First off, my wife told me to stop apologizing for not updating enough.  Hence, I am apologizing for apologizing.

Got a chance to walk the site a bit today, particularly in my areas.  The control room is progressing nicely and a fair amount of equipment has been installed.  I was particularly happy to see my video tape machines in there.  While within our operations we are “tapeless”, we still have have to work with outside companies, agencies, networks, etc that rely heavily on tape for transport.  What we did was cover all of our bases with a few different formats:  HDCam (backward compatible Betacam SP/SX), DVCPRO-HD, XDCamHD, DVCam/MiniDV.

You want wires?  We got wires.  Lots of them.  On my way home, I was trying to think of a way they we could compute how many miles of cable are in the building and do one of those “You could stretch the wires in CONSOL Energy Center from Pittsburgh to Cole Harbour TWICE” or something like that.  Would be neat.  I’ll see if I can figure it out.  What you are looking at here looks big, but is really just a small piece of the picture.  This is the back of the racks in my equipment room.  Nice pretty cable layouts.  When I worked for an integrator back in the day, I was horrible at doing this.  I was also the kid who had glue all over his art projects in school.  Nice, clean install by DSI.

One of the things that I’m really excited about, although it’s just a big empty room is our studio on press level.  We’ll be able to do things like the current pre-game show up there, and expand on what we do and maybe integrate that format throughout intermissions.  At Mellon it’s difficult because we’re down on main concourse and most of the people we’d like as guests are up on press row, which is not a quick trip.  It’s also about four times the space.  No, I didn’t pick the carpet.  We’ll keep that out of the shot unless we are looking to do some kind of hypnotic messaging techniques.  Seriously though, this is really great space to have for us and it’s going to make a lot of thing much more efficient.  The fact that we can tie into our control directly alone is worth it.

As I was walking out tonight, the consoles and furniture we’re arriving, so I’m going to take another walk up there tomorrow and see how that’s coming along.  Hopefully a few more updates with more photos this weekend.

Haven’t been ignoring the blog this week.  It’s more like I’ve been avoiding the construction site.   The workers are right in the middle of doing a big portion of the terazzo flooring and to be honest, it’s just a pain to get around right now.  I always feel bad cutting through areas where those guys are working, and sometimes I just prefer to get out of the way and let them do what they have to do.

With that in mind, here’s what we have cooking on the nerd side of things:

* We’ve just about finalized what all of our crew positions and work stations are going to be in the video control room.  Down to the last few positions, we’ve really been focusing on getting the right equipment in there that will bring the best bang for the buck for the fans.

* Hope to move the 360 degree webcam tomorrow to a different location.  Thinking on the main concourse level or the front of the upper bowl at the opposite end of where we’ve been.  We’ve been recording all of the images from the camera and I watched a cool timelapse the other day at the Eyesee360 Studios.

* Tomorrow we will get a look at what the main camera positions will look like for the first time.  We’ll be bringing in a full broadcast rig to test the sight lines.  Really excited for this one, we have great cameras going in and with the camera positions both lower and closer hopefully we can get a much better feel on the broadcasts for the true speed of the game.  Will try to get a comparative video up.

* Dasher boards are coming soon, probably in the next few weeks.  Exciting for us because we can finally see where we can cut them to put the low POV (point-of-view) robotic cameras in.  We’re hoping to get one at center ice, and one down at the double attack zone.  What we hope to do with these cameras is really get a unique perspective for tight shots.  We shoot down on the guys so much, sometimes it’s hard to capture “whats it feel like at ice level” feeling.  Hopefully we can pull it off.

* We continue to work hard on the wi-fi integration into CONSOL.  We have a lot more places to rig access points over there, and while it’s going to be a difficult task (no idea how much a pain wireless was until I was forced to dive deep into it) I’m confident we’re going to have a great system over there.

* Off tech -  the locker stalls are starting to be put in.  They look great.  Will try to get some photos tomorrow and get them up on penguins.nhl.com

* Thanks for the many kind words, retweets, and emails on the “break-up letter” to Mellon last week.  I’d been thinking about it pretty much since I moved down to the main office at Chatham Center at the beginning of the year.  I just didn’t expect to have to write it so early.  It was a special place for me, and I’m going to miss it.  If you haven’t seen it, the game ops crew cut a great tribute video at the end of the season, and it was the last video played at Mellon Arena:
http://penguins.nhl.tv/team/embed.jsp?catid=19&id=65458

OK, that’s a short one today — I’m sure someone from TPB would call it lameblog.  Just wanted to shoot a quick update.

Dear Mellon Arena,

While these next few words pain me to write, please understand that I do it with the utmost respect and admiration:  you’re dead to me.

I know that sounds harsh, but really that’s the way it has to be.  We’ve been friends for a long, long, time.  I’d call you my home away from home these last 11 years, but to be honest we both know that I probably spent more time under your roof than I did at my own house.

We’ve been through a lot together, and you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.  But this is goodbye.  It makes you no less special and the memories will not be diminished. But it’s time to move on.

I know every nook and cranny there is to know under that big tin dome.  I think you could blindfold me, drop me in a random spot, and I’d know immediately where I was.  I know all the shortcuts. I can get from the control room to the loading area in under 60 seconds.  Three months ago, I completed my personal goal of stepping into every single one of your rooms.   How many people can say they know you like that?

But let’s be honest, we’ve grown pretty tired of each other.  You having to bend and stretch in every which way to accommodate our needs.  In turn, you went out of your way to guarantee that every new thing we tried to do was a complete pain in the ass to pull off.  Fair is fair.

But these aren’t the memories I’ll take with me.

Instead, I’ll remember the surreal feeling of the five overtime Philly game.  Watching from the spotlight position and sneaking cigarettes in between overtime periods.

I’ll remember the energy of the crowd when Mario Lemieux took the ice for pre-game warmup in his comeback game.  Watching the opening faceoff not believing it was real, and then the pure elation of his first goal of the un-retirement.

I’ll never forget watching Martin Straka steal the puck off of Gonch in OT and then score the game winner.  It was and remains my only demonstrative reaction to a goal while I was out in the crowd.

I’ll remember the late nights.  How could I forget them?  On some nights working until the morning cleaning crew came in, with a group of dedicated people who became more like family to me than co-workers.  You know who you are.

I will remember the look on Max Talbots face as he gave a stick salute to the crowd after losing to Detroit in the finals.  Without saying it, he said “I’m sorry” to everyone in the building.  It was very close to the look he had on his face tonight.  It’s things like that that make me proud to be a part of this organization.

The puck dropping out of the sky vs. Buffalo, Jiri Slegr’s game winner vs Montreal years ago, Jags scoring while he was sliding across the ice vs. the Flyers.  The big screen. Kelly Buchburger waving to the 29′er in the press box after finally scoring a goal.  The banner raising – both the one I attended as a fan on that bittersweet night 19 years ago and the one I took part in 8 months ago.  I take these and a thousand other memories with me.

Under your roof, I have grown as a person and as a professional.  I have watched friends come and go.  I have been elated, heartbroken, angry, optimistic, overjoyed, and every other emotion you can feel.  I’ve done things that I didn’t think I could do.   You’ve been a big part of my life.

Which is exactly why I hope you meet the wrecking ball, my friend.  You deserve it.  And not in a bad way.  I’m not taking sides in what happens to you,  I’m just saying to you that for me, when that clock hit 0:0 tonight, that’s when it ended.  If you become a cheap facsimile of yourself, I want no part of it.  What happened inside the walls are what’s important, not the walls themselves.  I’m moving on.

In my heart, it will always be Mike Lange saying “Here’s Lemieux on a breakaway…”

It will be Vince Lascheid playing the organ.

It will be John Barbero saying “Mario Lemyoooooooooooooooooooooo”

It will be a screaming ocean of 17,000 towels churning in a frenzy.

And it will be a memory. 

Goodbye, old friend.

Just got done with a really crazy week at CONSOL Energy Center.   Things always move fast there, but this week in particular had an extra jump to it.  Maybe it’s because we’re less than 90 days away from substantial completion that’s causing everyone to hunker down a little bit more.  Here’s what I saw:

- They are doing a lot of the terrazzo finish – and a lot of the final floor finish in general.  The arena is really hard to navigate because with every turn you seem to run into a closed off area. 

- I think they raised the center hung structure Friday to set the limits on it, but I didn’t get to make it to the site in time to see.  They’ve been intermittently tossing up Avatar on Blu-Ray, and the colors look spectacular.

- Installation (rack and stack, as the racking dudes say) on the control room began this week as well.  It’s not quite like Christmas morning, but maybe it’s akin to when you order a bunch Christmas gifts online and they show up at your house.  So we have our Chyron HyperX3 in the house, the Ikegami cameras, the Ross switcher, and a crapload of monitors and converters.

- Funny thing about this room.  The part where we put all of our racks and terminal equipment is easily bigger than our entire control room at Mellon Arena.

- It will probably take about two and a half months to put this room together.  There’s about a billion and a half wires that all have to have connectors put on one end, that in turn have to be neatly dressed into the racks and connected to the equipment.

- After that comes the actual configuration, commissioning, and training which takes a month in itself.  Not going to be much of a summer vacation this year.

- The lot behind the arena where the TV trucks will park and the loading docks will be is starting to take shape.  Thank God.  After walking through the mud since the fall I am so happy to finally see concrete that I wanted to lie down and kiss it.  Seriously.

- Most of the seats in the lower bowl have been installed, and the retractables are in too. 

- Carpet is going into a lot of the suites – maybe all at this point.  If you’re lucky enough to be in a suite you are going to be so shocked at how roomy they are.  It’s really going to be a great experience.

-  Have I said TV’s are everywhere?  If not – TV’s are everywhere.  Stood at a spot on the upper concourse yesterday and was able to see 8 TV brackets from where I was standing.  At a much wider spot on the lower concourse, I could see 12.   Plus, with the open concourses that let you see into the bowl no matter where you are,  you aren’t going to feel out of touch when you grab some delicious nachos.  I don’t think I can really explain how different of an experience it is from Mellon where it’s not open at all.  You’ll know as soon as you walk through the first time.

- And of course, what’s a trip to the arena without me taking a walk out on the roof.  Took a couple co-workers out with me, too.  They asked, “Are we allowed to be out here?” to which I replied that “I come out here all the time.”  To which they again asked, “Are we allowed to be out here?”  Sorry, just had to go out and see the satellite receivers.  I couldn’t be stopped.

- Finally, hats off to the guys working for TSI Global (or sub-contracting to them, I’m not sure at this point so apologies if I get it wrong) that are moving a lot of the audio and lighting racks up into place.  People, I did this job a long time ago when I worked for Synergistic Technologies (now Azcar) and it is no fun at all.  Every day you come home scraped up with a new cut somewhere and feeling like you just got beat up while tumbling down a hill.  I do not miss those days at all.  Hats off to the cats who have the energy and patience to do this kind of thing day in and day out. 

Hopefully next week  I can contribute to this space a bit more.  It’s getting more and more difficult to write here and post pictures, although it one of things I look forward to every week.  I’ve had tons of folks ask me about 3D and what my thoughts are how it relates to hockey, and I have the post about 3/4 of the way done.

Thanks for listening.