I’ve had the ‘pleasure?’ of being involved when, well things go very wrong like they are right now on Fox network. Their production truck lost power and it has been offline for over an hour.  For this outage to be this long means this is no simple fix.   I can’t imagine there isn’t backup power available.  I don’t know how long it takes to reboot the production truck, but I KNOW it isn’t this long.

They have completed risks assessments for situations like this and know what to do when they happen.   This outage didn’t seem to be on the list.   Losing power, the #1 reason for outages, not covered?  I’m not buying it because being down is not an option.

I can’t help but believe what happened was intentional by someone who wanted to keep this from being broadcast.  A search of Google came up empty, but I did read that Google fiber apparently has a problem in KC as well that is preventing folks from watching this in their homes.  Two outages covering this game isn’t likely, but we will see what unfolds.  I have experience doing production work specifically as a sound engineer for broadcast and there are backup options.  The game was stopped because apparently this outage also meant the replay was no longer an option.    According to fansided.com both coaches agreed to continue to play without replay.  This outage could impact the outcome of the game.  It’s interesting to witness.

I friend of mine is doing audio for the game.  Here are some photos taken today prior to the game:

Here he is with his credentials:

Apparently Game Creek Video normally handles these critical games like the world series, super bowl etc.   Check it out here: http://www.tvtechnology.com/broadcast-engineering/0029/getting-the-game-on-us-open/276836

Photo from http://www.tvtechnology.com/broadcast-engineering/0029/getting-the-game-on-us-open/276836