The Never-Ending Cycle of Digital Events

From the very beginning of this COVID pandemic, we all thought we would be back to the offices and hosting in-person events two weeks after the initial lockdown... little did we know, we would get to the one year of this work-from-home scenario.

Since my last post in November 2020, the workload for our Event Production (EP) team at Google has increased quite a bit. Between more Google teams learning about the production value our team can provide and also commissioning/setting up new EP Spaces in the office, our weekly schedule is packed with mostly events and many more sessions of testing! While no in-person events are occurring at Google, until at least July, these new EP Spaces will most likely be utilized to expand the capacity of our team to produce more digital events. Another huge part of these digital events is lots of pre-recording sessions and pre-event editing... which provides event hosts the ability to coordinate multiple presenters and speakers to record their sessions ahead of time, and hires our EP Team to edit these sessions together for a cohesive final video.

On the other hand, my part-time/freelance job at Barclays Center has picked up and is getting busy again with a full schedule of Nets games. Even though there are no fans allowed, we are still brought in to support the visual presentation of the game (including pumping in crowd noise, so the players can pretend there are fans in the stands) and also, assist media personnel with their AV/IT needs.

At the time of this post, I think we can optimistically say that society is at the "beginning of the end" of this pandemic - with numbers of cases/deaths/etc decreasing and the growing availability of the vaccine.

8 months down... 8 months to go (at least)!

 These past eight (8) months has taken forever, it feels... and we are still in the thick of this pandemic with full-on remote work, virtual meetings, and more!

In the beginning, we all thought this stay-at-home orders and working from home situation would last a month... but 8 months later, we are still here but with quick thinking and fast modifications, my event production team and our work is just as busy as if we were in-person.

Back in early April, until around June, we were trying to figure out how to effectively run our events in a digital, remote world. Most of my time was spent searching for and participating in online courses, video training, and virtual webinars... some focusing on equipment features, some on software possibilities, and others discussed the media/events/production industry as a whole. By mid-June, the Event Production (EP) New York team was working with colleagues around the world to figure out best practices and troubleshooting with each other and researching different production platforms to enhance the virtual meetings that we were producing. Now, in November, our global EP team has a plethora of production solutions available to us - both internal systems and third-party platforms that we are utilizing to create a higher-level of production for these digital events.

I often tell people that, especially in this digital world, my role is to work with Google departments to produce a highly-visual and engaging event-that is more than just talking heads and a screen-share. As Google recently announced that the offices would not *fully* reopen until July 1, 2021... so this remote, virtual world is our new normal.

Oh, and only a few weeks ago, I passed my one year Google-versary... what a wild year it has been!!

COVID Hits the Events Industry Hard

I know I have been slacking on my posts here, but during normal days, I am quite busy with the Events team at Google New York, along with my continuous freelance gig for Barclays Center TV; plus having a social life!

Anyway, life has drastically changed since my last post in November... both with (another) new role for FIRST Events at Google and this whole COVID-19 chaos. 

Firstly, I began working for FIRST Events on-site at Google New York as an Event Production Technician and quickly hit the ground running with lots of hands-on training and being thrown into operating the audio-visual equipment for their live events. Our Production team runs everything from controlling multiple robotic cams and TD/video switching, coordinating presentation decks and unique Google-specific graphics, as well as all the audio from setting up microphones for presenters and live mixing the show! Additionally, we often do some post-production edits to finesse and master the final file before exporting to the client.

As Google drastically expands their New York campus, so does our Event Production team. Once the staffing model was determined for the new expanded campus buildings, the leadership decided to transfer my role down to this campus! With my knowledge in multimedia management and digital signage, my new role will revolve around creating, coordinating, monitoring, and supervising the Digital Signage and Video/LED Walls around the new campus.

Unfortunately, COVID chaos hit us hard and all of our events were cancelled/postponed or moved digital. Due to this change, my new Multimedia/Digital Signage role has been put on hold, as well as gig at Barclays Center being paused - with no in-person events happening in the arena. During this quarantine time, all of my work has become focused in video training/tutorials and online courses; most of these courses revolve around certificate programs for the on-site equipment and specific workflows ranging from our ETC lighting boards, Ross video switchers, Telemetrics/Panasonic robotic cameras, Evertz routers, Shure and Dante audio systems, plus lots of internal Google protocols!

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!

Exciting Stuff to Happen in 2019!!

Hello blog followers,

2018 has come to an end with lots of smooth sailing and 2019 is here, with spirits high and excitement around the corner... both personally and professionally!

After the UN General Assembly Debate ended, the intensity of the high-level meetings simmered and a normal schedule of conferences, studio jobs, ENG shoots, and other events have come back. While I am mostly tasked to the Media Operations Centre (MOC) working on ingesting field shoots and recording live meetings/studio events, our crew supervisor often rearranges the schedule and crew tasks to allows everyone to cross-train and practice working as other positions. Most often, I am tasked to operate our robotic cameras during meetings inside for one of the seventeen conference rooms!

On the side, I am continuously picking up one-off freelance gigs that help me expand my network and more importantly, grow my technical knowledge and skills. In November, I had the opportunity to coordinate all the visual elements of the Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Corporate Citizens Conference in Washington, DC. As the sole "video guy" on the job, I had to create a full control room setup with multiple input sources (camera, graphics, remote CART services, etc) and produce a show for multiple outputs (program, ISO cameras, screen feeds, streaming, etc). There we many hiccups and the start of the event did not run smoothly, but thankfully with some support by various parties - the issues were resolved and the remainder of the show went swimmingly!

Personally, I did get engaged in 2018 and the big day is Nov 2019!! Therefore, I definitely look forward to the year ahead with expanding professional opportunities and big changes in my personal life!

Fast Forward to UNGA 73

I have been quite inactive here, on my blog, over this calendar year... sorry about that. Lots of fun events have happened; but to be honest, nothing interesting enough to write a post about it.

My favourite highlight of this off-season was being the primary robo-camera operator for the recent Hult Prize award ceremony at the UN. The show featured six teams of college-aged entrepreneur innovators who created products that "harnessed the power of energy to improve 10 million people" - see the magical camera work here (ha)!

Since the last blog post, the plethora of United Nations meetings and conferences continue year-round with our broadcast team operating the cameras, microphones, graphic feeds, and more for each event. The media asset management crew is often working nonstop with ingesting footage for archive and playout purposes, maintaining metadata for all digital content, editing speakers from high-level meetings, and monitoring all the recordings.

At Barclays Center, the traditional sports franchises (Nets and Islanders) continued their trek towards the playoffs but fell short and the offseason began... with the ACC Men's Basketball tournament making their debut, Brooklyn Boxing held its 30th event, the NBA brought their annual Draft back to Brooklyn, a new e-sports league emerged, and a handful of chart-topping artists brought down the house. With mostly all of these events, tour companies and outside vendors handled the video feed and graphics operations for the jumbotron/projection screens, ribbons, and TVs around the concourse/clubs... therefore, leaving our TV Systems team with minor updates for our creative projects (box office graphics, menu images/text, and off-season upgrades).

Now, the regular season is about to kick-off in Brooklyn and the 73rd Session of the UNGA is getting underway!

The Start of My 5th Year in the "Real World"

As September was full of General Assembly debate sessions and committee meetings, October was overrun with late-night concerts and sports' regular season games, and finally, November was nothing but dreaming of endless foods (with the start of the holiday season/Thanksgiving)

The 72nd General Assembly session came and went, there were early morning starts and late night conclusions... by early October, my FIFTH YEAR working the annual gathering commenced and. It is truly amazing to think I have been working full-time, in my first job after college, for over four years and mostly loving every minute of it!!

Beyond this, I am starting the third season at my freelance TV Systems position at the Barclays Center. With the new sports season underway, the TV Systems team put the final touches on the big graphics projects and tested, then implemented them building-wide. Every day, we are constantly working on updating data within these new templates and finessing any miscellaneous graphics project!

2018 is bound to bring great, exciting, and new projects... within my currents roles, or beyond!

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!

The Holiday Season has begun!

One of the greatest thing I experience in New York City is the influx of holiday vibes!! Between holiday markets, office parties, Christmas music, winter weather, and mainly, there is an endless supply of freelance production opportunities for holiday network specials.

Early in November, I had some production coordinator friends reach out to me inquiring if I was available to work a long-term freelance job for some of the big networks' holiday shows. Since my full-time production job is still at the United Nations in their broadcast department, I was unwilling to even interview with this network because they were requiring full day shifts, both daytime, nights, and weekends! Thankfully for my freelance friends, the New York City Council recently unanimously passed a new bill protecting freelance workers and their wage payments. Many of my freelance colleagues are very excited that their livelihoods' income is now more protected by law; plus many of them told me they are now, much more likely to continue working in the freelance world.

Back into my production world, things are running smoothly and according to plan. UNTV is continuing to cover high-level meetings, committee panel discussion, press conferences, studio interviews, and more! Down in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, our Event Presentation team is constantly working to produce and distribute new videos and graphics content for all venue events!!

Regular Season is Right Around the Corner!

The summer is coming to an end and things are slowly getting "back to normal" at UN Television; while at my Barclays Center freelance work, the busy season doesn't start until October when the sports franchises return to play!

During the summer, the official UN meetings and events (Security Council, General Assembly, Committee meetings, Mission-sponsored forums, etc) that we provide coverage are quite infrequent - on average 2-3 days per week. Yet during the fall and beyond, these official events we cover occur at least daily with some days covering multiple sessions per day! Much of the summer work, besides the minimal event coverage, is system maintenance and often long-form project requests for multiple archived video footage. For example, we have a New Zealand-based production company who has requested multiple clips of meeting footage with the prominent NZ delegates and officials, all being completed from my position in the MOC and the AV Library.

Down the 4 subway line, at my nights/weekend freelance gig at the Barclays Center, the summer schedule is even lighter than the UN. For instance, in September, there is only three events schedule (some were multiple days) for the whole month!! Most of the summer events are concerts or family-staged shows, where the tour production company takes control of all aspects of the event which minimizes the in-house crew duties to basically switching on and off the house lights, LED boards, and concourse/suite video monitors! This limited work responsibility allows us to mostly work on long-term projects that need tweaking.

So, as the regular season for both Barclays Center and the UN come back into play, stay tuned for some interesting work-related posts!

Summer Blues

And the summer blues have finally hit... the weather is warm, the schedules are light, and the sunny days are long! Nobody wants to be working during these beautiful summer days, but things keep on keeping on and continue with the routine of life!

With the hype of spring sports at Barclays Center, the seasons come to an end with only a few lucky teams finding success in the post-season - neither team we host made it far! Now that summer is here, the event coverage is very limited as many concerts, graduations, private events, and other non-sports event that do not require much content distribution or video playbacks. Thankfully, with this down-time, there are some visual graphic projects and major system updates that will happen; even though I am a part-time staff, my supervisors are eager to give me shifts and allow me to help build these new projects.

Back at the my full-time gig, with the United Nations, there is always meetings and high-level events going on! Every week there is a different NGO or UN-affiliated sector hosting some convention, conference, symposium, forum, etc - all requesting some type of media clip from their meeting... which is where I come along and search, cut, distribute, and archive each media request. Aside from these numerous conferences each day, our in-house studio get reserved for various client's video messages or interviews and subsequently, we edit and distribute these as well.

High Levels Events... Everywhere!

As April flowers, bring May showers... the United Nations TV department gears up for the Paris Agreement Signing Ceremony at UNHQ - with a record number of nations expected to sign on the opening day of any international agreement! In addition to the record-breaking signing ceremony occurring on 22 April, there have been multiple day-long dialogue sessions prior to the formal election of the next UN Secretary-General. With both of these high-level events, our television crew is starting to work early mornings and late nights again, making sure all the extra cables are laid and new temporary stake-out cameras are ready for broadcast.

Down in Brooklyn, at Barclays Center, the Nets/Islanders regular season games have finished and now tons of concerts, boxing matches, shows, and Islanders playoff fill the schedule!! While working as the TV Systems Technician for the sporting events require more attentiveness, since there are so many different camera feeds and live programs to broadcast onto different video monitors - on clubs, suites, bars, concourses, and the big-screen center hung! During concerts or low-priority shows, specifically those with few feeds or cameras, us part-time crew are given the opportunity to work another position - camera, or LED graphics, or technical directing, etc!

At the end of the day, summer is near and while stressful at times, working in media is incredible and with more experience under my belt, more roles/responsibilities comes by way!

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

Whoa, 2015 is Ending and I've Learned So Much!!!

It is crazy to think it is already December 2015; this year alone has flown by and it has truly been an amazingly wonderful year!

Throughout this year, I have gained so many new career experiences and systems knowledge from my various media production positions. As I move onto year 3 of my position in the UN media department, I am excited that I continue to develop my skills in the corporate broadcast field. Over this year, I have been given more responsibility by training and teaching new employees the processes, techniques, and systems of the MOC.

In other aspects of my professional career, I have taken advantage of the NYC production scene and scored myself various freelance jobs. Last winter, I worked various shoots for Left/Right Productions on the Showtime docu-series, 3AM. Shortly thereafter, I applied and interviewed and accepted a perma-lance position with MLB Network throughout the summer, as a broadcast event logger.

Most recently, to fill the winter slump, I picked up a newly created TV Systems Technician position at Barclays Center in the Event Presentation department, working specifically with all in-house broadcast operations. The main duties of this position is to work directly with the IPTV Engineer to maintain digital media related to arena events - including event footage, sponsor ads, arena messages, concession menus, etc; we also distribute such media to all TV screens/monitors throughout the building.

This year has been absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to see what 2016 brings to me.

UN's 70th Birthday!

Every year the UNGA Debate happens, time flies by... all the UN television and conference department gets super hyped up and excited for the two-week long Debate and related summits, conferences, etc.

This year was a tad bit different, because it is the UN's 70th Anniversary. Although the UNGA 70th Session formally started on 15 Sep, all of the hoopla and newsworthy activity come from the Debate and conferences / summits / meetings related to it. To kick of that weekend, Pope Francis made a powerful statement on global affairs and had well wishes for the UN staff.

After the Debate did finish about 10 days after Pope Francis' visit, we finally got back to working regular hours and not going crazy for broadcasting such high-level events. All of the non-stop meetings, panel discussions, special events, interviews, etc ultimately die down and go back to running on "normal" schedules.

Just before the UNGA happened, I worked my last shift at MLB Productions / MLB Network as a broadcast logger. During my time working at MLB, the lessons learned and fellow media professionals I met were absolutely priceless; in the end, I am extremely happy for the experience. Hopefully, I can find more freelance opportunities throughout the fall / winter.

Falling into the UNGA Chaos

As summer ends, vacations are in full-swing and the UN is quiet with few meetings, events, and/or special events. Therefore, between my numerous summer travels, I stepped up my freelance game and have been working as a game logger at MLB Network - ultimately monitoring every broadcast for game action, player/team analysis, on-field/fan bloopers, and more!

Back here at the United Nations HQ in September, the world starts to prepare for the all-encompasing start of the 70th General Assembly session and the weeks-long Debate. All 193 member-states send their highest-level government figure (usually a foreign minister, president, prime minister, etc) to make an official statement regarding their country's hope for the world and UN-specific goals for the upcoming year.

This year marks an even bigger event, the Pope is set to attend the first day of the Sustainable Development Summit; from personal research, I learned the Pope has the second largest motorcade in the US, behind the US President. Rumour has it, our UN media/broadcast department will be almost doubling the amount of cameras covering the Pope's visit in the UNGA (6 standard robotic cameras and 5 more manned-cameras)!

In the end, I am super excited for my third General Assembly session and Debate weeks. With the Pope visiting and two years of solid experience, this year will definitely be my biggest and hopefully most inspiring UNGA session!

Making Moves with Summer Freelance Gig

Time has come when the UN meetings + events are slowing down and things around the international community are quiet, well before the huge chaos of the General Debate during the end of September.

With much more after-work times on my hand, I recently began a new freelance/part-time gig with MLB Network as a production logger. Very similar to my internship with NBC Olympics, I will be watching game broadcasts and taking notes of all game action, bloopers, analysis, and any other highlight-worthy events from the broadcast. 

My first game was an insane 17-run scoring game, which (for my first real shift) was absolutely miserable because we log every single highlight-worthy and for score plays, they look for word-for-word transcription of the call. Not only am I gaining experience working on a sports network, but also learning new media management / editing software: Adobe Premiere.

Overall though, the past week or so since starting has been so amazing and I am very excited to see what more I can learn and experience at MLB Network over the remainder of the season.

Back Into the Swing of Things

Whoa... It's been a few months since my last post (back in Feb) and I wish there was more to write about since then, but nothing really is new! Spring has sprung and summer is heating up; here at the United Nations, meetings and events are becoming less frequent because summer is near.

As any aspiring media professional, I am constantly searching to advance my career and develop my skills and expand my network thru freelance gigs on nights/weekends. Throughout the winter, I worked as general production assistant for a new Showtime docu-series, 3AM. The show premiered 28-May to great reviews as it follows "the bizarro world of late-night New York City."

Otherwise, I have been trying to take advantage of my Paid Time Off days and throughout late winter/spring, I traveled all over the East Coast, as well as Italy for a long weekend.

Working full-time and some freelance can be extremely tiring, yet genuinely  rewarding.