Remembering Jack Walsh: Mobile-Sports-Production Pioneer and Co-Founder of Trio Video Died at 67 The Chicago sports veteran started as a camera operator on White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks games By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Thursday, September 16, 2021 - 1:16 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Jack Walsh, a mobile-sports-production entrepreneur, sports- television-technology industry leader, and founder of facilities company Trio Video, died on Aug. 11.
Trio Video was a staple of the Chicago sports scene, providing mobile production facilities for broadcasts of its major sports teams. The company also supported other live events in the area, including parades, marathons, and concerts.
Anyone who watched Chicago sporting events and live city events for over 25 years had Jack to thank, because Trio Video's production trucks and crews were the source of those telecasts, WGN-TV Chicago Director, Production, Bob Vorwald said to the Chicago Tribune.
Walsh was awarded Chicago television's highest honor, the Silver Circle Award, by the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2008. Trio Video was a mainstay of the industry until 2011 when it was acquired by NEP Broadcasting. Walsh stayed on to oversee Trio Video operations until his retirement in 2018.
When Trio Video became part of NEP more than a decade ago, we were thrilled that so many talented individuals became part of our family, says Mike Werteen, Global President, NEP Broadcast Services, NEP Group. They all cared about delivering for clients and working together as one, every day. That care and focus was driven by Jack Walsh. Jack knew the importance of properly supporting his team and fought passionately for them. Jack was a legend in the broadcasting business and a legend in the hearts of those who knew him. We all will miss a true broadcasting icon.
Jack was a great man to work with and for, says Matt Keske, production manager, Chicago region, PRG, and a veteran of NEP and CSP Mobile Productions. Even if you were working for him, you were really working with him. He was always willing to listen to your viewpoint. However, he didn't waste time if a decision needed to be made quickly. He was a decider and wasn't afraid to go with his instincts.
Founded in 1982, mobile-sports-production provider Trio Video served TV productions of all major Chicago sports teams. The company was sold to NEP in 2011.
Walsh was born in Fairbanks, AK, and received a degree in radio, television, and film from Temple University in 1975. He got his start at TV stations in the Carolinas and West Virginia before finally settling in in Chicago, where he was a camera operator on White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks games, as well as for the famed Phil Donahue Show.
He formed his own freelance-TV-crewing business, Location Crew Services, in 1979 before collaborating with fellow camera operator Gary Meagher and engineer Dick Shapiro to start Trio Video in January 1982.
According the Chicago Tribune:
Walsh had this idea of forming an on location' video production company that included TV trucks. Owning the trucks would guarantee that we could hire ourselves to do the work, Meagher recalled in an email. And the timing was excellent. Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn were forming SportsVision for the White Sox and Bulls. ESPN was really starting to roll. The business was changing dramatically, from sports and special events being produced by local TV stations, to a kind of free-for-all.
Walsh is remembered fondly by many in the mobile sports production industry, including those from other mobile facilities proivders across the continent.
I met Jack at my first Hughes Baseball Meeting, recalls Mary Ellen Carlyle, SVP and General Manager at Dome Productions. I was the kid that was trying to explain to the group that the Toronto Blue Jays decided not to allow mobiles in the stadium. The visiting team broadcasts could utilize Dome Productions in stadium control rooms along side the Cappuccino Bar. Jack was one of the first to give me his Chicago dates. Since that day, Jack and Trio Video were always there for Dome when we needed [facilities] whether in Canada or the U.S. As I always respected Jack and his staff at Trio Video, I really appreciated it when he referred to Dome Productions' culture as part of his Trio family. Long after Jack moved on from the industry I was fortunate enough to keep in touch. I am thankful for all [he] has done for me and the Dome family. [He] will not be forgotten.
We shared a passion for the excitement of live TV, said Peter Kimball, Senior Account Manager Entertainment at NEP Group, who worked with Walsh as a fellow camera operate on Chicago sports broadcasts as well as freelancers on Big 10, ESPN, and NBC broadcasts across the midwest. He also helped helm Trio Video's Musical Festival team. At the end of this month, our festival team will be on site at Austin City Limits Music Festival our 15th year of covering just about every major music festival/artist in North America.Jack was a straight shooter, had a mind of his own, and was truly a good person.
Even as Jack was helming everything as a managing owner of Trio Video, he would still occasionally be crew chief on-site or work camera during telecasts, SOS Global Express Manager of Onsite Operations & Client Services Keith O'Brien said to the Chicago Tribune. O'Brien joined Trio Video as director of production in the 1990s after overseeing remote operations for Turner Sports. [Jack had] an amazing ability to look you in the eye and make you instinctively believe that he had your back. You could also find him crawling around on his back assisting with the wiring of any of our production trucks being built in the shop. On more than one occas
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...
Remembering Jack Walsh: Mobile-Sports-Production Pioneer and Co-Founder of Trio Video Died at 67 The Chicago sports veteran started as a camera operator on White Sox, Cubs, and Blackhawks games By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
