Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399159
34 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2021 The task of broadcasting these events, replete with live commentary, instant replays, and information graphics is an enormous undertaking. Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Local 695 member Edgar Lopez, an EVS Operator who was kind enough to share some of his experiences working sports broadcasting. Edgar grew up in Anaheim and later studied television at Chapman University, where he fostered ambitions of becoming an editor. Despite enjoying the creative process of the craft, the slow and meticulous process of cutting content in a nonlinear editing platform proved tedious to him. Opportunities soon emerged in the world of sports, however, where Edgar first learned of the position of EVS Operator—a job which allowed him to edit content in fast-paced environments. After graduating, Edgar found opportunities substituting for other operators in weekly sports working for the NFL, NHL, NBA, and NASCAR. Coming up in Orange County, however, Edgar and his family had always supported their local teams—the Anaheim Angels and the Anaheim Ducks. Therefore, it seemed fitting when he was asked to become one of the lead EVS Operators for both teams, positions he has now held for over ten years. "It's kind of surreal," he told me. "My brothers and my family are all sports fans and they're always talking about the games or specific plays that I was there for." Though critical to live events and sports broadcasting, the role of the EVS Operator is not as commonly understood as those of our brothers and sisters in production sound. These technicians are tasked with a variety of responsibilities and are often simultaneously responsible for juggling large amounts of data, recalling and cutting content moments after it occurs, sourcing clips for playback. The job is one- part tape operator, one-part editor, and one-part playback specialist all at the same time. At the heart of the operation sits the EVS media server, which Edgar describes as being like "a DVR on steroids." This digital video production system is capable of recording, editing, and playing content from a wide variety of sources and in an equally wide variety of formats. The current line of XT media servers can support up to sixteen channels of HD video, ultra-high- definition resolutions of up to 8K, HDR encoding, and both traditional SDI-routed signals or those from a network-