World Series goes dark temporarily on FOX

[mvcg66b3r]

Game 1 of the World Series gave a lot of people memories of the 2013 Super Bowl as play stopped for a while due to a power outage. While lights in the stadium stayed on, tonight’s New York Mets-Kansas City Royals matchup saw Fox experience “technical difficulties” that left viewers gameless.

The problem hit in the fourth inning with the game tied 1-1 and saw the broadcaster go dark for about 30 seconds before the network cut to studio analysts. Play was halted on the field during the four-minute outage, which Fox said happened when it lost power to its control truck parked at the stadium in KC. The picture was restored in less than five minutes, but play on the field had been stopped. When Fox returned to the game — showing a meeting of umpires, coaches and MLB officials — it was with the MLB International feed with different announcers. It took about three more minutes for play to resume.

Fox later put out this statement explaining the cause of the outage:

“Before the start of the bottom of the fourth inning of tonight’s World Series Game 1, a rare electronics failure caused both the primary and backup generators inside the Fox Sports production compound to lose power. The issue was immediately addressed, although it resulted in the audience missing one at-bat during the time needed to switch to carriage of Major League Baseball’s international feed, powered by a different generator on site. The on-field delay was due to replay capability being lost in both team’s clubhouses. We apologize for the interruption in tonight’s coverage and are working to ensure that the remainder of the World Series is broadcast without incident.”

http://deadline.com/2015/10/world-series-goes-dark-fox-mets-royals-1201595913/

 

[umfan]

Kind of embarrassing for them, to say the least.

 

[KeithE4]

But it was sure nice not to hear Joe Buck and Harold Reynolds for a few innings.

 

[mvcg66b3r]

Fox Sports: New Generators and Power Plans for Game 2

After facing an embarrassing interruption of its coverage of the first game of the World Series when it main and backup generators shut down, Fox Sports has revamped its power plans for the second game by bringing in new generators and by having its main production truck hooked up to the stadium’s power.

Sports producers rarely hook up their trucks to the stadium’s power supply because the generators are typically more reliable, explained Michael Davies, senior VP, technical and field operations, Fox Sports.

Davies said they may also bring in some new technology called a UPS or uninterruptable power supply when they return to New York City at the Citi Field.

The supplier of the power generators, Cat Entertainment Services and Fox engineers are still trying to determine the exact cause of the generator failures. “We have a primary and backup and the whole machine went down,” Davies said. “That is not supposed to happen. When one goes down, the other is supposed to start right up.”

One possibility is that there was a problem with the electronics and that the computer that shut the generators down. Other possibilities may be contaminated fuel. “At this point we are not really sure,” he said.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...-new-generators-and-power-plans-game-2/145375

 

[KML0224]

Could the rain before game 1 have caused any problems?

 

[installLSC]

I saw two brief blackouts in extra innings (both less than 30 seconds), one coming back from a commercial and one during the middle of an inning. Did anyone else see these? (I saw the game on Seattle's KCPQ.)