How Fox Sports North Broadcast Hockey Day Minnesota When Temperatures Hit 27 Degrees Below Zero Special precautions taken to protect staff and equipment as annual celebration reached record cold By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Tuesday, January 22, 2019 - 3:28 pm
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In the great state of Minnesota, the people take pride in two things: their love of hockey and their ability to tolerate the cold. Both were on display in a big way on Saturday as the Minneapolis-based regional sports network Fox Sports North carried Hockey Day Minnesota under the most extreme cold weather conditions the event has experienced in the 13-year history of the event.
Fox Sports North's production of Hockey Day Minnesota experienced record low temperatures this year. Crew, like camera operator Jason Hagen (operating a handheld in the corner), braved temps as low as -27 to bring viewers the scenes from Lake Bemidji.
With three outdoor games (two high school and one collegiate) set to take place on a rink just off Lake Bemidji (which is more than 220 miles north of the Twin Cities), temperatures were as low as 27 degrees below zero at drop of the first puck just after 9 a.m. local time.
There aren't many places where a live sports production would occur outdoors in such weather, but the leadership and crew of Fox Sports North, as well as freelancers from the local IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), not only managed the challenge, they embraced it.
Naturally you began to think when do cables begin to snap and when do Servos not work, says Mike Dimond, GM of Fox Sports North. I will say, though, what our crew has done in preparation I can't begin to say what a tremendous job they have done to tough it out. There's pride in ownership here too and it's a badge of honor to be here and say you were a part of the coldest Hockey Day ever.
Needless to say, there were numerous precautions that needed to be taken to protect both the people and the broadcast equipment working this event. In some cases, the operations team needed to get creative to keep bodies warm and gear functional.
According to Bob Rohde, director of operations for Fox Sports North, camera positions were accompanied by small propane heaters with the camera baskets in which the operators stood wrapped in tarp and draping in an attempt to keep that hit contained. There were points throughout the day where those propane heaters themselves were freezing up. In addition, FSN's mobile production truck partner Mobile TV Group was also wrapping the large box broadcast lenses on the main camera positions with heating blankets to get them working.
Camera bays were wrapped and outfitted with propane heaters to keep camera operators warm and large box lenses were wrapped in heating blankets to keep them functional.
It was the camera operators that received much of the applause on site from Fox Sports North executive producer Tony Tortorici as those were the positions most exposed to the cold for the longest periods of time and systems would put in place to keep those positions constantly rotating so everyone could get breaks to warm up.
During our camera meeting we went over how important it was that if anyone is feeling anything, you've got to let us know, says Tortorici. We'll go down a camera, whatever we have to do. People come first. But I'm amazed. There's no fear in their eyes. They are ready to go and its business as usual. This [event] is a big deal for Fox Sports North and we want to be a part of it. It's part of the culture to a certain extent.
It was a common theme of the day that, despite the frigid conditions, there was a pride in not only doing this event, but doing it in this weather. It's a trait that's truly charactertic of the state. It's also a drive and a commitment that has helped make this event one of the annual crown jewels on the RSN calendar.
Three games from site were produced from inside Mobile TV Group's 36HDX, which is Fox Sports North's regular home truck. Here, the front bench of (left to right) Trevor Fleck, Vanessa Lambert, Mike Malmgren, and Jason Clemens call the shots during intermission of a college women's game between Minnesota State and Bemidji State.
Hockey Day Minnesota is the signature event of all RSNs, says Michael Connelly, SVP/executive producer for all Fox Sports Regional Networks, who made the trip in from Los Angeles, along with Steve Grigely, VP, Technical Operations of Fox Sports Regional Networks, to help oversee the event. What this team has done to it to build it up, it's become an unofficial holiday. Our other RSNs are trying to emulate it. They want to get that same kind of culture built with sports that are important to their state.
Other Fox Sports RSNs have taken the lead, including Fox Sports Indiana and Fox Sports Midwest which was also putting on its own unique broadcast on Saturday in Basketball Day Indiana. These mega-events prove to milestones in a RSNs commitment to serve the local community beyond simply broadcasting the professional teams within the market.
We do so many events and they are all done at a really high level but they are also formulaic, says Dimond. This is a chance for us to really be outside of our comfort zone to rally together under one banner on something that is difficult. Make no mistake about it, this is hard stuff that we're doing, but its so fun now that after a while it becomes standard operating procedure. This is our Super Bowl so we rally around it.
As far as the unique production elements on this event, the weather didn't derail any of the cool tech toys that the event promised, including a Ref Cam provided by Vicareo, a drone by the Picture Factory, and a camera operator on skates using a MOVI ri
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How Fox Sports North Broadcast Hockey Day Minnesota When Temperatures Hit 27 Degrees Below Zero Special precautions taken to protect staff and equipment as annual celebration reached record cold By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
