The Real Winner of Last Night’s GOP Debate
After a misunderstanding about who would film it, Michigan Enjoyer stepped in and CBS Detroit streamed our recording
Auburn Hills — Viewers of last night’s Oakland County Republican Gubernatorial Debate watched a fairly typical professional broadcast showing four candidates verbally jousting for the GOP nomination.
We didn’t get any history-making quips or remarks, and who won the debate is certainly up to interpretation, but the real winner of debate was Michigan Enjoyer and the losers were the Detroit TV stations.
Video Producer Ken Beck, a 20-year broadcast news veteran who’s punched a clock at several news channels in Michigan, pulled off a modern miracle behind the scenes of last night's debate. And the proof of his incredible feat is that viewers were none the wiser.
The genius behind many of the video clips you see on the Enjoyer feeds, Beck’s production work is why our content has impressed so many viewers.
A misunderstanding caused Fox 2 Detroit to pull its coverage of last night’s debate, leaving the Oakland County GOP without a video stream for the event only two days prior. Enjoyer’s Charlie LeDuff was already locked-in as one of three moderators, so Beck’s services were offered as a possible solution.
One very slight problem: Beck wasn’t entirely sure he could pull it off. Time, space, equipment, and Wi-Fi signal were all potential problems he needed to gauge and determine before he could definitively take on the challenge.
“I don’t know if this is possible,” he said at the prospect of running the debate.
Beck pulled me along the next day as he scoped out the venue—the aerospace manufacturing company Visioneering of Auburn Hills—and plotted his course of action. Space and time weren’t an issue, and the Wi-Fi, while not great, was serviceable. The real problem was technological.
Could Ken pull off a professional broadcast with his personal cameras? I wasn’t worried, mainly because I didn’t know enough to be concerned, but also because I’ve seen the guy work magic.
“I think I can pull this off, but I need help,” Beck said. “I need you to work the main camera.”
I’ve been shooting surveillance film for over two decades, but I’ve never worked with a broadcast studio camera. Of course I was all in.
With a few minutes of training, Beck brought me up to speed on the main camera. With him directing the entire production from a touchscreen smartpad while also controlling four remote cameras, he produced an A+ debate.
How good was the Michigan Enjoyer stream? So exceptional that CBS Detroit piggybacked off Beck’s feed, streaming it as their own, with his permission, of course.
This wasn’t just a win for Michigan Enjoyer. This was a message to the rest of the Michigan media: We’re here; we’re as good, and if you drop the ball, we can pick it up and run with it.
How do we know? Because we just did it.
