On the Gridiron: Minnesota Vikings Adjust Content Approach at High-Tech U.S. Bank Stadium

On the Gridiron: Minnesota Vikings Adjust Content Approach at High-Tech U.S. Bank Stadium With comprehensive in-stadium safety plan and a robust digital-content effort, Vikings Entertainment Network continues to thrive By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Wednesday, October 7, 2020 - 3:03 pm

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Many professional sports have opted for a return to play inside a sanitized bubble. Not the NFL. Without skipping a beat, the league is soldiering on with regular-season games in all 32 stadiums across the country. Similar to our At the Ballpark series, On the Gridiron examines the new routines, habits, and production philosophies of in-venue personnel on any given Thursday, Sunday, or Monday.

[NOTE: The video interview above was conducted following the Vikings' Week 1 home game vs. the Green Bay Packers.]

The team at Vikings Entertainment Network (VEN) take a lot of pride in what they do, but, when pressured to say, they leave little doubt that they are most proud of the wildly entertaining experience that the team offers fans inside the loud and thrilling U.S. Bank Stadium.

That's a huge factor in what makes this season so challenging for the video team at the Vikings: shifting the effort from a fan-focused blockbuster stadium show to trying to bring energy to a team playing in front of empty stands. It's a challenge that the crew has met admirably, through in-stadium efforts and an increased focus on engaging fans via live content on digital and social platforms.

The production team adapted very well, says Bryan Harper, VP, content and production, Minnesota Vikings. We did a fairly good job of communicating, but you're always going to have things pop up. The tough part was getting used to the environment with no fans, no energy. That all [affects] anyone who has a role in game day. It was, honestly, the weirdest thing ever, but [Director, Production Operations] Allan [Werthheimer] and his team did a great job of preparing. I don't think we could have been any more prepared than we were for something that was completely an unknown.

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A Game Day Workflow Redesigned for Safety As in many NFL stadiums - especially those currently not allowed to host any fans whatsoever - it has been a borderline creepy environment inside cavernous U.S. Bank Stadium in Downtown Minneapolis on game days this season. However, the process for VEN crew members is efficiently scripted and communicated to ensure that everyone can work effectively while maintaining league-mandated (and state-mandated, in certain circumstances) COVID guidelines.

Inside the U.S. Bank Stadium control room, plexiglass barriers have been added to separate every working position on game days.

According to Werthheimer, every crew member is given a specific point at which to enter the stadium that they needed to enter through and have their temperature checked. From there, the crew member walks a direct path to their workstation, be it at a camera position or in the control room. In the past, many would stop by the control room on arriving, to check in and say hello to Harper and Werthheimer. Now, however, everyone must go directly to their stations and communicate completely over headset. Also, masks are required inside the stadium.

Inside the control room, the Vikings have added plexiglass barriers between workstations in the control room. Also, each crew member is given a headset in a plastic bag. At the end of the show, they are instructed to leave the headset at their position, and the headsets are collected and sanitized in a UV cabinet and made ready for future use.

Camera operators have been equipped at their position with a kit including hand sanitizer, gloves, and camera-cleaning supplies.

The ops team has also added an extra touch for its camera operators. Each camera position is equipped with a kit including gloves, cleaning supplies for the camera, and hand sanitizer. Every member of the crew is required to wear a mask whenever they're in the building.

On the content side, the VEN team has tried to keep its in-stadium show as normal as possible for the sake of the players and crew. The one caveat is that the 45-minute-long pregame video show is live-streamed to the Vikings' various digital and social platforms, including the team's app. Overseen by Entertainment Manager/Associate Producer Darius Smith, that effort has been a success in engaging fans and helping plug valuable sponsor obligations. The show also helps deliver some of the in-game features that fans have come to love, including the sounding of the Gjallarhorn, the team's cheerleading squad, and its drum line, the SKOL Line.

We set up that show very much with the look of our videoboard show, says Werthheimer. Anyone who has ever been to U.S. Bank Stadium knows we have our main videoboard and, next to it, what we call our wing boards.' We replicated that in our stream. That L Bar was treated as an LED board, and we took things that we usually do in-stadium and moved them to the stream to make good on all of

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/10/07/on-the-gridiron-minnesota-vikin...
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