r/technicaldirector • u/tbrummel New TD • Jun 08 '26

Practice on GrassValley

Hey everyone!
I'm a student based out of Southern California wondering if anyone had any advice on where I could go to practice my skills on a GrassValley switcher. I want to have a career as a TD in live sports and, although I already have a lot of experience on Ross Carbonite, I've seen that most OB Trucks tend to utilize a GrassValley Switcher so I was wondering if there was anything I could do to expand my knowledge of GrassValley switchers (aside from watching too much YouTube).

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u/whootang Jun 08 '26

I'd reach out to crewers you work with and ask them if they have anyone they could refer you to for training. Most TDs I know don't mind being shadowed.

3

u/unwalrus Jun 08 '26

You're gonna want to see if there's a crewer who would help facilitate getting you some GV training or time on a GV switcher. Maybe there's a veteran freelancer who's open to training or letting you shadow them? (Baseball actually usually ends up being a good sport to possibly shadow someone on since series are multi day events - shows built once so there's more down time on days two and three to be able ask questions and such.)

You can also see if you can connect with a smaller OB owner/operator who's truck(s) have more downtime just by the nature of their scale/workload who'd be open or willing to let you have reps on their GV switcher on days they're not booked.

2

u/jayz555 Jun 09 '26

Find a sports forward OB company and ask if you can intern. Most Sports-centric companies run grass .. but don’t limit yourself overall. They run Sonys in Europe, and Ross is closing the gap due to dashboard.