The word iconic is used a lot in broadcast to describe the Paleys and the Sarnoffs who molded the business side of the industry. On the technical side of that equation, the name perhaps most deserving of the term is Dolby, as in Ray Dolby, whose name has become synonymous with excellence in broadcast-audio technology. Dolby [...]

NEP Broadcasting CEO Deb Honkus has grown up alongside her remote-production trucks. In more than 30 years, she has built compelling client relationships that make her more a friend than a service provider. Her mobile units have supported every major sports event in the country, and her influence is felt among clients, colleagues, and friends [...]

A sports-broadcasting career is often the sum of one’s experiences: the vast majority of industry professionals have worked for a variety of networks, with numerous production crews, and on countless events. Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer George Hoover exemplifies that career trajectory — and then some. His career has been marked by the opportunity to [...]

In his tragically short, 15-year career, George Wensel did more to advance sports production than most people achieve in a lifetime. A technical wizard, he had an unmatched passion for engineering and a can-do attitude that built the foundation for the mobile broadcast industry. “If George Wensel were alive today, our business would be different,” [...]

You can’t spell HD without Larry Thorpe. A constant innovator, he has worked his magic across continents, companies, and industries, leaving an indelible trail of success throughout the broadcast world. Thorpe earned an early reputation for innovation as the project manager on the world’s first automated color studio camera, then revolutionized imaging with the chargecoupled [...]

Because of Tom Shelburne, “live on location” is not a special event but an industry standard. The father of remote television production, he has spent decades capturing and telling stories from even the most secluded events, making the mobile production trucks he helped create an integral piece of the broadcasting puzzle. Shelburne founded NEP Supershooters, [...]

For more than 35 years, Charles A. Steinberg played an integral role behind the scenes at Ampex and at Sony Broadcast, turning the technical visions of industry leaders like Roone Arledge, Jules Barnathan, Don Ohlmeyer, and Ken Aagaard into sports-television realities. Born June 7, 1934, in South Brooklyn, Steinberg had a passion for engineering that [...]

The opportunity to be involved in such ground-breaking achievements was something John Porter probably didn’t envision in 1974 when, at age 26, he left his hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, for Australia. Tired of the violence and fighting, he was ready for a change. “I lived right in the middle of the fighting,” he says, [...]

Steadicam. Divecam. Skycam. If you’ve seen a sporting event on TV or a movie that features ultra-smooth camera work, the odds are pretty high that the production crew is making use of one of Garrett Brown’s inventions. Born April 6, 1942, in Long Branch, N.J., Brown revolutionized TV and movie production in the mid-1970s with [...]

Without John Roché, some of sports production’s greatest directors simply refuse to do a show. Over the course of two decades with NEP Broadcasting, he has defined the role of the modern technical manager, lending his expertise to some of the largest live television events in the world. Organized, detail-oriented, patient, and fair, Roché literally [...]