Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.

The replay desk is used by the studio production team to control clips during the studio segments as well as create highlight reels for halftime.

Rich Dewey, director, and Chuck McDonald, producer for Fox College Football, talk about how their roles impact the final television stream. Dewey and McDonald begin researching storylines about a week before each game to identify key players and themes of each team's season.

Kyle Jenich, technical director for the studio team, demonstrates how his control console works. Jenich programs the console each week to fit the needs of each individual production.

The EVS controller is used to create instant replays of live game action.

The camera control board is used by video engineers to control the exposure, levels and color balance settings of cameras remotely. 

Drew Ruggles, video engineer, connects fiber optic cables to the "gator" box. The fiber optic cables carry video signals between the game truck and the studio truck.

Trevor MacHalick, video engineer, removes a tripod plate from a video camera. MacHalick joined the Fox Sports studio crew as a freelance worker and has previously worked on productions for NHL games and NASCAR races.

A Game Creek Video production truck sits behind Ross-Ade Stadium before the season opening football game against Penn State. The truck are leased for each production event and house audio mixing, directing, replay and camera control stations.

Chuck McDonald, producer for Fox Sports Football, describes his role within the overall production. McDonald has worked for Fox Sports for 26 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He said he is looking forward to the challenges of producing a show in 14 different college football stadiums, each with their own camera positions.

Darrin Peterson, video engineer, point to a control panel in the lighting and camera control section of the game production truck. Peterson controls the exposure and color balance settings of each camera remotely throughout the entire game.

A McDew Crew flag hangs off the side off a Fox Sports production truck behind Ross-Ade Stadium. The production crew was formed in 2011 and is named after producer  Chuck  McDonald  and d irector  Rich Dewey.

The replay desk is used by the studio production team to control clips during the studio segments as well as create highlight reels for halftime.

Rich Dewey, director, and Chuck McDonald, producer for Fox College Football, talk about how their roles impact the final television stream. Dewey and McDonald begin researching storylines about a week before each game to identify key players and themes of each team's season.

Kyle Jenich, technical director for the studio team, demonstrates how his control console works. Jenich programs the console each week to fit the needs of each individual production.

The EVS controller is used to create instant replays of live game action.

The camera control board is used by video engineers to control the exposure, levels and color balance settings of cameras remotely. 

Drew Ruggles, video engineer, connects fiber optic cables to the "gator" box. The fiber optic cables carry video signals between the game truck and the studio truck.

Trevor MacHalick, video engineer, removes a tripod plate from a video camera. MacHalick joined the Fox Sports studio crew as a freelance worker and has previously worked on productions for NHL games and NASCAR races.

A Game Creek Video production truck sits behind Ross-Ade Stadium before the season opening football game against Penn State. The truck are leased for each production event and house audio mixing, directing, replay and camera control stations.

Chuck McDonald, producer for Fox Sports Football, describes his role within the overall production. McDonald has worked for Fox Sports for 26 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He said he is looking forward to the challenges of producing a show in 14 different college football stadiums, each with their own camera positions.

Darrin Peterson, video engineer, point to a control panel in the lighting and camera control section of the game production truck. Peterson controls the exposure and color balance settings of each camera remotely throughout the entire game.

A McDew Crew flag hangs off the side off a Fox Sports production truck behind Ross-Ade Stadium. The production crew was formed in 2011 and is named after producer  Chuck  McDonald  and d irector  Rich Dewey.

Purdue’s home opener against Penn State is the first game of a 14-week college football TV production tour for the members of the Fox Sports “Big Noon” crews.

Two pairs of massive, 53-foot-long trailers flank either side of Ross-Ade Stadium, each housing its own conglomerate of sports entertainment production specialists and millions of dollars in equipment. They rolled onto campus Sunday night.

The camp alongside Northwestern Avenue, the studio side, serves as the mobile control center for the Big Noon Kickoff team responsible for the pre-game, halftime and post-show. Right outside the southwest corner of the end zone are two other production units on the game side where the Big Noon Saturday team operates.

Members of large production crews are often freelance workers like Drew Ruggles, a video engineer who spent this summer overseas working on World Cup Qualifiers. Ruggles said he got into doing full-time freelance work “on a whim.” He quit his job, called up ESPN and has been freelancing for the last 10 years without looking back.

Ruggles said at that level of the industry, a small pool of specialists is recruited by large networks to be part of various sporting event productions throughout the year.

Those positions are essential to shows like Fox’s Big Noons, and each has its own section in the trailer, including video and audio engineers, comms specialists, live video editors and technical directors.

Every member of the crew wears a headset at all times during the production and has the ability to communicate with whoever, whenever.

Andy Rostron is a communications engineer whose job, in oversimplified terms, is to make sure both the game and studio sides, as well as broadcasters and camera operators, are able to communicate with one another seamlessly.

Rostron has been a part of communications teams for a variety of sporting events including the Masters, the Daytona 500 and the World Series. Most of his work for the productions is preparatory.

“When we’re live,” Rostron said, “hopefully I’m not doing much, because that means everything’s working.”

Video engineers and directors are constantly talking to camera operators to fix lighting issues and get specific shots. The producer and technical director are always coordinating additional content to go along with the announcer’s commentary like a slow-motion clip of the last touchdown, or an instant replay of a penalty.

That kind of thing requires yet another master of a sports broadcasting niche, like Kim Tessean, a live video editor.

Tessean said she’s been working with a machine that allows for live slow motion replays, since 2004. She uses it to pre-build clips and highlight reels with in-game content for the halftime and post-game shows.

On the game side of things, the trucks are set up slightly differently, but all of the same key components and specialists remain.

Bob Goosley, referred to by the crew as “Goose,” is the technical director on the game operations side. He said he preps for games by taking a look at both teams and decides what graphics to premake, which of last year’s stats are relevant to the game at hand, and programs certain commands into the video board he calls “the switcher.”

“I think it’s really neat,” Goose said, “when you’ve done a good job and people are watching it on TV — it’s nice to know you were a part of it.”

On game day, Goose sits to the right of producer Chuck McDonald and director Rich Dewey, from whom the team gets its name — “the McDew Crew” — complete with a custom flag hanging on the back of the trailer.

McDonald says every week, especially in college football, is like a new puzzle. He and Dewey coordinate camera placements that vary from stadium to stadium and nail down story lines and themes to keep in mind throughout the game.

“If you go into a game with a plan,” McDonald said, “you have to be ready to adjust, because the game decides the direction (of the production).”

The producers and directors have 16 camera options around the stadium to choose from throughout the game. Video engineers like Darrin Peterson ensure that as the broadcast switches between video feeds, factors like color and exposure appear seamless.

Ruggles and Trevor MacHalick, both video engineers on the studio side, oversee much of the same thing during production. Steve Leotta, another video engineer on the team, said MacHalick and Ruggles are “seriously, two of the best in the business.”

Ruggles said he’s worked with many members of the team before the Big Noon Kickoff schedule, as a result of freelance specialists typically following seasonal trends in sports.

While most of the work stays the same no matter what sport they’re dealing with, MacHalick noted weather is one of the more disruptive variables, given much of the setup takes place outside the truck.

“I remember working on NHL games,” MacHalick said, “being up north in the winter and having to chip ice off the (fiber optic) cables in the morning.”

“Another time,” he said, “we were in Tokyo for the Olympics and I was working underneath (the trailer), wearing this exact shirt and at the time we still had to wear masks. It was 100 degrees outside, and my whole shirt was drenched in sweat but this one spot in the center of my chest.”

MacHalick said one of the challenges of full-time freelance sports production is the uncertainty involved with the next job.

“When you don’t know exactly what you’ll be doing three months from now,” MacHalick said, “it can be hard to plan out the big things in life.”

Other team members echoed similar sentiments, such as Tessean who said she missed Thanksgiving the last 17 years and Christmas the last eight. Rob Mikulicka, director of remote studio operations for Fox, said he’d missed quite a few holidays and family events, too.

“If everyone’s at home on Thanksgiving watching the game,” Mikulicka said, “somebody has to be there putting it all on.”

Brian Obert, a technical director on the game side of the production, said he sees the bonds everyone has formed while working together under the same high-energy, committed conditions and long hours.

“Nobody would probably tell you this,” Obert said, “but everyone here sees each other as family.”

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