To say that veteran cameraman Drew DeRosa has seen it all in the world of sports production is an understatement.
When ABC celebrated its 500th Monday Night Football telecast on November 11, displaying old-style graphics while making constant reference to player stats and its own cast of storied announcers, it also reserved air-time to show DeRosa behind a Sony camera.
That's because DeRosa served as a camera operator for the very first Monday Night Football broadcast in September 1970 and has shot every game since.
In his more than 30 years of service, DeRosa has witnessed a myriad of sports technology innovations, introduced by his former boss Roone Arledge, that have helped shape the way current sporting events are covered. These include the "up close and personal" camera shot and slow-motion replays.
In 1970 DeRosa began working with Ikegami studio and two-piece “portable” color tube video cameras and is now using an Ikegami electronic CCD triax camera with Canon lens. (National Mobile Television, in New York, provides the production truck for ABC Sports.) When ABC begins presenting Monday Night Football in high definition television (720p) for the 2003-2004 season, as they did in 1999-2000, DeRosa will be there as well.
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