Uplink Al's Home Page

Both June and September 2004 found me back at MSNBC in Redmond WA, through the auspices of JW-Teltronics, adding, removing and changing wiring and equipment configurations in their broadcast facility. MSNBC Redmond is the streaming part of MSNBC (www.msnbc.com) but also provides live program service for the television cable channel based in Secaucus, NJ, and is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC TV.

Prior to that, I was again with KBTC in that on-going upgrade to modernize.

In the middle of all this, I found time to provide support for the NFL by acting as transmission coordinator/facilitator for the Seattle Seahawks pre-season home games.

Late in July 2003, I re-joined former colleagues at Doyle Technology Consultants to provide documentation support and then actual hands-on wiring for the huge and fantastic project for ESPN. A new digital (and HD) facility was built in Bristol, Connecticut and Doyle was one of several integration and design companies chosen for that monumental task. Two trips to Bristol for me in early 2004 and the remainder of the support I provided was at the home offices in Renton, Washington. What a beautiful facillity ESPN has and what wonderful toys!!! I also worked for the same integration and design company to install a new "Master Control" monitoring facility for MSNBC in Redmond and then earlier that same year on a project in Portland Oregon, moving a TV station into new(er) digital facilities.....well not the moving part, but the assembly of the equipment in the new facility. Fox/UPN Duopoly combined two stations owned by the same company (Meredith Broadcasting) into a common building, allowing full operation of both stations in a single environment. My part has ended with the installation phase nearly complete; now the commissioning team takes over for the final phase, prior to cutover.

Earlier this summer, my work took me to Whistler Ski Resort, up in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, to run a satellite truck, broadcasting the G8 Ministers Conference for EBU (the European Broadcast Union).

Before that, I was working briefly at the State Capitol in Olympia, Washington. After the February 28, 2001 earthquake, some repairs and renovations were required. During that same period, a major change in the audio video system in the hearings chambers was ordered and the work carried out by TVW and contractors like me. TVW is similar to the C-SPAN cable channel, only for the state of Washington (www.tvw.org).

Previously, I worked for the Bates Technical College at their PBS TV station, KBTC TV28. The station just completed the move to a new location at the old KSTW facility at 19th and Trafton in Tacoma. The original Bates TV station was located on campus in downtown Tacoma. We rewired the studios, control rooms and master control to suit the needs of the PBS station (pictured above). We got the station on the air Sunday, October 28th, 2001 from the new location and then did the first live broadcast from one of the studios on Tuesday, November 6th for live Election Night Coverage (which aired without a hitch!!).

Before that, I was employed by DoyleTechnology Consultants as a designer and systems integrator; recently concluding a large installation for Activate.net (also pictured above), a video-audio streaming house in the Seattle area. It is a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art installation. It lasted nearly a whole year for me. Prior to that, I worked on other installations; another "dot com" company in Seattle called LoudEye, (which, coincidentally, just purchased Activate.net), and before that on Microsoft's EBC or Electronic Briefing Centers in Redmond, WA.

Until Spring of 1999, I had been working for PACSAT as an uplink truck operator. I had been operating a satellite truck (pictured below) for more than 9 years; 7 of which have been for PACSAT and 2 years before that with Western Tele-Communications (WTCI) before PACSAT purchased the truck. While I live in Seattle, my work took me all over the western part of the United States and Canada. I have been as far north as Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, Canada; as far south as San Diego; southwest to Roswell NM; east to Billings, Montana and west to, well....the coast.

I had been involved in providing services for The White House Press Pool, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Turner Sports, ABC Sports, NBC Sports, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, American Journal, Hard Copy, Montel Williams Show, Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo!, CNBC and MSNBC Programming, Fox News and Sports, HBO and hosts of local television stations around the country.

Presidential visits and campaigning, The Super Bowl, The Rose Bowl, The Apple Cup, The Civil War, NBA Basketball Playoffs, Major League Baseball Playoffs, The NFL on NBC, ABC College Football, The Final Four NCAA Basketball, ESPN Game of the Week, The Canadian Winter Olympics plus various corporate television programs are but a small portion on the list of events for which service was provided.