Live from Final Four: Game Creek Video Checks Mega Event Off Its Bucket List

Live from Final Four: Game Creek Video Checks Mega Event Off Its Bucket List New '79 houses main game production while Edit 4 makes its heralded debut By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Saturday, March 31, 2018 - 9:43 pm

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There are few marquee sporting events that mobile production facility provider Game Creek Video hasn't done. You can now check the NCAA Men's Final Four off that list.

Game Creek has made a big splash on its first appearance at this event with five mobile units on site in the compound at the Alamodome n San Antonio. Most notable, the newly released '79 is here after getting a few of its first events under its belt, including the first two weekends of the NCAA Tournament in Nashville and Omaha.

Game Creek Video has mobile production units supporting the broadcast of the Final Four for the first time in the company's 25-year history.

Built For ESPN, '79 is Game Creek Video's most souped-up IP-based production unit its ever released. It's a 53-ft. expando that features an A and a B unit. Here, the A unit is hosting engineering, video, production, and audio, while the B unit has replay, comms, a V/O booth, and 4K support resources.

[Game Creek] pushes the envelope in truck technology, says Chris Brown, Director of Technical Operations for Turner Sports. Basically what we are able to do with that truck is take what has historically taken anywhere from four to five trucks on the game side to now be pushed into three trailers. From that standpoint, it's a great efficiency of space.

The dark horse darling of the compound this year, however, is the brand new Edit 4, a 53-ft. expando that offers space for up to nine, spacious edit suites.

It's made to be a flexible space; a sandbox, says Paul Bonar, VP of Engineering for Game Creek Video.

Bult with the Final Four in mind, Edit 4 is used to cut postproduced content, including everything from teases, to transitions, features, and more. Turner Sports works with Los Angeles-based Thumb War Productions to help manage its complex editing infrastructures and the company played a key role in working with both Turner and Game Creek to get the suites in Edit 4 humming.

It was awesome conversation between the folks at Turner and Game Creek when we were trying to fill a gap, says Chris Brown, Director of Technical Operations for Turner Sports. Prior to having a facility like that, we essentially had edit suites squirreled away of every corner of every trailer we could find. That all goes away when you can fit eight edit bays in one truck.

The unit has been wildly popular with editors as it is highly customizable with retractable sliding walls that allow for collaborative work or secluded focus.

That's key because every editor has their own way that they like to work, says Brown. Some don't mind the community environment, others, depending what they are working on, want to be able to close themselves off so that they can concentrate. Our editors love it, says Brown. The guys at Game Creek really thought of all of the little nuances. For example, even just the rack depth is extra-long. It's been thoughtful for all of the different things we'd want to put in there. It's a really well-built truck.

Rounding out the Game Creek here are Pride A, where ESPN is broadcasting the International feed from, and Pride B, in which Turner and CBS are housing graphics for the main game telecast on TBS.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/03/31/live-from-final-four-game-creek...
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