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Articles
Tech-nically advanced
By Alicia Zappier
from governmentvideo.com
http://governmentvideo.com/articles/publish/article_510.shtml
Sep 29, 2004, 15:08
Don’t mess with Texas, especially when it comes to sports.
Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX — home to the Red Raiders football, basketball, and baseball teams — has once again tapped Telecast Fiber Systems for fiber optic equipment for the university’s new master control room in at its newly-constructed basketball arena, the United Spirit Arena (USA).
Texas Tech began using Telelcast equipment — three Cobra camera interfaces, an Adder 882i multiplexer, and the Viper communications system — along with several Sony DXC-D30 triax cameras in September 2000 to bring viewers live coverage of its home football games. The football arena, Jones SBC Stadium, also houses a large screen Mitsubishi display, as does the USA.
Texas Tech University has one master control room in its new United Spirit Arena that provides support for three campus sports venues.
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| Texas Tech University has one master control room in its new United Spirit Arena that provides support for three campus sports venues. |
Because many school-related events would be scheduled at the USA, David Hougland, the school’s director of sports broadcasting, decided it was the best location to house a master control room. The catch was getting the control room to serve as the engine for the displays at the football stadium as well as the school’s baseball stadium, Dan Law Field.
“I knew what to use for a switcher, tape machines, and graphics, but I had no idea how to have a complete camera control from one facility to another via fiber optic lines,” said Hougland. “On my annual trip to NAB, I met with some of the Telecast sales staff and engineers, and they gave me a great solution. Since we added a [Barco] video display at Dan Law Field, we purchased more equipment from Telecast to operate that board the same way as the one at Jones SBC Stadium.”
The $500,000 price tag included the purchase of three additional Cobras, another Viper, and an additional Adder 882i unit for the USA, as well as the large screen display. The entire project was funded by ads that run on the Mitsubishi displays.
“Now, we have six Cobras for our triax cameras and two Vipers to send video from the control room to the video boards, as well as a separate feed to the three stadium monitors,” Hougland explained. “We use the Vipers to send a wireless camera signal back to the control room at the USA and various fixed cameras to verify what’s on the screens. We also have two Adder 882i units for audio and press box intercoms to and from each venue.”
The Cobra can be used with most triax-based broadcast cameras and allows you to locate your camera more than 12 miles from the base station with no repeaters. The Adder 882i multiplexes and transmits up to 10 intercom channels, eight duplex data signals, and four duplex switch closures over one optical fiber or dual coaxial cables. The Viper system includes an eight-module rack mount for up to four video, eight audio, and two intercom connections.
All the video and audio signals are carried from the Sony cameras at the university’s arenas to the master control room for editing and other tasks, and then transmitted back to the arenas for airing on the large screen displays.
Hougland’s production crew includes three other full-time staffers and seven student assistants. Together, they produce football games and practices, coaches’ shows for football, men’s baseball and basketball, and all commercial production and highlights videos.
The crew also handles the school’s in-house network for men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. Home basketball games are broadcast on its own third-tier television network, which airs regionally in the Dallas, Wichita Falls, and Fort Worth areas, as well as nationally via ESPN Game Plan. Texas Tech also plans to purchase the rights to broadcast its football and baseball games. “We also produce an Internet broadcast of all games that are not televised by any of the major sports networks,” Hougland added.
The Telecast equipment has had a significant impact on workflow and outweighs the advantages of a production truck. “We’re able to have multiple video board productions on the same day,” Hougland said. “Football can have a game at noon and basketball can have a game at 7 p.m. without any interruptions in the quality of the production.”
Another advantage is setup time: The crew can tear down the cameras, bring them to another location, and set them up again within 45 minutes. No other equipment needs to be moved in order to televise an event.
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