Mike Hall – Curriculum Vitae
Freelance Technical Producer / IBC Technical Manager & Broadcasting Engineer with Extensive Prestige Sports & International Live News Event Coverage for both Tier-1 and Host Broadcaster Operations.
Contact
Michael (Mike) Hall
Peppertree Broadcast Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 7973 755169
www.peppertree.tv
Summary
A highly experienced Broadcasting Engineer, IBC Technical Manager / Technical Producer having originally being trained and employed by the BBC I have been working freelance through my own company for over 20 years. I work for several major UK and international broadcasters and continue to receive repeat bookings to cover prestigious high-profile events such as Olympic Games’ and World Cup Football tournaments for both host broadcasters and rights-holding broadcast partners.
With a wide range of experience, I have gained insight into the differing production demands of News, Sports, Entertainment and Government, and I am readily adaptable to working in these diverse environments each of which has their own unique set of challenges. Very much a team player, I work well with others across all disciplines and pride myself on my amiable nature and ability to see issues from multiple angles and perspectives to lead teams and to reach mutually satisfactory solutions for all stakeholders.
A careful planner who can undertake pre-production surveys, schematic analysis, technical builds / system engineering, equipment configuration, commissioning fault-finding and operations, and who is well-versed in satellite up/downlink and IP configuration and control along most other MCR and broadcast engineering operations.
Qualifications & Skills
• BBC Engineering Qualified Broadcasting Engineer, (BBC ETSI’s)
• National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy winner for my involvement in the programme “ABC 2000 Millennium Special”
• Edward R Murrow Award for “Overall Excellence in Television & Radio” 2016 for work with ABC News
• Upper Second Class Honours Degree (2.1) in • Special Mathematics, (University of Hull)
Employment History
1996 – present
Freelance Broadcast Engineer
Previous and current clients:
ABC News, BBC CAR/ICR/Sat Ops, CBS News, EBS, Eurovision/EBU, Eutelsat, Feltech, FORTO, Globecast, GTT, Identity, Input Media, ITV Sport & Entertainment, The London Studios, Molinare, MTV Studios, NEP, OBS, Protech Broadcast, Sky, Telenor, Westminster Live.
Work has included:
• International Broadcast Centre, (IBC), & MCR Manager for ITV Sport at numerous international Football and Rugby World Cup and European sporting events from New Zealand to Brazil to Korea to Moscow to the UK.
• EBU Operations Group, MCR at the majority of the Olympic Games’ tournaments between 1996 and 2012; from Atlanta to Sydney to Athens to Turin to London along with host broadcast duties at European Athletics.
• Host broadcast MCR manager at UK Government hosted conferences including NATO Media Freedom, and Commonwealth Heads of Government.
• Extensive Master Control Room, (MCR), operations and engineering for BBC Resources and SKY (using BNCS systems) and ABC News Intercontinental, (using Lawo VSM, Omnibus & Avid systems). At ABC I have been responsible for the consolidation of numerous discrete legacy IP control networks into a combined Broadcast Management Network, interfacing with custom VSM touchscreen panels that I have designed and configured. This project was further extended in 2020 with a multi-VLAN network to allow for for video over IP, discrete control and future expansion.
• Satellite uplinking and downlinking for the busy teleports of Globecast Northern Europe and Telenor using equipment from manufacturers including Ericsson, Adtec, Ateme, Tandberg, Scopus, NDS, Nimbra.
Additionally, I have been fortunate enough to collaborate on the installation, testing and operation at numerous major events, recent examples of which are:
2023
ITV Sport – Rugby World Cup, France. MCR Manager in the Paris IBC at Roland Garros overseeing operations connecting venues around the country with the remote production facility back in the UK. Closely working with system integrators (SI) to optimise the IBC facility and work through any issues arising.
2022
ITV Sport – FIFA World Cup Finals, Qatar. MCR Manager in the Doha IBC for a complex remote production of 64 matches involving challenging signal and control routing, and a workflow that required cooperation between ITV and the BBC. Much of the control and switching was under Cerebrum control and required close collaboration with the SI whilst planning for the event and ongoing during the competition time in order to adapt to ITV’s specific needs.
2022
Sunset & Vine – Commonwealth Games, Birmingham. One of a team of three Venue Technical Managers (VTM) operating across 6 halls at the NEC. Working closely with suppliers and other stakeholders to ensure that the games were able to be broadcast by the host broadcaster and international broadcast partners with minimal disruption or transmission issues.
2022
MCR Transmission Manager at the UK Government hosted Freedom of Religion or Belief conference.
2021
ITV Sport – UEFA Euro 2020 Football Championships, Amsterdam. The 2020 Euro’s took place throughout Europe, and due to the constraints imposed by Covid much of the coverage was enacted remotely. I was engaged to lead a 10 strong team working for ITV Sport in the International Broadcast Centre, (IBC), in Amsterdam as the IBC Technical Manager. Feeds to and from the football stadia and OB vehicles were all coordinated and routed via our facility in the IBC during a challenging time involving periods of lockdown, Covid isolation and a frequent testing regime to bring record-breaking viewing figures to ITV.
2020
At the start of the Covid pandemic I worked closely with staff from ABC News to develop methods and protocols to facilitate remote-working should the company’s news bureau be forced to shut down. As the virus developed the system was successfully exercised allowing remote signal routing, monitoring along with remote operation of the company’s satellite equipment and other MCR operations.
2019
MCR Manager of the Host Broadcast operation at the international NATO conference held in Hertfordshire.
2018
Managing a small team responsible for the on-site IP based Nimbra connectivity of World Snooker broadcast and internet coverage from multiple events in the UK, Europe and Asia. The role involved everything from pre-event site-surveys, planning and co-ordinating travel logistics and accommodation for sub-contracted broadcasting engineers working for Peppertree, to the operation of the equipment during the events.
Older
Rugby World Cup 2019 Tokyo + Maidstone / UK Government Media Freedom Conference 2019 / FIFA World Cup 2018 Moscow / Euro 2016, Paris / Rugby World Cup 2015 / FIFA World Cup 2014, Brazil / London 2012 Olympics / Rugby World Cup, New Zealand 2011 / FIFA World Cup, South Africa 2010 / Vancouver Olympics 2010 / Euro 2008 Football Championships / Rugby World Cup 2007 / FIFA World Cup, Germany 2006 / Summer Olympic Games, Athens 2004 / Euro 2004, Portugal / Commonwealth Games, Manchester 2002 / FIFA World Cup, Seoul 2002 / Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City 2002 / Olympic Games, Sydney 2000 / Euro 2000, Amsterdam / ABC News Millennium Special 1999 / Olympic Games 1996, Atlanta / Euro 1996, UK
July 1994 – Dec 1995
Technical Supervisor, Orbit Communications
Orbit was the world’s first fully digital TV network. Based in Rome, Italy I was one of four supervisors of a multi-cultural team of twenty-four people working in the MCR and VT areas.
Sept 1989 – July 1994
BBC Studio and Network Engineering
After undergoing the BBC’s rigorous broadcast engineering training programme, (ETSI’s), I worked in the iconic main studios, (TC4), the Master, (CAR), International, (ICR), and Network Control Rooms, (NC1/2) of BBC TV Centre.