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By: Carolyn Braff, Editor Thursday, November 5, 2009 - 5:08 pm |
Oklahoma State University is about to get into the heart of its dual-sport season, when football overlaps with men’s and women’s basketball. The additional events create not just additional excitement on campus but additional work for the crew that operates the high-definition video boards in Boone Pickens Stadium and the center arena boards in Gallagher-Iba Arena. To handle the crewing and production management for its biggest on-campus events, OSU turned to PMTV.
A Single Team
PMTV, with the help of mobile-production provider PSG-Cox, provides all crew, production coordination, management, and documentation for the eight-game home football season and 32 men’s and women’s home basketball season. PMTV assembles a freelance crew of 15 to take the controls in Stillwater but, rather than cobble together a different team for each event, tries to keep the crew consistent for the entire season.
“We certainly use the same director [veteran Mike Bruce], EVS and tape guys, and, for the most part, cameramen,” says John Foley, PMTV account manager for OSU. “With the exception of a couple of dates, we’ve been able to keep the same crew on the ground for all of the games.”
That crew produces a five-camera shoot from the PSG-Cox mobile unit, using EVS servers and high-definition graphics. PMTV also arranges preproduction of all graphic elements, including video for home-team player headshots, replay moves, sponsored elements, and ENG-style coverage of the Cowboys’ traditional pre-game stadium march. Among other elements, PMTV crew members provide walk-away BetaSP-tape and DVD game reels, melts, and sponsor highlight segments, as well as replay feeds for non-broadcast games.
Responsible Spending
“The challenge here is achieving a great look and managing all of it within a tight university budget,” Foley says. “These guys are trying to be responsible with public funds so their challenge is to give a great game experience to their fans while being fair to the folks that are responsible for raising the money.”
To achieve that balance, PMTV works hand in hand with the university, the truck vendor, and the freelance team to plan every aspect of the production. Overtime gets expensive quickly but is one of the easiest penalties to avoid.
“Some of the magic here is understanding what the schedule needs to be, what do we need or don’t need,” Foley says. “It’s not cutting corners but being smart. We’re really looking after the nickels, and we’ve gotten this down to a science.”
Two for One
After each event, Foley has post-event check-in calls with the director, the client, and the truck engineer in charge to discuss how things went and how to prepare for the next event. And sometimes, next week can be a bit daunting, when both basketball and football games are on the schedule. The simple — and expensive — solution to that problem would be to book two trucks and two crews, but Foley understands OSU’s sensitivity to costs.
“We figured out a consolidated schedule that let us use just one truck and one crew, with a couple of additional crew positions,” Foley explains. “So it’s more expensive than one game but not as expensive as two. That’s just working smart, and OSU appreciates that we’re able to do that.”
From the Inside Out
PMTV has supported hundreds of NCAA events, from rugby to volleyball, and Foley sees a trend toward more colleges’ taking their event productions out of house.
“That might be transitional,” he says. “The boards that are being installed today are high-definition boards. Some universities are raising the money to build elaborate hi-def production facilities somewhere in the stadium to accommodate that, but some of them might be doing that on a phased approach. On the short term, they need trucks to do it.”
With scoreboard shows that look more like broadcast TV, OSU is not only enhancing the fan experience inside the stadium but making its properties more attractive to sponsor companies as well.
“They now have a more sellable product for their sponsors,” Foley points out. “It’s something that they can brag about, to say to sponsors that people are watching this board. So it’s not just cost-centered for them; it’s a revenue opportunity, and we hope other universities will take a look at this and see that it’s smart business.”
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