Live From NBA All-Star: PPI Enjoys Home-Court Advantage in Successful Crewing Effort Labor provider supplies 124 technicians working 491 event days for multiple clients By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 11:58 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
For Program Productions Inc.'s VP Joey Carzoli and his brother, Chairman/CEO Bob Carzoli, the 2020 NBA All-Star game at Chicago's United Center provided a great opportunity to bring together hundreds of talented crew members for a big-time event on PPI's home turf.
Fifteen years ago, we were the fifth-largest crewing company in Chicago, and now we are number one in the world, says Joey Carzoli. We are extremely humbled, and to say we appreciate everything is an understatement.
PPI's Joey Carzoli says being in the field with clients is an important part of the company's crewing success.
NBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago was a multi-day event in which multiple entities took over multiple venues around town for productions. PPI provided 124 technicians who worked a total of 491 event days for such clients as Turner Sports, NBA TV, Twitter, and the ELEAGUE. XLT Management Services was onsite for payroll.
It was a challenge, says Joey Carzoli of finding the best crew members for the job. We dipped into the Milwaukee market to get some additional quality people, and they did an outstanding job.
Once the weekend started, the task at hand was to keep up with ever-changing production needs: everything from call times to the size of a crew can change quickly depending on what the production side is looking to accomplish. The ProCrewz mobile app, introduced by PPI two years ago, plays a key part in ensuring that crew members are updated on their call times and even allows them to make sure their billable hours are correct in the system.
It took a lot of investment to get it done, says Joey Carzoli, but the feedback has been spectacular.
According to Amy Scheller, SVP. strategy and development, PPI, introduction of the ProCrewz event-management software and mobile app to the industry has been a game-changer.
PPI utilizes ProCrewz to provide clients with 24/7 access to the status of event crews and estimates, she says. PPI event crews use the ProCrewz mobile app to see event details, punch in/out within a venue-specific geo-fence, submit expenses and upload receipts, and see estimated and final pay.
Joey Carzoli says PPI is tireless in its efforts to match crew with the specific needs of the clients: This sets us apart from other crewing services. Getting enough runners and utilities was a big accomplishment, given that there was a need for about 20 whereas typically two or three would be enough to get the job done.
Another challenge, he adds, was finding enough makeup artists. Thankfully, I have access to a pool of about seven or eight in Chicago, he explains. Makeup is tough because you can't just stick a green makeup artist in with celebrities.
Up next for Joey Carzoli will be a trip to Arizona for the Marquee Network, the new TV home of the Chicago Cubs. Spring training kicks off on Saturday, and then it is time for the regular season to begin in Milwaukee with the all-important home opener on April 30.
Scheller says the company is honored to partner with Marquee Network and to have the opportunity to provide talented crews and the highest level of customer service that will support its success.
The key to PPI's success as the leading labor provider in North America, she says, is managing our national reach by keeping regional offices with staff crewers in 40 major markets.
PPI President Scott West concurs: If the mobile units don't show up, there is no show, and the same is true if there is not a comprehensive labor presence. There are several industry leaders on the facilities side to handle large events, but PPI and XLT are the only national labor-management companies that can handle this workload.
Reflecting on NBA All-Star Weekend, Joey Carzoli calls it a job well done: Everybody was where they were supposed to be. To me, it's all about being in the field supporting our clients and getting the pulse of the techs so you can address problems face to face.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Live From NBA All-Star: PPI Enjoys Home-Court Advantage in Successful Crewing Effort Labor provider supplies 124 technicians working 491 event days for multiple clients By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
