Seton Hall's TV Studio Manager and Departmental Engineer, Albin Wicki, was awarded a 2012 New York Emmy Award for his work on Yankees Baseball- YES MO.
Wicki was part of the team awarded by the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Technical Achievement, because of the specialty camera they used when shooting the program for the YES Network.
"I do not consider that we were 'up against' anyone, it is simply that we were recognized for the job we did with that specialty camera," Wicki said. "At the time, there were very few of them in existence."
The team he worked with used an "extreme slow motion" camera to shoot Yankees games aired on the network, according to Wicki.
"A normal television camera records signals at 30 frames per second, this camera records video at various rates up to 1200 frames per second," Wicki said.
His team discovered the best speed to shoot baseball at was 480 frames per second.
"It gives the best image while allowing reasonable time for rendering, transferring and then playing back on the air in a live game situation," he said. "As an example, you can clearly see the laces on the ball spinning during the replay of a pitch, or the bat bending when making contact with the ball, or grains of dirt clearly flying in the air when a runner slides into base."
When a replay is shown using this speed on the network a "YES-MO" image appears on the screen to identify the camera as the one the team originated.
Wicki said that winning the Emmy was not the most rewarding part of his career in TV Engineering though.
"I am very blessed to be one of very few people in this world who look forward to going to work," Wicki said."I would not still be at Seton Hall after 32 years if I didn't enjoy my job."
Wicki said the support from the University and his colleagues has made his job enjoyable throughout the years.
He has been at the University since 1980. His primary duty is to install and then maintain all aspects of the Television facility, located in Fahy Hall.
"The facility is primarily curricular in nature, but it is essential that it be current in technology to present to our students the best possible education," Wicki said.
Wicki also expressed his gratitude for being able to work on programming with the New York market and on networks like YES, in his spare time.
"Personally, I enjoy the experience of working on these shows and I like being able to bring what I learn on the outside to our students here at Seton Hall," Wicki said.
Erin Williams can be reached at erin.williams@student.shu.edu.
