Big Ten Network's HD Education

Conference's Students Pitch In on Sports Net's Production

by George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 2/1/2010 6:30:02 PM

Students from the 11 Big Ten universities are helping the Big Ten Network expand its already extensive slate of high-definition productions.


Most of the student HD productions are made available online, where they can be watched on a pay-per-view basis, but some make it onto the channel. BTN is a joint venture between Fox Cable Networks and the Big Ten Conference.

"It allows us to shoot a lot of events and sports that don't get much airtime and that we wouldn't normally be able to shoot," said BTN chief engineer Mike Wilken.

Students are currently involved in HD productions of such sports as women's basketball, men's hockey and wrestling, as well as press conferences and other events.

The program dates back to the beginnings of the network, which launched in 2007. "The same fall we launched, we also bought the Panasonic AG-HVX200As(), one for each university," Wilken recalled. "We had the students go out and shoot an event that we weren't covering and we would integrate that footage into our nightly sports recap."

In 2008, the network bought two flypacks, which were shared by the schools, as well as six of Panasonic's AG-HPX170 all solid-state handhelds, three cameras for each flypack. Then, in 2009, they added four more flypacks for a total of six.

"We are probably now doing 300 events in addition to the 350 events we do for the regular network," Wilken noted. All coverage is produced in HD, even though most games are later downconverted for Web video.

Looking forward, BTN adds to add five more flypacks so one is available for each of the 11 schools in the conference, he said. Each of the flypacks includes a computer-based switcher and the Panasonic AJ-HPM110 Mobile HD Field recorder/players, and three of the Panasonic HPX170 P2 HD handhelds. Students send their footage to BTN's Chicago studios over a wide-area network.

BTN has also purchased some of Panasonic's HPX2000 2/3-inch, 3CCD handheld P2 HD/DV camcorders, which are sometimes taken along with the flypacks for telephoto work.

"The price point was right for the cameras and they've been extremely reliable and produced very good pictures," Wilken said.

The network sendsa director of operations to train the students on using the flypack and a coordinating producer to teach them how to produce the events. "We have follow-up calls every week where we critique them and tell them how they can improve their performance," Wilken said. "The Panasonics are very easy to use. We save the setups so they can recall them and we will do a white balance for them."

From 12 to 30 students at each university may be involved in the program. Wilken estimate that "hundreds" have been involved since its launch; some have gone on to work as freelancers with BTN.

Some students come into the program with little or no TV-production background, he added, so getting them up to speed can be a challenge.

 "But it can also be to your advantage because they are so interested in learning," said Wilken. "They do everything they can to make the production as good as they can. There is a competition between the universities. They each want to be better than the next one."