The Ultimate Setup—Sports Illustrated and the Final Four(Part I)
By Mike Tedesco.
March Madness...The Final Four. For many, the NCAA tournament is one of the most exciting times of the sporting year. Come March, even the most casual sports fans fill out their brackets and tune in to watch the top teams dominate∧ the Cinderella teams upset their opponents. For Sports Illustrated (SI), the Final Four represents the most extensive and technical setup of the publishing year.
Walking into the Georgia Dome six days prior to the Final Four, the only people in the building were security, facilities, and Sports Illustrated crew. SI was there so early for two reasons: network infrastructure and lighting. While most of the other media were simply running networked laptops, SI had three HP Proliant D380 servers (two for Windows Active Directory Services and one for storage and tools) stacked on top of three Isilon IQ clustered drives totaling six terabytes of available RAID 5 drive space. Add the 35 Dell Latitude and IBM/Lenovo T40/T41/T43 laptops that were either tethered to a camera or used to edit images or transmit back to New York and you have a setup unlike any other for an annual sporting event. Lastly, about 70 megabits of a dedicated 100-megabit network line to the Internet would soon be used to transmit over 50,000 images that were taken by three staff photographers throughout the weekend.
Over first two days of setup, over 5000 feet of CAT 5 and CAT 6 custom terminated network cabling was run between the servers and seven switches that were placed strategically to meet the requirements of the Georgia Dome and fall within the 300 foot maximum limit to any laptop. "We have this extensive setup because the Final Four is one of the biggest events of the year, and the magazine closes on Monday evening for print on Tuesday," said Phil Jache, manager of publishing solutions for Time Inc. "We need the most efficient editing system and fastest Internet connection available so that we can get the images in front of Steve [Fine] and Porter [Binks] so that they can find the best images, and then get those selects to the editing team in New York as quickly as possible as we are always going for the cover."
Figure 1: Brett Hansbauer installs CAT 6 cabling and a switch under the temporary seating in the Georgia Dome
Figure 2: (From left) Phil Jache and Bryan Jennings work on the servers and laptops in the photo compound
With the complexity of the setup and the need to react very quickly to any issues, Jache spent hours detailing and documenting the name and location of each network switch, camera, laptop, and wizard in Microsoft Office Visio charts and Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets so that all members of the team knew exactly where everything was. "If something goes down during a game, we have to respond quickly or we may be missing 'the shot,'" said Jache.
While the technology team was busy with the networking and with the computers, the photo assistants were underway with the strobes and lighting cabling. Sports Illustrated were not only setting up their 12 lights (three for each corner of the court), but they were also contracted to install eight lights each for Associated Press and NCAA Photos. Speedotron Black Line 105 2-cable strobes were used for the lights, and they were powered by Speedotron 2401sx power supplies.
Figure 3: Matthew Kutz assembles a strobe
Figure 4: One of seven Speedotron lights mounted above each corner of the court
By Wednesday, the network infrastructure and lighting were in place, and it was time for the photographers to come in and scout their camera locations. "There are a few standard locations for camera placement such as the 600-mm lens above each basket, but nothing is totally standard. Every place has uniqueness, and the story we're trying to get also dictates things to some extent," said Bob Rosato, staff photographer and Microsoft Icon of Imaging, "but I'm always trying to find a new angle, something interesting. I try to think like the TV cameras and what is going to demonstrate the story best."
Figure 5: (From Left) Photographers John Biever, Bob Rosato, and John McDonough discuss camera locations
Figure 6: (From left) John McDonough and Bob Rosato discuss their strategy
Figure 7: Bob Rosato sets up his cameras
"In total, for the remote cameras, we have two overhead (mounted 255 feet above the court), three in the TV tower, two on the second level, two in the corners, four under the courtside table, and two under the basket," said Nils Nilsen, photo assistant to John McDonough. With so many remote cameras, the photo assistants ensure that each unit is secured from both a security and safety perspective. "We obviously need to secure everything since much of the gear is in the stands with the fans, but we also have an obligation to ensure that absolutely nothing can fall from above as we have gear over 250 feet above the court," said Nilsen. "Not only do we check over our gear, but when dealing with the overhead equipment, we also check everyone else's stuff to ensure nothing will come down." Multiple arm mounts, cables, and locks were used to secure the cameras, strobes, laptops, and switches; and hundreds of plastic tie wraps were used to secure all cabling.
Figure 8: One of the cameras mounted to a railing
The flash wizards that would be used to trigger the remote cameras and lighting were the LPA Design's Flash Wizard II units that allow multiple cameras to be synched with one set of strobes. "The benefit of the LPA wizards is that each unit can have the lag precisely customized with the shutter lag of the camera so that when they all fire, the timing is exact between the cameras," said Andrew Loehman, lead photo assistant. Each camera location is connected to a wizard; the strobes are configured the same way.
Figure 9: Andrew Loehman configures and mounts the wizards and then uses a single wizard to monitor and control the entire set
A plunger, or trigger, is used to engage the cameras for the photographer who is about to fire the strobes at either end of the court. "The tricky part is that two photographers, one at each end, are sharing the strobes so there is a timing factor involved between the pairs of photographers and assistants," said Loehman. "We are all in constant radio communication because not only do we have to deal with the limitations of strobe recycling, but also the photographers firing the strobes when it's not their turn." The way it is setup, there is a photographer at each end of the court who is connected to the strobes. As the action comes towards them, it is their turn to use the lighting. If both photographers are firing at the same time, the strobes are being overpowered, which can result in the blowout of a unit. When a photographer is not shooting their strobe units, they are shooting their available light cameras down court.
Figure 10: Bob Rosato's assistant, Adam Hunger, engages his remote cameras via 'the plunger'
While the cameras and wizards were being installed, the technology team was staging all of the laptops that each camera would be connected to. The laptops used with the cameras were Dell Latitude D610's running Windows XP Professional. Each laptop was configured and checked for the following:
. Canon Remote Capture
. OPUS Card Reader (Custom SI Software)
. Oracle Client
. Firewire card
. Ability to connect to the domain via network cable
Wireless networking disabled (this is done to prevent anyone from connecting to the laptops to affect the setup)
Figure 11: Brian Giaritelli stages the laptops
By the end of Thursday, everything was in place, and it was time for Sports Illustrated, CBS, and the NCAA to perform a strobe test to ensure that the photo lighting wouldn't interfere with the high definition broadcasting from CBS. The CBS cameras filmed a practice session while the photo assistants triggered the flashes. With high definition video, there was even more sensitivity to the photo strobes. "We had to decrease the power on the lighting by one stop as they were slightly too powerful for the television broadcast," said Porter Binks, associate picture editor. After that, the lighting was perfect and everything was set to go for the official practices on Friday.
Friday...Practice and media day. The players are in the stadium for interviews and official practices. The city bustles with fans of the Final Four teams, the players are excited, and the media is in place to cover the event. For Sports Illustrated, Friday's practice sessions serve as an opportunity to run live tests on the cameras, strobes, network, and computers. "While it's a very casual environment from the photography perspective, this gives us a chance to test the connectivity, focus, positioning, etc. of our setup," said Rosato.
Figure 12: Rosato tests his equipment during practice sessions
There were a few connectivity issues that needed to be worked out, along with some slight camera tweaks, but overall things were looking ready to go. "We're looking good...I'm happy. A few tweaks on focus and depth of field, and correcting the horizon on some remote cameras needs to happen, but other than that, I'm happy," said Binks. "We're ready for showtime."
Julgo que este texto é fantástico para todos perceberem como trabalha a comunicação social nos USA, com estes meios ao dispor dos fotógrafos tudo se torna fácil e as grandes imagens aparecem mais vezes.
Continuarei a demonstrar este magnifico trabalho brevemente...
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