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Cash Explosion Road to Riches
August 20th, 2010The Ohio Lottery Commission recently challenged Mills James to take production of the Lottery’s weekly Cash Explosion game show on the road to the Ohio State Fair. The challenge is nothing new; this marks the 22nd year that we’ve proudly partnered with the Lottery to take the Cash Explosion to the people of Ohio – visiting 44 Ohio cities so far. Normally taped twice-monthly in Mills James’ Studio A, the Ohio Lottery Commission decided to make the Cash Explosion game show one of the live entertainment attractions at this year’s fair.
| Branded The Cash Explosion Road to Riches, taking the show on the road meant Mills James’ technologists had to rise to the challenge of recreating our all-HD studio and control room on location. It also meant transforming the Celeste Center expo arena into a functioning television studio – with creature comforts and “in the round” seating and sight lines for an audience of 2,000. | 
To view additional photos, click the image above. |
It was a job that demanded an experienced HD mobile teleproduction company and an experienced live event production company. Fortunately, the Lottery Commission already had a relationship with both those companies in one: Mills James – which has been the Lottery’s broadcast television partner since 2003.
Mills James’ Teleproduction group provided turnkey HD video production services and our Meetings & Events group took on the location logistics and staging of the live show.
This meant coordinating a crew of 50 union and non-union workers, installing the stage, lighting, sound and video systems needed to produce an hour of HD television programming — plus the gear required to give the Fair audience a concert-quality live show.
We had four days to set up, which was a luxury compared to the five hours we had to strike and return the venue to what it was when we arrived!
The first Road to Riches show we taped on Wednesday was edited overnight, audio sweetened and closed captioned on Thursday, delivered for client approval on Friday and aired on Saturday. In about five months, we’ll probably enter the shows in next year’s Emmy Awards where Cash Explosion has already been recognized with 4 Emmys. Watch this blog around next July to see if we add more.
New Name for Cash Explosion?
August 12th, 2010From the Ohio Lottery blog:
Technically, we’re thinking of changing the name of our game show. We’re thinking of calling it, “Emmy Award Winning Cash Explosion.” A bit clunky perhaps, but true all the same. And we’re proud of it.
Mills James Productions of Columbus has been recognized with two Emmy awards for its work on our newly enhanced Cash Explosion show. The 46th Annual Emmy Awards ceremony, sponsored by the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, was held July 31 at the Hilton at Easton Town Center in Columbus.