Pickleball is the sport bursting onto the scene. With it getting popular in recent years, there is a whole industry for it. Everything from sponsors, new companies forming, to media companies trying to get in on the action. I will take you behind the scenes of one of those outlets. That outlet is the media part of it.
I am part of the media outlet that covers the new pickleball craze. The tour that I follow is called the PPA (Professional Pickleball Association). We do live broadcasting for the Tennis Channel. We have a group of 6 guys that follow this tour, and then hire local camera operators if need be. The crew that we have consists of; 1 tech manager, 2 camera engineers, 1 audio engineer, 1 camera operator/utility, 1 jib operator. That is the group that goes to most games. Then we will hire out a couple camera operators that are local.
What is my job? I am a camera operator/utility. I am the person that runs one of the robotic cameras, I run a PTZ system that is controlled with a joystick, it has a focus wheel and zoom rocker to make sure you get the right shot. I also help the camera engineer with whatever they need. From running fiber, to setting up the cameras, or even holding tools for them. Overall, I like the position that I have, because it doesn't have to much pressure. With just getting into the broadcasting scene, I wanna learn the ropes and with this position I can.
We had 6 cameras, 5 of them were on the court. Camera 1 was the jib camera, This camera was on court side in the middle facing the net. Camera 2 was facing the pickleball court perpendicular to camera 1. This camera was the game cam. Then camera 3 and 4 were on the left and right camera 1. These cameras were
shooting cut-in shots of the players on their corresponding sides. Then we had camera 5. This camera was the slash cam, also the camera operator was typically the red hat (the person to tell the ref when to play). Then camera 6, the camera that we placed wherever we thought we could get a cool beauty shot.
Overall I think this is a very fun sport to get into. If you haven't yet, its very addicting. From setting up cameras to packing them up, every minute of it was a blast. For being the first sport that I ever had to the chance to broadcast, I'm glad it was pickleball.
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