Found: Perfect complement to the game

By Jonathan Gault

Most fans at a baseball game probably give as little thought to the video board operator as they do to the animal parts that make up their foot-long hot dog. But behind that board, there is a man — or more accurately, a team of men — who controls everything the spectators see during a game.

As director of multimedia production for the Syracuse Chiefs, Anthony Cianchetta oversees the video board at NBT Bank Stadium during Chiefs baseball games. From their offices on the press level, Cianchetta and his team of interns manage replays, decide which camera angles to use and select content for the video board. They must be in constant communication to find content that entertains the spectators while working around a set of scripted advertisements. In the quest to find the best shots, it’s not always smooth sailing for Cianchetta’s team.

“Some things, you just can’t avoid,” Cianchetta said. “If you’re going through crowd shots and somebody in the crowd does something inappropriate, you just pull them out of the feed as quickly as you can and pretend like it never even happened. If you draw attention to it, that’s not the way to go.”

Cianchetta, 24, said that such occurrences are rare, however, and that finding the right shot — in most cases, the right replay — is one of his favorite aspects of the job. The video board is a vital part of the game-day experience, and though most spectators may not be thinking of him when they see themselves up on the big screen, he knows he has helped create an emotional reaction.

“Kids love it, parents love it,” Cianchetta said. “It’s part of the game.”