Completing the Pass — live from Bobcat Stadium by Marjorie Smith The MSU-TV portion of the FOX broadcast Kneeling is Neil Keyes (camera 1, F & TV '65). From left to right, John Harris (producer, F & TV '90), Hayes DeLisle (camera 3, F & TV '79), Lou Ann Harris (graphics, John's wife, F & TV '82), Rip Cook (director, F & TV '82), Troy Timmer (camera 2, F & TV '86) former Bobcat DT), and Eric Hyyppa (audio, computer sciences '95, currently working at KUSM as an engineer). Photo courtesy of Rip Cook. Anyone who has ever watched a football game knows it is a complex sport. To do their jobs, MSU alums John, '90 F&TV, and Lou Ann Harris, '82 F&TV, have to design a game plan even more complicated than the most intricate football play diagram. The Harrises, of Bellevue, Wash., run HighLine Teleproductions which specializes in live sports broadcasts. On Oct. 19 they traveled to Bozeman to broadcast the MSU-Weber State game for FOX Sports. The regional broadcast was seen live by audiences in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Alaska and on satellite around the world. "FOX can't produce everything they need to fill their schedule," explains Lou Ann. "They depend upon freelancers like us." MSU won big that day: 44 - 10. Lou Ann jokes, "We credit our broadcast with turning around the Bobcats' football season." HighLine Teleproductions needs a large crew for a live football broadcast. In addition to John Harris as producer and Rip Cook, '82, F &TV, as director, the crew included five camera operators, a sound specialist and his assistant, two people on tape replay, a technical director to mix video sources and special effects and someone to operate the "Fox Box" computer with scores for other games. Lou Ann handled the graphics and individual player records. "As soon as we get an assignment, we start signing up a crew," Lou Ann says. "We flew one specialist in from Portland and one from Seattle, but most of the crew are Montana residents." Other MSU alums working the broadcast included Eric Hyyppa, '95 CS, on audio and Hayes DeLisle, '79 F&TV, Neil Keyes, '65 F&TV, and Troy Timmer, '86 F&TV, on cameras. Hyyppa, whose day job is information systems manager at MontanaPBS headquarters at MSU, is a TV audio expert HighLine often uses. Harris says they hired a production truck from Salt Lake City and an uplink truck from Butte to provide the signal to the satellite. "During the game we're in the production truck, parked right behind the stadium," Lou Ann explains. Much of the work occurs before the game when they run camera and audio cables all over the stadium. They opened the broadcast with a scene-setting shot of the Bridger Mountains and graphics to show the audience where they were. "A football game has a script," Lou Ann says. "It has a set number of commercial breaks." John was constantly on the phone with FOX Sports in Houston, deciding when the breaks would happen. "Because it's live, you don't get second chances to get something," Lou Ann says.