Purdue University Commits To Grass Valley Live Sports

SAN FRANCISCO: The Hall of Music Productions at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind., has purchased a full complement of high-definition live production equipment from Grass Valley to cover its men’s and women’s sports programs for in-stadium, in-arena, and campus-wide distribution, according to the vender.

The University’s in-house production company has invested more than $1 million in Grass Valley production equipment to bring fans attending Boilermakers sporting events in Ross-Ade Stadium and the soon-to-be inaugurated Mackey Arena. In addition, Hall of Music Productions purchased a Grass Valley-based fly pack rig that allows for HD video production capability across the entire campus, including its namesake venue, the Elliott Hall of Music, a 6,000-seat proscenium theater.

Purdue University’s purchase includes a wide variety of Grass Valley production equipment to support a vast number of production services. This includes a K2 Dyno Replay System with K2 Summit Production Client and 4.8TB of internal storage, a K2 Dyno Production Assistant (PA) system, Kayenne and Kayak production switchers, and four LDK 8000 Elite and four LDK 4000 Elite HD cameras, each with Grass Valley’s new 3G Transmission system offering maximum transmission flexibility. This makes Purdue one of the first users in North America of Grass Valley’s 3G Transmission signal distribution system, allowing Purdue crews (students and freelance professionals) to use the same LDK cameras with either triax or fiber cabling.

The first use of the new Grass Valley 3G equipment was used during the Notre Dame at Purdue football game on Oct. 1. Hall of Music Productions provided the video board coverage of the ESPN-televised game, as well as producing content used on the school’s athletics website and the weekly coach’s TV show.

The school will also open its newly refurbished Mackey Arena for the start of the 2011-2012 basketball season. The Grass Valley equipment will be used to produce live and pre-recorded content to display in the arena’s center-hung large screen displays, as well as the hundreds of smaller flat panel displays at concession stands and other locations throughout the venue.