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By Paul O. Davis, Ph.D

Television has played a huge part in the increasing visibility of the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge since 1991, when the Washington, D.C.-area CBS affiliate WUSA gave considerable airtime to the first-ever Challenge held at the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute (MFRI).

In 1992, the Fire & Emergency Training Network (FETN) produced a special that covered the first national championship held concurrently with the IAFC’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. And since then, hundreds of local TV stations have aired news pieces and specials featuring their local firefighter athletes. In fact, 2008’s statistics show more than 20 million household impressions (HHIs)—the combination of all media (TV, radio and print) as well as attendance at the more than 20 regional, national and international competitions—for Challenge-related coverage.

For 10 years, the Challenge was a regular feature on ESPN and ESPN2. The first airing covered World Challenge II, which was co-located with the IAFC’s Fire-Rescue International in Dallas. Neilson Ratings, the television industry census takers, counted millions of viewers watching firefighters from around the world.

In 1999, A&E aired a 1-hour special feature called “The Competition” in which the Overland Park (Kan.) Fire Department and Brampton (Ontario) Fire & Emergency Services squared off for the World Title and were eclipsed by a dark horse, the Ottawa (Ontario) Fire Department.

More recently, the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge was the backdrop for one of the most watched shows on the Food Network, “Ace of Cakes.” Duff Goldman of Charm City Bakery created a reproduction of the Challenge course in the form of a sheet cake, replete with all of the props, and presented his masterpiece at the Challenge’s Elkton (Md.) event last year. In a very brave move, Duff donned bunker gear and an Air-Pak and made a gallant attempt at the course. This episode has been repeatedly aired and is one of the most popular in this long-running series.

The Challenge’s move to the Versus network took place 2 years ago and has won kudos from Comcast, the channel owners and parent company. A four-part series airing in January 2009 and featuring highlights as well as the Las Vegas-based finals for 17th season played to excellent numbers—and Versus subsequently requested more content.

Check Out FFCC.tv
With the proliferation of affordable digital video equipment, including Mac-based professional editing programs like Final Cut Pro, producing quality video has provided the Challenge personnel the mechanics for capturing dramatic footage at all of the regional events for the 2009 season.

In the spring of 2009, we took ownership of a new portal entitled FFCC.tv with the intent of capturing video content not just from our past TV shows, but also bundling under one umbrella Challenge-related content from all over the Internet. A cursory inspection of what’s out there gives a glimpse of the magnitude of this project: There are more than 700 clips on YouTube alone. This daunting task will take the better part of a year.

In the meantime, we started producing a highlights clip from each of our venues and linking it to our Web pate, www.FirefighterChallenge.com. Despite our state-of-the-art equipment and software, even a 7-minute production is a full-time job for our videographer, Chris Bryant. Chris shoots, directs and edits simultaneously using a Sony HDV camera and two laptops.

The choke point is having sufficient bandwidth to upload the finished product, keeping in mind the restriction that the HD file cannot be larger than 1GB. Since we are driven to post the video as soon as possible after the event, we’re constantly looking for hotels that have WiFi with upload speeds better than dial-up.

Final Thoughts
A few years ago, it would have been inconceivable to capture broadcast-quality video at an event, render and edit, much less broadcast the content within a week of the shooting. But then, from our very humble origins at MFRI in 1991, who would have guessed that more than 30,000 firefighters would have participated in the Challenge, much less watched themselves compete on the Internet?

Dr. Paul Davis received his PhD from the University of Maryland, College of Human Performance. A former firefighter/paramedic, he is a renowned expert on the subject of physical fitness and employment standards in the public safety sector. His ground-breaking research was the basis for the creation of the Firefighter Combat Challenge.