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10:30
It’s an
early kick-off for Rangers today, so Billy arrives bright and early to
get started on the day. He joined QPR three years ago from PTV (the
company that runs the vast majority of football club websites).
“I did a masters degree in radio and ended up working for Premium TV as an
editor” he told us. “I was putting together footage of goals and such
like for all the clubs. When they were launching the World sites I got
in touch with QPR and asked to be kept in mind when they brought out
their World site”
“QPR were one of the last to do it so by then I’d already accepted another
job, Rangers called me the week before I was meant to start the new job,
I went for an interview and they offered me the job that Friday and I
was meant to be starting the new job the next Monday, but I turned it
down and have never regretted it”
10:35
After
meeting Billy in reception it’s straight to the QPR World office to run
through today’s responsibilities. Billy will be commentating on the game
for broadcast in the corporate boxes and through Rangers’ disabled
areas, then after the game he’ll need to hot foot it to the press
conference to film the post match interviews, then edit and upload the
story of the day to the QPR World site before home time.
For a QPR fan to spend all week so close to the club he loves must be the
dream of many people but it’s not always so glamorous, as Billy tells
us.
“People always say to me that it must be amazing to be so close to things
and it is but at the same time it’s my job, even if I’m on the pitch
filming, I still only see everything through the camera lens”
“Also if we have a bad day, as a fan all you want to do is go home but I
have to go round bugging the players and management for interviews when
they don’t really want to talk to anyone”
“If we win a game then the week's brilliant, I can do funny quirky things
with the players and Olly because they’re all in a really good mood but
if we lose then Monday can be a pretty bad day”
10:40
We’re off
from the QPR World office in South Africa Road, to the broadcast gantry
on Ellerslie Road to set up and test Billy’s commentating equipment.
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Billy sets up the
commentary equipment |
10:55
Having
set up in the gantry its back to the office on the other side of the
ground and with a few minutes breathing space Billy puts some extra work
into a feature he’s producing for QPR World - a review of the year 2004
11:15
Stuart
Morley, who helps Billy with filming on match days, arrives and Billy
sends him out into the street to interview fans about the upcoming game.
11:30
Now it’s
off to the press room in South Africa Road to set up the camera so it’s
ready for filming after the match.
12:00
Back up
to the gantry to run through the final preparations prior to kick off,
and to test the feed for the commentary, all seems to be working fine.
12:20
A quick
dash to (what's known as) the "REB room" at the back of Ellerslie Road,
this is where the live feed from the game is recorded onto video and
Billy needs to make sure everything is set up correctly as many people
will be expecting copies of the tapes after the game.
12:45
Back in
the gantry and ready to go when we find out the kick off has been
delayed, the game finally kicks off fifteen minutes late and Billy is
off and running with the commentary.
13:15
Billy
gets a text to inform him that the whole PTV network has crashed which
means there is no internet commentary available and, as the official
site is also down for the same reason, no way of informing the fans
listening at home what has happened. Billy of course is commentating on
the game so can do little about it – other than fume quietly!
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Billy commentating from
the gantry |
13:25
Big Dan
puts Rangers in front and the gantry is rocking with celebrations!
13:45
It’s half
time and once the analysis is done, Billy can relax for a few minutes.
We talk about how successful the World site has been since it was
launched three seasons ago.
“I’m really lucky because I see other managers and other clubs World sites
and they don’t get much behind the scenes stuff, whereas here Olly will
let me do whatever I want and the players are all very approachable and
I think that’s helped make our World site one of the best”
“We’re now level with Glasgow Rangers in terms of World subscribers and
they’re the biggest in the UK so the QPR World site is officially the
biggest in England now”
14:00
The
second half kicks off and Billy is back on the commentary.
14:45
Final
whistle blows but there’s no time for celebrations – after packing up
his equipment Billy is straight off to the REB room to pick up the tapes
of today’s game. There are five copies, one is for the referee, one for
the Rangers coaching staff, one for Cardiff, one has to be posted to the
Football League and Billy has a copy to keep for QPR World.
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the final whistle |
15:05
Billy
stops by the dressing room on the way back to give out the copies of the
tapes to Gary Penrice and today’s referee.
15:10
Into the
press conference and despite having to hurry to get everything ready,
there’s a long wait for anyone to arrive.
15:20
Tim
Breacker arrives to answer questions from the press in the absence of
Ian Holloway. After he’s finished Lennie Lawrence turns up, in less than
a good mood!
15:50
After the
talking is finished Billy rushes straight upstairs, he now begins the
task of mixing footage from the press conference, with what Stuart has
filmed from pitch side to produce the after match reaction video you
would have seen on QPR World that Saturday night.
“It’s a case of juggling things around”, says Billy “at QPR we can’t
afford to go out and buy loads of equipment, in an ideal world I’d have
a camera in the tunnel interviewing people after the game whilst we had
another one filming the press conference but we can’t do that”.
“Today I wanted to interview Danny Shittu before he went home but because
the press conference took so long to get going I couldn’t do that”.
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putting together the
after match footage for QPR World |
16:30
After
editing the footage together it’s another half hour job to create and
upload the three versions of the video needed for QPR World, one for a
high speed connection, one downloadable version and one for a low speed
connection.
17:00
After
seven and a half hours of rushing round, it’s the end of the day for
Billy, the footage is uploaded to the (now working again) QPR World and
he can head off home and start planning for Monday, by all accounts it
will be a good day to be at work!
We'd
like to thank Billy and everyone at QPR for letting us produce this
feature. |
