FAMILY TEAMWORK
On Father’s Day, video production pros Gary and Stephen Williams’ teamwork will be readily apparent at Isotopes Park
The Williams father-son duo leads Isotopes’ video production
Chances are you’ve seen their work.
And chances are you don’t know what they look like. No, Gary and Stephen Williams have never hit a game-winning shot in the Pit, launched an extra-innings home run at Isotopes Park or scored a touchdown in Dreamstyle Stadium.
But if you’ve seen any of those plays on a video board or television highlight reel, odds are good it was captured by their handiwork.
For well over a decade, video production of live sporting events in and around Albuquerque pretty much have had the thumbprint of either Gary Williams, the 58-yearold chief engineer of KOAT-TV who has worked in broadcasting in this market for 37 years, or Stephen Willams, Gary’s 29-year-old son, proud follower in dad’s footsteps in the same business in New Mexico and owner of Windfire Productions.
It’s the company that contracts with the Triple-A baseball Albuquerque Isotopes for video production of their games for both in-stadium video board use and live streaming of the games on MiLB.com. And today, Father’s Day, father and son will be working together at Isotopes Park as they have for much of the past 15 baseball seasons.
“This place probably wouldn’t be
standing today without Gary,” said Isotopes vice president and general manager John Traub. “And the work they do goes well beyond just the video people see of the games.”
At Isotopes Park on Saturday night, with Stephen acting as director of the show, the two masterfully orchestrated a crew of six through an hour-long rain delay and any mishaps that come along with that. It would be production of their 33rd home game of the season.
Their ability to seamlessly troubleshoot any scenario with the “show must go on” mentality — be it pregame rain storms, scorching-hot foul balls smashed at camera operators or just the run-ofthe-mill computer glitches — seems to be what endears them to not only Traub, but the University of New Mexico, the folks running the Santa Ana Star Center and several other customers they have in the metro area.
And troubleshooting, Stephen will tell you, is what his father has mastered.
“I’m only about 10 percent of what he can do,” Stephen said of his father’s ability in their line of work. “I don’t know where he comes up with half the ideas he comes up with. He’s the MacGyver of Albuquerque. My dad could make an entire video production run with literally nothing but a stapler and a clothespin. That’s the stuff that I still don’t understand — how he can do so much. … I still have a long ways to go, but I’m lucky because I’m still learning a lot from him.”
But production of sporting events is far more than troubleshooting technical matters. It also requires working in concert with everyone around the park.
“We do a waltz,” says Isotopes announcer Josh Suchon, whose play-by-play audio call is heard both over radio waves and in the online video stream. “Sometimes I lead, sometimes they lead. I can say something about a pitcher’s grip, and they will zoom right in on how the pitcher is holding the ball. If I see they zoom in on a pitcher warming up in the bullpen, I let the listeners know about it.”
Growing up, Stephen, who earned a broadcast journalism degree from UNM and also works producing live video for Lobo athletics, and his older sister, Christine, an Albuquerque architect, occasionally would tag along with dad to work at his television jobs — mostly at KOAT, but also for 16 years at KOB.
Gary, a New Mexico State University broadcast journalism graduate, got the contract with the Isotopes in 2003 and, a year later, asked his then 14-year-old son, a Cibola High School student, if he wanted to earn a little extra money pulling cable for the camera operators at Isotopes Park.
It’s been on-the-job training ever since. And, according to Dad, Stephen is far closer to being as good as dad than he gives himself credit for.
“No, he’s very close,” said the beaming dad. “He’s shy. He shakes his head (no), but he’s very close. One area my son excels at more than I do is he’s very good visually. He’s very good with graphics and animations. He has excelled way beyond my capability when it comes to high-end graphics. And the growing world of streaming (video online), he understands all of that better than I do. He’s very good at all of this and they both (his son and daughter, who also worked Isotopes games occasionally through the years) make us very proud.”