Return of the Ivy League: After 18-Month Layoff, Live Game Production Is Back on Campus

Return of the Ivy League: After 18-Month Layoff, Live Game Production Is Back on Campus With more than 1,400 events to be streamed to ESPN , Ivy schools conjure up some new tricks By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Wednesday, September 1, 2021 - 3:12 pm

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540 days.

The sports world was hammered when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the early months of 2020. Sports leagues across the U.S. are still recovering both financially and in the sheer timing of their annual schedules.

At Princeton University, one of three control rooms at the Levine Broadcast Center produces the school's first live broadcast in 18 months for ESPN , a women's soccer game on Aug. 27. (Photo: Princeton Athletics)

One sports entity, however, that may have been hit hardest of all has been the Ivy League. The conference endured a shutdown of athletic events that stretched a staggering 18 months - approximately 540 days - before making a triumphant return on Friday, Aug. 27 with a slate of women's soccer games. With it, sports-video-production teams across the conference's eight campuses are back to doing what they do best: producing live games.

It just feels normal again, says Matt Panto, associate executive director, strategic communications and external relations, Ivy League. While the pandemic is still very much a part of our daily lives, we're talking about the things that we love and that we love to do. You can feel the energy on our campuses again. It's why we do what we do. [We] couldn't be more excited to get back.

Although Ivy League member institutions were permitted to participate in NCAA-sanctioned events last year, the Ivy League had not hosted a conference-sanctioned athletics competition since baseball, softball, and lacrosse contests on March 5, 2020. Suddenly, Panto and video-production directors at each of the conference's schools, who were used to producing a combined 1,000 live events per year, were stymied.

The group has remained in constant communication despite working from their homes and with frustrating hiccups along the way, with academic season after academic season falling to the pandemic shutdown. According to Panto, the group even spent a large portion of last summer making comprehensive plans for what live production would look like under heavy COVID-based restrictions, only to see the entire 2020-21 year canceled.

Harvard Athletics also returned to action with a women's soccer game on Aug. 27. It was the department's first game production done entirely over IP. (Photo: Harvard University Athletics)

Their efforts weren't wasted, however. Many of the Ivy schools have spent the time sharpening their broadcast plans, updating their on-campus control rooms and infrastructures, conceptualizing fresh on-demand content ideas, and even instituting a new conference-wide file-sharing system powered by DropBox.

We took a step back and discussed, when we do eventually come back, how will we be prepared for that moment? says Panto. Are you going to come back better than you left?

An Ivy League broadcast-rights deal in place since 2018 covers live streaming of more than 1,400 events to ESPN . Responsibility for live game production - with the exception of championship events - falls to the schools. So, as sports return this fall, the spigot will be turned back on full blast.

Two member institutions are hitting the ground running: Harvard University and Princeton University.

Princeton's new Daktronics videoboard at 1952 Stadium debuted at the first live event after the shutdown. Although the stadium is traditionally the lacrosse venue, playing here allowed Princeton to produce the first videoboard show ever for a home women's soccer game. (Photo: Princeton Athletics/Sideline Photos)

At Princeton, the Tigers welcomed sports back to campus this past weekend with a pair of three-camera women's soccer productions at the 1952 Stadium, home to a brand-new 44- ft. by 28-ft. Daktronics videoboard, which is connected via fiber to the department's centralized control room - the Levine Broadcast Center - about a half mile away at the historic Jadwin Gym. So last Friday's soccer game marked not only the first live-streamed production since the pandemic but also the first videoboard show ever for Princeton women's soccer.

Prior to the 18-month hiatus, Cody Chrusciel, assistant athletics director, multimedia and broadcast, Princeton Athletics, and his team had significantly expanded Levine Broadcast Center, adding two control rooms and a studio during summer 2019. Having less than a full academic year in the space, the Tigers used the shutdown to make some key tweaks: upgrading the switcher in the main control room from a NewTek TC1 to a TC2, installing a second NewTek 3Play replay system in the main control room, adding three BirdDog PTZ cameras in the studio (to provide flexibility in the studio during times of social distancing), purchasing a third AJT LiveBook system to support both broadcast and videoboard shows, upgrading to 10-GB switches in many facilities to better support the department's largely NDI workflow, adding fiber drops and network ports at Princeton Stadium (football) to allow more camera and field-mic placements, and installing the new videoboard at 1952 Stadium.

The layoff gave us time to dig in on our broadcast infrastructure, says Chrusciel. It also helped us get out in front of a few new athletic venues that are coming online in the next two or three years.

Announcers Jeff O'Connor (left) and Renee Washington were on the call as Princeton streamed the women's soccer season opener on ESPN . This fall, the Tigers will deliver approximately 90 shows to the Disney-owned streaming service as well as selected games to RSNs NBC Sports P

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/09/01/return-of-the-ivy-league-after-...
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