Audiovisual Production | News

U Nebraska Upgrades to High-Def Production Gear for Giant Screens

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 06/08/10

A Nebraska university has moved to fiber optic audio and video equipment as part of a high-definition upgrade in its athletics production facilities. HuskerVision, the AV and broadcasting unit of the University of Nebraska Athletic Department, has installed gear from Telecast Fiber Systems, a division of Belden, as part of its $4.2-million high-def upgrade of the HuskerVision master control and production facilities. The Telecast equipment includes fiber optic transceivers, adapters for using single-mode optical fiber, and power adapters, to enable the cameras to be remotely powered and centrally controlled.

That network now links production operations with the university's Memorial Stadium and Bob Devaney Sports Center, allowing operators to control big-screen high-def presentations during games from a central location. At 117 feet wide by 34 feet high, one new Mitsubishi replay screen in the stadium, according to the university, is the largest in a college setting in the United States. It contains 3.67 million LEDs.

"Our relationship with Telecast Fiber Systems has been a long and productive one. In fact, with the completion of this project, we're now on our third generation of Telecast gear," said Shot Kleen, assistant athletic director for HuskerVision. "We have always been able to count on Telecast equipment to reliably deliver the highest-quality signals possible over our fiber network, so Telecast was the natural choice when it came time for our HD upgrade."

The upgrade, managed by Alpha Video, a systems integrator, was completed to coincide with the start of the college football season. A master control center receives signals over the fiber network from 30 camera sites in the two sporting venues and then transmits the live and instant replay feeds to large-screen HD video displays at both locations. The new system also ties directly into HuskerVision's media asset management and archival system, a project completed by Alpha Video in 2008.