coverage of the first game of the World Series when its main and backup generators shut down, Fox Sports has revamped its power plans for the second game by bringing in new generators and by having its main production truck hooked up to the stadium's power.
