Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399159
Fall 2021 – LOCAL695.ORG 35 impacted the jobs of those working in sports broadcast. "There's a lot more remote work now," Edgar told me. "You were already starting to hear people saying, 'Hey, this could be done remotely,' but no one was willing to try it. Then last year, everything shut down. People weren't allowed to sit in a truck for ten-hour days. What's the solution? Well, we could try doing it remotely." This was achieved by sending EVS controllers home with operators, who could then wirelessly access their machines at work and remote control them from home. This allowed productions to build their video infrastructure in a singular location and allow remote workers access rather than sending expensive encoding servers home with each operator. "The feeds aren't as good though," Edgar commented. "The biggest issue with remote work right now is the delay. The video they send home to you is compressed and isn't as high quality as in the truck, which they do so there isn't a major delay. But sometimes it still gets to you like a second late. So if we need to freeze the video, we aren't really freezing it at the exact point because of the delay. When I hit stop, it takes a split second for the signal to get back to the truck. It's not exactly frame accurate." These changes brought about by the pandemic have been positive for Edgar, who hopes to see remote work continue going forward. "Before COVID, I was traveling with the Angels and the Ducks. I'd be on their planes and stay in their hotels. If they were playing in New York, I'd fly out, do all the games there, and then move onto the next city. Now it looks like I won't need to travel as much anymore. I get to stay home, sleep in my own bed, and see my kids every day. I have an eight year old and six year old. I've been home for the last year and now when I'm gone, it's sad for them. It's sad for me. So hopefully with this remote stuff, I can be home and spend more time with them." I would like to thank Edgar for taking the time to sit down and speak with me about his job, his career, and his family. More importantly, I'd like to extend a sincere thanks to him and all of his colleagues for bringing us our games week after week, year after year, and fighting to continue doing so even in the midst of a deadly virus. As we head into fall and turn yet another corner in the story of this pandemic, the world of sports has come back to life. Fans have returned to fill their stadiums with the cries of jubilation and frustration as they watch their teams go head-to-head. The now inaccurately named 2020 Summer Olympic Games are behind us, reinvigorating spirits of sportsmanship and competition across the globe as we look toward next year's Winter Games. based IP source. In a sports environment, EVS work can become hectic. The randomness of chance that makes sports so exhilarating to fans poses unique challenges to those broadcasting them. Games often require a dozen or more cameras in order to achieve proper coverage and all of those feeds need to be ingested. Instant replay packages need to be generated and rolled out before the moment of opportunity passes. New content must be generated in direct response to the game itself. In complicated environments, this can require teams of EVS Operators working in tandem with one another, each responsible for their own set of feeds but cutting and distributing packages for communal use. "It's not easy. It's really hard," Edgar told me. "We're human. We make errors. We try to be perfect but mistakes happen. We don't always see everything. For the first few years, it's difficult to build up to the speed or know what kinds of footage producers might be looking for. Then, once you're there for a while, you start to know what to expect and you have a Plan B in case it comes down to the wire. Experience prepares you best for any situation. If a home run happens, we're usually editing it as the player's rounding the bases so we have it ready to go." Despite the difficulty of the job, Edgar was quick to share many positive career-defining moments as well. The most significant came following the death of Tyler Skaggs, an Angels player who passed away in 2019. "The game following that day was very difficult for everybody. You get to know the players pretty closely and it's always hard to lose such a good guy. But we came home and they were having a big ceremony at the Angels Stadium. All the players were wearing his jersey. His mom got to throw out the first pitch. And at the end of the night, the team got a no-hitter. They all started taking off their jerseys and throwing them on the mound. It was just such a perfect baseball moment. It was like a dream for the Angels and all of us. And we all felt like we did a really good job at the end of the night. We felt like we represented the team and the player, so we were all pretty proud." It goes without saying that the world of sports was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March of last year, sports seasons saw unprecedented disruptions as teams that had played through fire, storm, and flood were forced to return home. Stadiums that had once been filled with screaming throngs of fans sat in silence. The Summer Olympic Games were postponed, a disruption not seen since the cancellation of the 1944 Games during World War II. SoFi Stadium, finally complete after four years of construction, celebrated its inaugural games behind closed doors without any fans present. As one might expect, this