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Dave Zur, vice president of operations at Denver-based Altitude Sports Network, was at a young age when he realized he had a knack for grasping music, specifically, rock and roll. "I wanted to be a hard rock bass player," he says of his days growing up in Parma Heights, Ohio. Today that dream is still alive every Wednesday night when he takes the stage as part of "Dellusions of Grandeur," a rock-and-roll band. But while his band may be a dellusion of grandeur the same can't be said of his career in the sports industry as he made the move from freelancer to internal operations and engineering. "I learned how audio worked but, more importantly, it taught me how to solder," he says of his musical past. That knowledge gave him an advantage when, after graduating from Metropolitan State College in Denver, CO, he landed a job American Cablevision and then at KWGN Denver. "These trucks were not the big NMT or NEP trucks," he says. "Early on I spent a great deal of time in small cable trucks producing local events, high school sports and hundreds of city council meetings." He then moved to the broadcast side, working at KWGN Denver in 1988 where he constantly handled repairs and numerous difficulties. "Without a doubt, the trucks were where I learned about signal flow," Zur says. The problems encountered on live remotes and technical problems in the trucks made him quick on his feet and benefited him when he became an operator and engineer. "Because I worked in a lot of troubled trucks I was constantly facing technical adversity against live deadlines and this really helped me when I moved into fixed facilities," says Zur. "It truly was a blessing in disguise." In 1990 his love for audio called out to him once again when he joined Pro Sports Audio as a freelance audio enginneer. He was one of the first remote audio operators in the Denver area. Zur became one of the first audio ops in Denver during the 90's. "I did freelance audio engineering for Turner and MMT." "I got to work remotes with the Pope and presidents but the highlight of my remote experience had to be the '96 Olympics," Zur says. Zur used his experiences to become the chief broadcast engineer for Kroenke Sports Enterprises in 2001 where he supported the in-game entertainment for the sports franchises that played in the Pepsi Center Arena in Denver. When KSE expanded to Altitude Sports Network Zur was chosen to head up the new facility. Today his group facilitates Altitude's studio operations and traffic systems. Altitude will broadcast 80 HD games of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets to affiliates throughout the West in the coming year. It is the most watched regional network in the Rocky Mountains Region. "We keep a constant vigil over our air product and work to ensure our affiliates the cleanest SD and HD air product possible," Zur says. Zur's career reflects his musical stylings, drawing from different influences. "I am very fortunate to work with all the top network sports producers and techs who taught me the right way to do things," he says. "The experiences with those guys were incredibly valuable." © Copyright 2006-2007 sportsvideogroup |
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