I take a REAL Job (sorta)

I have 3 good friends that work for a company called Sportvision. This company make many of the sports you watch on TV - more enjoyable to view. For example, they invented the yellow 'first down' line in football, the virtual ad behind the batter in baseball, many of the cool graphics in Nascar, the Olympics and other sports. Well, because of my friends: JB, Charles and Rick - I now work for Sportvision. I was going to wait until footbal season to begin, but the guy who the 'operators' report to offered me a summer schedule of one job every 2 or 3 weeks, so I took it.

I'm currently learning to install a new system called Pitch Effects (PFX). PFX will give the viewer a new bit of info when it comes to the pitch. One thing it will do is make the ball look like a comet on the replay (when the director decides to use the effect). It also will give a graphic showing how fast the ball was traveling and how much it 'broke' from l-r or r-l and how much it dropped. My current job is to set up the stadiums with the cameras and computers that are required to make all of this happen.

This week I'm in Arlington Texas - setting up the stadium for the Texas Rangers

Here's a view of where the camera is located near first base line


Here's a view of where the "high home plate" camera is located. IT looks straight down on the ball from the pitcher to the plate.