Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1505029
22 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2023 Q: How was the transition from analog to digital for you? I'm not great with technology, so for me personally, it was a difficult transition. I was lucky because Calrec, which is the main company that provides the consoles for sports, made its first digital deck look like its analog deck. When Yamaha went from analog to digital, it was totally different and was a difficult learning curve. Q: What teams are you most proud to have worked with? The Lakers, by far. Traveling with the team on the team charter one hundred thousand miles a year is the only way to travel. I'm in a hotel about 100-120 days a year for my road games across the various sports. Traveling with the Lakers lets me stay in some pretty nice hotels. Q: That's fun. Any interesting travel stories? Years and years ago, I was on a plane when we hit a sudden air pocket. I was asleep and woke up held down by my seat belt, but with my arms and legs in the air. Chick Hearn announced that we'd dropped ten thousand feet. When I worked on the Olympics in France, I had several days off that I was paid for, and I was just able to spend the time skiing. Q: Have you formed friendships with any of the players? I don't know if I would say friendships, but I do have a picture of myself and Kobe Bryant playing Ping-Pong on Thanksgiving in Detroit. Any time we're on the road for a holiday, the team usually does something. This time, they weren't going to do anything, so Kobe said he would. He rented out the banquet hall at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Michigan. He got a bunch of TV's and the Ping-Pong table, and catered the whole thing. Kobe was very approachable. I also have a picture of him with my nephew's Flat Stanley. Q: How do the Olympics differ from other sporting events? Hauling cable up a snowy mountain is hard work! Overall, everything is just a much larger scale. It's about two weeks of setup, and two weeks of the Olympics, so it's approximately a month-long gig. When I worked for CBS mixing the freestyle skiing, the downhill kept being delayed due to the snow, so our team had to scramble to adjust our schedule and workflow so the network had enough content to make the day. Q: Any career advice for someone who wants to enter the sports world? Be computer-savvy. Everything is moving toward Dante at this point, so that's an important skill to have. It's almost more important than being able to mix the game. If you want to be a sports mixer, picture yourself as a fan and imagine what you want to hear watching the game. Though my best advice is: run for your life. Only a crazy person does this for a living. I'd like to thank Antony for his time and for sharing the benefit of his experiences with us for this publication. His work and the work of so many members like him help to connect sports fans across the globe with their games, their teams, and fellow fans. Learning a little bit about the behind the scenes of the process will definitely change how I look at a game the next time I have one on and I hope the same is true for anyone reading.