Big Changes are Happening!

TL;DR - I left United Nations TV after 6.5 years and started a new full-time gig for the AV Event Production team at Google New York!

It has been quite the year and I apologize for not posting new updates about my work... things were either super busy with normal day-to-day coverage or extremely slow and boring, with nothing interesting to write about!

Regardless, November is here and lots has changed.

My one consistent job throughout the year has been my part-time/freelance work at Barclays Center in Brooklyn with supporting TV Systems for the building during the continuous events days of concerts, misc basketball games, boxing matches, and an impressive playoff run for both professional home teams in their respective leagues!

On the other side of the river in Manhattan, I have been working full-time at the United Nations in their Broadcast TV/Conference department since 2013. Throughout the year, we would broadcast the daily meetings and conferences, plus produce interviews or messages for celebrity activists, distinguished diplomats, and others. With this, there were always ebbs and flows of interesting content, with the big chunk of energy going into the annual General Debate/High Level Week for General Assembly in late September.

But with SEVEN (7) General Assembly sessions and hundreds of other global issues meetings under my belt, I decided it was time look for my next adventure!! After applications to many media companies and multiple rounds of interviews, I was offered an opportunity to work in the AV Event Production (EP) team for FIRST Events at Google New York.

Ultimately, our team produces the in-house events in Production-specific rooms for Google - from the coordination and logistics, to camera operations and audio mixing, to video playback and presentation visuals, as well as lighting and stage design. Only three weeks into the role, I am really excited about the work we do and personally being able to learn new (to me) processes and systems!

Let the "Games" Begin!

As summer rolls away and September arrives, my days begin to expand and drag into nights. Throughout the summer, the Barclays Center television systems went through its annual software update and minor hardware upgrades; while at the United Nations, I have been assigned to teach and retrain some new crew members on the internal media management systems.

With the system upgrades at Barclays Center, there have many very few concerts/shows/events and therefore, limited shifts are available to work during any nights or weekends. As system upgrades finish and sports seasons begin, our IPTV Systems team will be putting the final touches on the new designs and styles of the motion graphic advertisements, game data tickers, and welcome monitors for some of the premium sections! By mid-October, my schedule will be swamped with night/weekend event coverage shifts and ensuring the new graphics are working properly during these shifts!

Similarly, at the United Nations, summer work has fluctuated with many extremely quiet weeks and few weeks with all-day special event forums. Because of the limited events, most of the equipment maintenance and server tests take place throughout this time - in order for things to be modified, tweaked, or fixed but up and running seamlessly for the start of the new General Assembly session, in mid-September! This summer season also seems to be the most popular time for full-time staff to take vacations and freelance technicians fill the vacant positions. With the influx of new crew, many of them are assigned to the MOC and I am tasked to teach, train, and instruct these technicians on the proper workflow for all aspects of the MAMS (Media Asset Management System)... which is quite the daunting task when there is so much to learn, with so many folders/subfolders and unique edits for different archive purposes and multiple export formats and special rundowns for certain events and so much more!

SO... late Sept/early Oct is set to be filled with hundreds of delegates debating international politics and thousands of sports fans cheering their team on -- all cumulating to become another hectic and crazy, yet amazing and empowering few weeks of working in the media industry!!!

Start of Summer Vibes!

Since my last post, way back in January, I have thankfully been able to utilize some vacation days to travel around the States a bit, as well as a two-week adventure to China! During the travels, I did amass over 900 photos of the incredible scenery, the mouth-watering food, my wonderful travel companions, and so much more.

The main reason for my lack of posts is due to the lack of unique experiences or special events. Similar to previous years of summer work, major projects and events are quite limited - both at United Nations TV and Barclays Center. There is some systems maintenance and equipment upgrades, but there are dedicated staff engineers to perform these... so we, technicians, are all scheduled to work the normal day-to-day operations of meetings, briefings, interviews, and more!

On the flip side, the owner and operator of Barclays Center (Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment) also now owns/operates the newly-renovated Nassau Coliseum (branded as NYCB Live). Because the facility just opened and they are still hiring the AV Department crew, the creative teams at Barclays have been tasked to develop the look and feel of the front-of-house visuals (LEDs in-bowl, concourse TVs, menu layouts, box office graphics, etc). In addition to creating graphics for Nassau, we are also working on revamping the graphic designs for Barclays Center TVs. This recent task, and the whole job at Barclays, really has given me such amazing opprtunities to grow, learn, and practice many skills related to the Adobe Create Suite, live event production, and systems management.

New Year, Same 'Ole Work

As we ring in the new year of 2017, I continue to bust my butt and work around the clock - jumping between my full-time media production position at the United Nations, my part-time event presentation gig at the Barclays Center, and volunteering as a coordinator for one of the local Moishe House locations!

From Thanksgiving until mid-January, many diplomats are on vacation and tons of their committees, conferences, interviews, etc are generally put on hold. Obviously, world affairs do not stop, as there was an emergency Security Council meeting on Syria called on New Years' Eve!! Since Thanksgiving, there are very few conference room events... for instance, on a "normal" day, there would be about four events per day that our department covers (i.e. operating the cameras, audio, graphics, etc); but during these few weeks, there is one such events (or none) per day!

To fill the rest of my days, as noted, I split my time with working part-time in the AV department of Barclays Center and volunteering for Moishe House to coordinate programming for Jewish young professionals. With the official news of AEG being selected to manage and operate the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum, our creative team at Barclays has been starting to design possible templates for menu boards, box office graphics, and general visuals for the new buildings' TVs! This task is a nice change of pace, compared to the daily routine of my video systems tech role, during game operations.

It is crazy to think I am just about four (4) years out of college and have been working full-time in the industry since! Only time will tell to figure out what 2017 will bring to my career, let's go!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to my blog followers!

New Year and New Potentials for 2016!

As the New Year settles in, I continue my full-time job at the United Nations in the TV operations department and also the various freelance jobs I have been lucky to work on! The first few days of 2016 was amazing, I took my first vacation of the year... to beautiful and sunny Mexico!! After a relaxing week without any thoughts of work, I arrived back in the States and got back into the swing of things - quickly realising why vacation days are vital to take!

During the winter months, the United Nations is generally quiet and for the TV department, we often only cover 3-4 meetings per day (compared to the 10+ per day during parts of Sept/Oct). Throughout these quiet months, my supervisors sometimes switch around staff in different positions letting us develop our knowledge and practice the skills!

Down the 4 train at my Barclays Center freelance gig, I continue to learn more software programs and various techniques that enhance visual content, as well as the distribution of such content to around the arena. It is really such an amazing feeling, when I walk through the Center and know with one push of a button - I can change the content on all 700+ video monitors!

As 2016 really gets going, I am excited to see what will come of it and where my career will go! Cheers

Operating the Global UNTV Station!!

So you might be wondering what I do on daily basis, in the broadcast operations of the United Nations? Well, my main responsibilities comprise in two areas: operating the broadcast equipment for meetings or maintaining all video archives and monitoring the global television feed.

Depending on the crew assignments and which positions are needed, the role for operating the broadcast equipment general fall under the production control room or media stakeouts/ENG events. In the control room, I am assigned to operating the multiple robotic cameras in one specific meeting room, technical directing the meeting(s), designing the meeting graphics/slates, or a general utility (which most often is giving breaks to all crew). During media stakeouts or ENG events, there are generally two positions - cameraman and boom audio operator; in some cases, we set up studio lighting.

On the other side, in the Media Operations Centre, I get to oversee all the digital recordings and backup systems for meetings, interviews, studio records, and special events. Additionally, we monitor the feed for UN Television, switching between live meetings/events and pre-recorded programming (often from the editors, overseas missions, various UN-affiliated organizations, etc). Also, with an effort for all staff to learn all positions, I have been tasked at training other crew on the standard operations of the MOC and the MAMS software. 

Valentine's Day Animation

During the Spring 2012 semester, I am took a course in animation and learned Abode After Effects. One of the projects was to create a short and simple Valentine's Day animation.

Watch the animation below, or click here.