A big thank you to fellow Rotarian Steve Warren for presenting to our club on June 2nd. Steve is an Emmy award winning producer and serves as Director of Operations for Fox Sports Ohio / SportsTime Ohio. 
 
Steve introduced himself and gave a brief background of his career in sports television, beginning with his jobs as a freelance Producer and Director, transitioning to becoming the Manager of Broadcasting Operations for the  Cleveland Indians and how the Indians created their own Regional Sports Network - SportsTime Ohio - and his role with STO before and after STO was purchased by Fox Sports.
 
Steve then spoke about how Fox Sports Ohio / SportsTime Ohio dealt with creating programming for 2 full time, 24/7 sports networks without any live sporting events to cover once the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all sports.  The networks immediately began to fill time with re-runs of "classic" games.  With those games needing to be edited for air and the prospect of not being able to work in the Fox facilities, Steve and his team began figuring out ways for the Fox editors to work from home, accessing the editing software, highlights and transmission facilities at their Cleveland and Cincinnati production facilities remotely from the editors' homes across the state.
 
The next task his team was challenged with was to figure out how to create new programming, integrating the announcers, players and coaches all from their homes.  Steve explained how they found new software and how they modified the intended use of that streaming software to create 6 new weekly shows for the networks.  Their success was eventually reported to the rest of the Fox Regional Sports Networks.  Steve and his team were then tasked with training all 22 of the Fox RSNs in the use of the software so that the other RSNs could catch up with the creative output of Fox Sports Ohio / SportsTime Ohio.
 
Currently, Steve and his Operations team are working on "Return To Play" scenarios for when live sports eventually returns.  With the prospects of all 5 of the teams that FSO/STO covers potentially returning to play at the same time, but no one knowing the exact plans of the various leagues, Steve described it as "trying to pack for a vacation but you don't know where you are going, when you are going or who is going with you."  He covered some of the health and safety precautions his company is taking to keep employees safe when they return to their work environment which normally includes having 20 people jammed together in a television production truck.  He also enlightened the Club on some of the new technologies that will be coming to the forefront as a result of working from home and rapid evolution in broadcasting technologies.
Sponsors