They’ve got it covered

Published 9:00 pm Monday, January 12, 2004

MARYSVILLE — Tip-off was nearly two hours away, but one team already had gathered for a spirited pre-game briefing.

Some of the team members sat in chairs. Others opted to stand as Kimi Freeman, one of the squad’s senior leaders, reviewed assignments and finalized strategy.

Dick Walsh, a former coach and the group’s advisor, stood quietly in the background with surprisingly little to say. His economy of words spoke volumes.

"They are as much a team as any that takes the court," Walsh would say later.

The meeting wrapped up with the team’s pre-game ritual: pizza all around.

Welcome to TV3, the video production program of the Marysville School District. Operated by Marsyville-Pilchuck High School students, TV3 is cable cast on channel 26 to viewers in the Marysville area.

This marks the first school year TV3 has shown M-P varsity sporting events live.

TV3 is the brainchild of Walsh, an M-P teacher who initiated the district’s video production program at Marysville Junior High School in 1994. In 1998, Walsh was invited to establish a program at the high school.

"They gave me an empty classroom and said ‘go get ‘em,’" Walsh said.

The classroom has been converted into a television studio, which includes two news desks and a living room-like talk show set.

One news set includes a desk formerly used by KING-5 newscaster Jean Enersen. The other set features a Seattle cityscape background formerly used by KIRO-7 and other props provided by KOMO-4.

Marysville’s video production equipment, all donated, would cost more than $1 million if purchased new.

"When the new stuff comes in the front door at the stations, we get between the backdoor and the dumpster," Walsh said with a laugh.

M-P students are making superior use of trailing edge technology to create visual magic.

"We’re not quite ESPN … yet," Freeman, the technical director for TV3’s basketball broadcasts, said prior to Friday night’s home game between the M-P girls and Snohomish.

Freeman, a senior, joined TV3 in the middle of her sophomore year after being brought to the studio by a cousin early one morning to watch the production of "Tommy Talk." The show, now in its fifth year, features business and community leaders as guests and airs live at 6:40 a.m. four mornings a week.

"I was blown away," Freeman said. "I came into this knowing nothing. Now I don’t know if I could picture my high school career without TV3. It’s become such a big part of my life."

By 3 p.m. on game day, Ben Noblitt, director of remote operations, was busy setting up equipment in the TV3 production truck.

The truck, donated by a Seattle station, features two auxiliary power generators, a 52-foot telescoping antennae and more than $100,000 worth of equipment.

Before airtime, Noblitt tested television monitors, audio boards, videocassette recorders and the internal communications system.

Noblitt, who is also chief engineer at TV3, ran more than 500 feet of cable to four camera positions and two commentator stations.

"You do it enough times, it becomes habit," he said.

Thirty minutes prior to tip-off, each member of the production team was in position completing final checks. There was an air of anticipation, yet the team members seemed relaxed, confident in their abilities.

"There’s an energy when you do it live that doesn’t exist on tape," Walsh said. "This is their job and they’re very serious about it,"

Matt Newman and Tabitha Englebright were camera operators at the west and east ends of the gym, camera Nos. 1 and 4, respectively.

Two other camera operators, Chris Potts and Trevor Sherwood, were situated high above the seats, near midcourt on the gym’s north side catwalk. To their left were statistician Kirk Rutherford, and the on-air talent: play-by-play announcer Chris King and color commentator Nick Houghian.

Potts manned the aptly named action camera (No. 3). Sherwood ran the hero camera (No. 2), which is used to zoom in on the person who is the main focus of the game at any given moment.

The cable cast opened with a nine-minute, pre-recorded, pre-game show. Coordinated by Justin Petry, the segment included a preview of that night’s M-P vs. Snohomish girls game, an update on the varsity boys basketball team and an interview with a Tomahawk wrestler.

Inside the production truck sat Freeman, Natasha Lebedev and Baljinder Gill. Noblitt, with overall responsibility for the broadcast, leaned in to the truck, ready to help as needed.

Lebedev — the TV3 station manager who is responsible all broadcast operations — was the video switcher and second technical director. Her duties included communicating with Freeman on which camera shots viewers would see, helping manage the production and taking over as technical director if necessary.

"This is my passion," Lebedev said.

Gill was graphics coordinator, responsible for posting the score and other information on the screen at Freeman’s direction.

Only Freeman had the ability to communicate verbally with each member of the team.

Game announcers King and Houghian were smooth from the game’s outset.

King: "The Tomahawks get the ball back here. Dunbar the ball handler for the Tomahawks has it up top."

Houghian: "She’s guarded closely by No. 22 Tara Angell."

King: "Dunbar finds Zamora over on the base line, who puts in the two for the first basket of the game. Tomahawks lead 2-0."

Throughout the course of the game Freeman pumped up the production team and called the camera shots at a dizzying pace.

Going into a first-quarter timeout, Freeman directed a rapid-fire transition from game action, to a taped segment queued up on a VCR showing footage from previous games — a so-called "bump" designed to give everyone a breather — to a succinct recap by King and Houghian and back to live action.

A bump is a tool used often in professional broadcasts when rolling from live action or commentators to a commercial break and/or back again.

At just the right instant, Noblitt dove behind Freeman to mute the broascaster’s audio, turned up the VCR audio and then reversed the process 10 seconds later. Right on cue, Lebedev switched the view from the court to the taped footage to the talent and back to game action on camera No. 3.

Whew! It happened in less than 20 seconds and was nearly flawless.

"Talent you guys are awesome. Hey, that was the best transition we’ve ever had," Freeman told the crew.

Walsh stood a short distance away from the production truck and marveled at the production team.

"Can you imagine the poise … from high school students," he said.

The game ended up a lopsided Snohomish victory, but Freeman kept the TV3 team actively engaged like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals:

"East-West hold your shots … standby hero cam … standby action cam … take 3 … hero cam please go to talent … standby hero cam … take 2 … "

Satisfied the production was going according to plan, with few glitches, Noblitt relaxed outside the truck for a few moments as a light rain fell.

"This is my baby," he said. "It’s set up well, I’m not very stressed,"

As the game ended and coverage came to a close, team members exchanged high fives, packed up gear and gathered for the post production meeting.

The celebration of their best live cable cast was joyous, yet brief. Talk quickly turned to the logistical and technical challenges presented by TV3’s first-ever telecast of wrestling tonight when Arlington visits Marysville-Pilchuck at 7 p.m.

"We are truly blessed to have the people we do," Freeman said. "Everybody has the talent and drive to succeed."