Through Our Eyes: The Making of Dreamcaster – Part 1

The studio lights beat down on me as I stood in an arena of one, my voice hoarse from two hours of yelling, my ears filled with the reverberations of crowd noise, my white t-shirt damp with perspiration under my zipped up black track jacket, my body still feeling the vibrations of the haptic gear that I wore on my arms, legs and chest.

My fingers skimmed over my refreshable braille display as I rattled off stats, and once I had exhausted every stat at my disposal, there was only one thing left for me to say.

“Final score, 99-79 New York Knicks. This is Cameron Black from the Michalob Ultra studio, signing off.”

My final words were met with an uproar of applause as I beamed with joy and pride that could only be matched by the births of my children, for I am completely blind, and I had just called an NBA basketball playoff game.

Eight Months Earlier

Since I was a teenager, I have been given many opportunities for all types of presentations and public speaking. This is not because I am OR ever have been a professional speaker; rather, because I am open about my life as a blind man and willing to share it with others. Also, I like to talk.

These invitations have come in many forms, from in-person requests, to over the phone and in emails, but never over Facebook, which is good because I might have just dismissed it as spam and deleted it. I almost did that with this one, which came to me in September of 2022. The message was from a gentlemen based in New York, and he was informing me that his company was working on developing a technology that would help immerse blind people more into sports, specifically basketball. He requested that I speak with his company about this opportunity, and I saw no reason not to.

Honestly, other then initial excitement that a technology like that was being developed, I didn’t think much of the impending phone call. I figured I would provide some input as a blind sports fan and then my very short participation would be over. I even approached the call with a healthy amount of skepticism. Honestly, it wouldn’t be the first time a company has thought of developing a product for blind people, only to place it on the back shelf for future consideration. Yet, my call with Daniel and his team at FCB Global would dispel all of my preconceptions. Daniel informed me that they wanted far more than just my opinion. They wanted to hire me on a consulting bases, assist them in the development of the technology, and then put it to the ultimate test by having me use the technology to provide play-by-play for an NBA basketball game. He also informed me that this entire process would be made into a documentary, and that the development of the tech as well as the documentary itself were being sponsored by Michalob Ultra.

Still feeling like this all might be to good to be true, I readily accepted the offer while really having no concept of what truly lay ahead of me and the impact it would have on my life but the lives of others as well.

Over the course of the next several months, the project that had been hinted at in a Facebook message and discussed over the phone began to take shape. I spent many evenings on the phone with the tech team, discussing which parts of basketball I felt blind people might be missing out on and how we could call attention to those aspects of the game using technology. For a couple of days in the month of March, a film crew shot several scenes for the documentary at my home in Kansas City (as well as an indoor basketball court in Kansas).

I also spent several sessions in a podcasting studio, both to provide voice over for the narration of the documentary, as well as receive my own personal crash course in broadcasting. My instructor was a man named Jonathan Zazlo, and he had been the voice of the Miami Heat basketball team for ten years. It was during this time of training that I was informed the game I would be calling, and it was to be the New York Knicks during round one of the NBA playoffs.

Finally, the second week of April, I packed a suitcase and my father and I boarded a plane headed for New York City and the New York Knicks.

To be continued …