In Memoriam: Andrew Lorenz — Sportvision and SMT Vet, Emmy Award-Winning Innovator, Beloved SVG Community Member

Friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate his life on March 5

Longtime SMT and Sportvision vet Andrew Lorenz

Andrew Francis Lorenz — a longtime vet of Sportsvision and SMT, an Emmy Award-winning member of the sports-broadcast community, and an integral part of enhancing the live sports viewing experience — died peacefully on Feb. 20 at his home in Campbell, CA.

Lorenz, 44, played a key role in a variety of groundbreaking technical innovations, including virtual-advertising insertion for MLB and NHL; KZONE for ESPN; virtual-offside-line technology (SMT-VOL) for the Portuguese Football Federation and FIFA; and Synthetic Video for the Triple Crown races and Australian Rules Football. His latest projects were implementing virtual-graphics enhancements (NITRO) for NHRA and team and broadcast analytics for NASCAR.

On March 5, friends and colleagues of Lorenz gathered in Campbell, CA, to pay their respects and celebrate his life. Mike Davies, SVG chairman and SVP, technical and field ops, FOX Sports, recounts the event:

If you were at the service, it would have been obvious as to what Andrew did for his living — and what kind of passion he had for it.

Around the room where the service and reception took place was a shocking variety of credentials (a couple from only a few months ago). There were hats and other swag from every network, as well as balls, bats, uniforms, and, in the corner of the room, a “green board.”

Some of the credentials that Andrew Lorenz accumulated during his career

You see, Andrew worked on and loved a lot of sports, but his favorite by far was baseball. And the green board complicated that love. The green board, of course, is the ubiquitous chromakey green panel used to key virtual ads on TV.

On one hand, the green board was the key to going to the game and, while there, going to places on the ball field no one gets to go: behind home plate, in the dugout, even on the field itself. But, on the other hand, it could be an infernal frustration: when the lights or the paint wasn’t just right, when the gaff tape that framed it frayed or came loose, or when the whole virtual-ad system was simply just not performing the way it ought to.

I’ve even heard that technicians who worked for the company, particularly in the early days, had nightmares about different things going wrong with it.

Nevertheless, Andrew never complained about it. In fact, he had a sense of humor about it. He had a sense of humor about everything; I guess those of us in this business have to have that. His was particularly acute, to say the very least.

In fact, he never complained about anything, even in illness. In the last text I got from him, perhaps a week before he passed, he asked if there was “anything he could do for me.”

He was well taken care of by his family, especially in his final weeks: his amazing mother, Patricia, and Carissa and their sons, Ethan and Henry. I know he wished he had more time with his sons — the unifying regret of those who work in our business.

More of Lorenz’s industry credentials

At the service, I learned a lot about him. I learned he was a musician, that he considered joining the priesthood while in high school. I also learned that he had an old-school typewriter he would write friends with. He used this typewriter to write his best friend, Jim, as to how he might have seen his own funeral service — all the way back in 2013. He was joking, of course, which those who knew him would understand.

Nevertheless, requests were honored so hot dogs were served; a bagpiper played (as specified, “for dramatic effect”) a drawn-out version of “Scotland the Brave,” as I recall; and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was played (the most traditional version available), along with a polka (“Roll Out the Barrel”) in a strange juxtaposition given the circumstances.

He was a member of our Sports Video Group family. I remember he enjoyed seeing everyone at the events and embodied so many of the things that we try to live up to: a passion for the business, an unwaveringly good attitude while performing it, and a unique ability to care for everyone with whom he interacted.

We will miss him and will celebrate the indelible mark he made on the business he loved so much. SMT should be recognized for the same qualities for taking such good care of him and standing by him consistently over the years.

Lorenz is survived by his two sons, Ethan, 19, and Henry, 9; his former spouse, Carrissa; his mother, Patricia; and half-siblings Fred, Gregory, Harry, Jay, Jeaneen, Jeanne, Julia, and Michael. He is preceded in death by his father, Harold, and his half-sister, Jennifer. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in his memory, CLICK HERE.