NEW YORK — Wall Street may have been caught in the grip of panic, with a stampede of bulls turning into bears overnight. But if the recent manifestation of the ongoing subprime lending crisis was giving fits to traders and investors, CNBC’s Fast Money program made a smooth transition to an uptown venue — Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room. The cable program, which airs live on weekdays at the end of Wall Street’s trading day, is usually telecast from NASDAQ on Wall Street. But four times a year, the show takes to the road for programs sponsored by Schwab, drawing live audiences of 500 to 2,500 people.
For the recent Lincoln Center show, Scharff Weisberg provided video and audio support.
“We worked with Scharff Weisberg on our leadership awards show in April,” said Geoff Cortelyou, CNBC’s production manager. “The Fast Money program from Jazz at Lincoln Center was going to be an eight-camera show with Steadicam. So we called Josh Perlman at Scharff Weisberg to determine our crew and equipment needs.”
“Live television leaves no margin for error,” said Perlman, the project manager. “With news from Wall Street coming fast and furious, changes were being made up to show time and wireless requirements increased every day; we ended up with 30 channels of wireless intercom, IFB and mics.”
Cortelyou acknowledged that his staff “had a lot of things planned for the show that actually didn't happen because of the Wall Street crisis. But we had a lot of support from Scharff Weisberg in this ever-changing landscape.”
Scharff Weisberg set up a Grass Valley Kayak SDI switching system and an Avitek Multiview system, which enabled the floor producer to see the output of all eight cameras from one source and check for delays. Barry Grossman designed the fiber transmission system from the Allen Room to CNBC’s New Jersey headquarters for broadcast.
“Scharff Weisberg took good care of us,” said Cortelyou. “We never had any technical glitches; everything was smooth as glass, and the communications between the camera people and the director were flawless. That’s rare.”
Michael Cruz, Scharff Weisberg’s resident manager at Jazz at Lincoln Center, served as engineer in charge.
For more information, please visit www.scharffweisberg.com.
