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46 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, February 26, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend January 18, 2004 Brian Billert, production coordinator for the Professional Bowlers Association Tour, stands on the stadium his crew built Saturday on top of Lava Lanes� bowling lanes for today�s final matches at the PBA Medford Open, to be broadcast on ESPN. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven ESPN preps Lava Lanes for PBA finals Sports TV network wants its bowling shows to have a consistent look By GREG STILES Mail Tribune The more than 500 bowling fans huddled into a cordoned-off sector of Lava Lanes at this morning’s Professional Bowlers Association Medford Open final may feel less at home than the two surviving competitors. In September 2001, the PBA unveiled a new look for its televised finals wherein it builds its own pavilion within existing bowling centers designed to give PBA finals a consistent look from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Tucson, Ariz. "We want that sea of faces in the background," says Brian Billert, who supervises the construction and teardown at every PBA stop. Unless the president is zipping in and out of town, no national television network puts more effort into spewing images from Medford than ESPN has on a Sunday morning in January. There are unique obstacles in broadcasting basketball, hockey or other indoor sports. Bowling has its own issue. Advertisement "It doesn’t matter if you are in Medford or New York City, the challenge is the bowling centers themselves," says Mike Roth, producer for ESPN’s telecast of PBA events. "You’re coming into a small building and doing a live sporting event. When you use Madison Square Garden, it’s TV friendly. Bowling centers were never built with TV in mind and you find that out when power, light and cameras come into play. "We may be in a small building, but it looks like a big-time event." Roth has also produced 11 seasons of NHL hockey for ESPN as well as soccer and college basketball. He’s joined by a traveling crew of five technicians who hit every PBA stop. The five manned cameras and four stationary point-of-view cameras are equal to the number ESPN 2 uses at hockey games. "The difference is that there will be one or two local feeds at the hockey and we’re able to share angles," Roth says. "That’s enough to do it although at some major events we like to use a camera jib on a long arm. That gives you a big-time feel, but you can’t do that in bowling centers." Add in the microphones on the performers and the lighting controls and there are plenty of variables for the guys in the trailer outside Lava Lanes to track. "We need to make sure we’ve got the cameras in the right place and on the right people so we’re not shooting into emptiness or shadow," Roth says. The PBA periodically takes its finals into arenas in larger areas where it can seat thousands of people. Last week’s Earl Anthony Classic final was staged at the Fisher Pavilion in the Seattle Center on lanes built by Brunswick specifically for telecast. The next such event will be the U.S. Open in Anaheim, Calif., Feb. 8. "We can’t do an arena event every week," says Dave Schroder of the PBA television staff. "What we were trying to create (in Medford) was a mini-arena feel inside a bowling center and a consistent look and feel to our telecast. So if you were clicking around you would go ‘Hey, that looks like a PBA Tour telecast.’ Things look familiar." Before the PBA created its own set, it would take whatever bleachers were provided by local bowling centers and string them down the side of the lanes. "There was no consistency," Schroder says. "Some weeks we’d have three-row Little League bleachers, some weeks five-row and some 10-row." Another unique twist to bowling is that the television crew has no idea who’s going to be in the finals until the night before the show. Roth flies out of the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday night, takes in some action on Saturday then goes to work once the two finalists emerge. Then Roth and his crew go to work on the big production. "At 9 o’clock, the show format is done and play-by-play announcer Dave Ryan and tour analyst Randy Pedersen interview the bowlers. At 10:30 or 11 p.m. they return to the motel, only to return about 1 a.m. to continue preparation for the morning event. "That’s a challenge you don’t see in most sporting events played in the afternoons and evenings," Roth says. "The nice side is that I get home in time for dinner." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! 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