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!!!
