NASHVILLE, TENN.— High school football
broadcasting is a serious business in many
parts of the United States, and coverage of
this city’s Ensworth High School games is
no exception. Every week I, along with four
student volunteers, broadcast and stream
the Ensworth Tigers’ football games live to
local fans, as well as to alumni around the
world. We have a full high-definition production
setup that includes five cameras, a 28
x 16-foot video wall, along with broadcastquality
HD video switching and monitoring.
The package includes Blackmagic Design’s
SmartView Duo SDI monitors for
switcher preview and program monitoring,
and also for keeping tabs on what has become
essential in coverage of every football
game—the instant replay video that highlights
important referee calls and recall of
remarkable touchdowns or unclear plays.
FULL EQUIPMENT PACKAGE
Our production studio and primary
broadcasting gear for football game coverage
is located in an equipment rack situated
in the stadium press box. This package
includes two SmartView Duo SDI LCD
monitors, Blackmagic Design production
switcher, router, HyperDeck SSD video
recorder, Intensity Pro and Intensity Extreme
capture and playback devices, as
well as a number of signal converter units.
When we’re not doing football coverage,
we use this setup as a mobile production
rig.
In order to capture the action on the
field from multiple angles, we have two
cameras in the broadcast booth, a camera
on top of the press box, one in the end
zone and another on the sideline. These
are all connected to the switcher via fiberoptic
links.
Our game coverage is transmitted to local
television stations and simultaneously
streamed live on the Internet for devoted
fans who cannot attend the games. We also
provide a feed for fans in the stadium.
As with any live television production,
we have to be sure that we’re getting and
using the right shots. This is accomplished
via the Blackmagic SmartView Duos in
conjunction with larger broadcast monitors.
One of the SmartView Duos is situated
in our main production rack for
viewing switcher preview and
program feeds. We’ve found
that the monitor’s small footprint
is a big factor in achieving
the sort of mobility that
we require.
The second SmartView Duo
is used for viewing content
from our instant replay machine.
With the monitor’s two
screens, we’re able to see two
outputs at once when tracking
instant replays, allowing us
see the replays we’re sending
to our switcher and those going
to other broadcast sources
without having to constantly
switch back and forth.
DUAL SCREENS MAKE LIFE EASIER
The dual screen functionality of the
SmartView Duos is handy in other applications
too, as a single staff member can view
and react to output from the switcher and
the instant replay, while other staff can focus
on the bigger monitors for the main action.
The SDI loopthrough capabilities of
the SmartView Duos have come in very
handy too, keeping our equipment count
down and saving us time in changing out
feed arrangements in connection with
viewing recordings after completion of
live event coverage.
Jason Robinson is the video technical
director at Ensworth High School. He
may be contacted at ranger9913@gmail.com.
For additional information, contact
Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or
visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.