Jelco RotoLift gives Celtics A Lift On The Road

By Andrew Lippe
Sports teams are always watching
video to prepare for an opponent and the Boston Celtics, closing in on an NBA Title, are using Jelco’s ELU-42R RotoLift Case to make the road locker room feel like home. The system allows the Celtics to bring a Toshiba Plasma display into visiting locker rooms where, traditionally, video monitors are not available, making it more difficult to study game video. “We decided at the beginning
of the year that it was time to start traveling with either a Plasma
or an LCD flat screen,” says Jay Wessel, vice president of Technology
for the Boston Celtics.
In the past watching video
on the road was a difficult process. The Boston Celtics would rent projectors
and plasmas at the road arenas or hotels, but the TV sets never gave
the same video output the coaches and players received at home. Also
the process of renting plasmas was quite pricey. “To rent plasmas
in the hotel could range anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a day,” adds
Wessel. The Boston Celtics purchased a RotoLift Case for around $3,000
that has been used on every road game this year.
“The Celtics had been struggling
with using projectors and screens, and they asked if we could help them,”
says Edwin Elliott, President of Jelco Inc. The Celtics carrying case
was specifically modified for them.
Jelco Inc. also created a carrying
case for the Miami Heat and provided carrying cases for the
NFL’s HD field replay systems. “Teams do not have to worry about
cords and cables. It is all self wired,” adds Elliott.
The RotoLift offers a quick
set up in that all the Celtics have to do is simply pull a release handle
and their plasma rises up into position. “Brian Adams does all the
editing using XOS tools on his laptop and when he is ready, he plugs
the laptop into the Video Graphics Array (VGA) of the plasma,”
says Wessel. Brian Adams, Boston Celtics video coordinator edits plays
on his laptop utilizing XOS Technologies, XOS Basketball 2007 software.
“For game footage we record games directly into the laptop or we can
download them as windows media files from the league,” says Wessel.
The RotoLift case has been
a success this season despite its weight requirements. “The case is
bulky and generally takes two people to move it around,” says Wessel.
“However it helps get the job done.”