Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Bally Sports Southwest Grows Its Texas High School Football Coverage As State Playoffs Heat Up

28/11/2022

Bally Sports Southwest Grows Its Texas High School Football Coverage As State Playoffs Heat Up Live coaches interviews fly in from around the state, thanks to solutions and services by The Video Call Center By Brandon Costa

Monday, November 28, 2022 - 3:08 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

In Texas, it doesn't get bigger than high school football.

You know this, and, at Bally Sports Southwest, the regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, the data backs that up. Last year, the most-watched program on its air was a high school football game. This is the network that exclusively carries live coverage of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs, the MLB's Texas Rangers, and the NHL's Dallas Stars.

On a typical Friday night during the high school football season, Bally Sports Southwest offers more than six hours of live highlights and interviews from its studios in Irving, TX. (All photos: Bally Sports Southwest)

Texas High School Football may be exciting - and an instant winner with local viewers - but covering it effectively and equitably is a monumental task. The state is home to more than 1,200 high school football programs ranging from 6-man divisions to the very largest programs in the state.

Doing justice to all those conferences, divisions, and programs is nearly impossible, but, with more than 25 years of covering high school football and a blossoming technology partnership with The Video Call Center (VCC), Bally Sports Southwest has built a strong reputation as a go-to destination on Friday nights. Offering more than six hours of live programming each week, it brings the latest from gridirons across the state to the homes of all Texans.

There are schools in El Paso that are in a different time zone, laughs Jason Walsh, VP/executive producer, Bally Sports Southwest. That's a long way away from us. VCC gave us the ability to talk to coaches or players from around the state. It has been very successful and opened our eyes to what could be.

As VCC has grown, he continues, our high school product has grown, and we've used [the company] more and more. Now we're at the point where we use multiple endpoints with them, so that we can rapid-fire one interview after another interview. While one interview's being done, the next one's being set up right behind it. Again, it's about making our high school product look as big as this state. VCC has been a very helpful partner when it comes to that.

What VCC offers is a service that reliably ingests and transmits live video from smartphones, both simplifying and expanding the ability to conduct live interviews with coaches from all over of Texas. It allows Bally Sports Southwest to be in significantly more places without having to send full crews to cover hundreds and hundreds of games.

During the regular season, Bally Sports Southwest offers studio coverage of live highlights from around the state on Football Fridays, which airs from the network's studios in Irving, TX, at 7:00-11:00 p.m. CT. Then, when all the games are in the books, High School Scoreboard Live kicks off at 11:00 p.m. ET.

Football Friday, produced by Bally Sports Southwest's Brian Smith, is a well-oiled machine providing whip-around highlights virtually non-stop for four straight hours. High School Scoreboard Live, produced by Patrick Modrovsky with help from Coordinating Producer Greg Flick, wraps up the night's action with highlights and live interviews with 15-20 winning coaches.

The Eagles are flying high! @NewtonEaglesTx HC Drew Johnston joins the show to talk about the HUGE opportunities that lie ahead! @uiltexas | #TXHSFB pic.twitter.com/Pljvk476zC

BallySportsTXHS (@BallySportsTXHS) November 27, 2022

Since Bally Sports Southwest (then named Fox Sports Southwest) started using The Video Call Center in 2018, the concept of bringing a coach on live with a smartphone video call has grown from a fun occasional bonus to the core lifeblood of the network's coverage.

When we started this, says Walsh, VCC was trying to add a cherry on top of a sundae. As we've sat down and explored our high school product and thought about it, the truth of the matter is that VCC is our high school product. It's the central point of what makes us successful. The technology they have - and how easy it is to integrate into our studio - makes our show dynamic. They have become the central piece in our ability to do high school football and to cover this state equitably.

Says VCC CEO Larry Thaler, As the network has gotten better and more people have moved to [smartphones], the show's getting braver and doing more. When a team wins a game, [the coach] has got to take his players on a 200-mile bus ride back home. Now he can do a live remote on the regional sports network on that bus while the players are behind him in the bus. That happens a lot, actually, and is very cool.

The truth of the matter, he continues, is that our platform has gotten better, too, and our connectivity options are better. The tools that we use to determine the best way to get the coaches on the air have improved, and the whole process has sped up and gotten more reliable. As it has gotten more reliable, it has become a more critical portion of the show.

In Bally Sports Southwest's Irving, TX, control room, the production crew works with The Video Call Center to coordinate calls with high school football coaches from across Texas, bringing them on-air for live interviews.

Bally Sports Southwest combines VCC's Caller Cloud Service with its AirFirst platform, a cloud-controlled management system, for live IP-based remotes. Simply put, VCC sends a coach a link to click on their smartphone and pipes their video feed into the VCC network. For the coach,
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2022/11/28/bally-sports-southwest-grows-it...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

25/03/2026

Samsung Launches Shoppable TV Experience with Amazon

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 2026 Atlanta Braves to Home Opener

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Starfish highlights flexible TS Splicer releases and new Monitoring Dashboard at NAB Show

Starfish highlights flexible TS Splicer releases and new Monitoring Dashboard at...

25/03/2026

XLNTSOUND Elevates Video Production with Blackmagic Design

XLNTSOUND Elevates Video Production with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton March 24, 2026 0 Comments Audio company upgrades workflow with Blackmagic Cine...

25/03/2026

First Time Exhibitor IPC Introduces One Link Keypanels for One Connect Intercom Platform at NAB 2026

First Time Exhibitor IPC Introduces One Link Keypanels for One Connect Intercom ...

24/03/2026

Utah Scientific to Showcase a Variety of Hybrid SDI/IP Innovations at the 2026 NAB Show

Utah Scientific to Showcase a Variety of Hybrid SDI/IP Innovations at the 2026 N...

24/03/2026

NAB 2026: Mediaproxy Highlights Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Show 2026

Mediaproxy will showcase an updated version of its LogPlayer interface at NAB Sh...

24/03/2026

Canada's Cgep de Jonquire and Calrec Take Five With a TV Studio Upgrade

C gep de Jonqui re, a public college in Qu bec, has upgraded its TV studio complex with five Calrec Brio consoles and a Dante IP network. The installation was c...

24/03/2026

American Association of Professional Baseball Expands Broadcast Partnerships with RYZ, Bally Sports Live, NLSE, FTF Sports, and SLVR

The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has announced new and r...

24/03/2026

Ateme KYRION Enabled NT's Nationwide Contribution Network During Southeast Asian Games 2025

National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT) used Ateme's KYRION platform fo...

24/03/2026

FDJ United Upgrades Lottery Production with Grass Valley UHD Cameras

Grass Valley has expanded its relationship with ImSoPROD, the TV production entity of FDJ United, with the deployment of LDX C98 compact cameras across its nati...

24/03/2026

Scripps Sports Launches Free Streaming Channel Scripps Sports Network on March 24

The E.W. Scripps Company is launching Scripps Sports Network (SSN), a free, ad-s...

24/03/2026

SVG Sit-Down: NEP Platform VP Dan Murphy on Software-Driven Production and the Future of Live Sports Workflows

NEP Group has launched NEP Platform, a new software orchestration system that un...

24/03/2026

Daktronics Installs New Video Display and Ribbon Boards at Chase Field

Daktronics has partnered with the Arizona Diamondbacks to design, manufacture and install a new LED video display and three ribbon boards at Chase Field in Phoe...

24/03/2026

Grass Valley Upgrades University of Pittsburgh Athletics to ST 2110 IP Production Infrastructure

Grass Valley has completed an upgrade of University of Pittsburgh Athletics'...

24/03/2026

Daktronics to Upgrade LED Displays at Wrigley Field

Daktronics is upgrading eight LED displays at Wrigley Field in Chicago, totaling more than 8,300 square feet, using the Daktronics Renew product line. The upgra...

24/03/2026

ASG Appoints Kevin Poole as Senior Project and Support Manager

Advanced Systems Group has appointed Kevin Poole as Senior Project and Support Manager within the ASG Workflow and Tools practice. The position is newly created...

24/03/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Verimatrix's Juan Martinez on Safeguarding Live Sports Content

In an increasingly streaming-centric world, protecting high-value live sports co...

24/03/2026

The Countdown Is On! Prep for Vegas with SVG's SportsTech@NABShow Blog

Mediaproxy will showcase an updated version of its LogPlayer interface at NAB Show, April 19-22 in Las Vegas, booth W1423. The update includes AI tools, native ...

24/03/2026

The Creator Economy's Growing Impact: Building the Modern Production Studio With Second Rodeo Productions' CEO Scott Brown

The production studio has worked with content juggernauts such as MrBeast, The R...

24/03/2026

MLB Local Media To Keynote Regional Sports Production Summit, June 29-30, Denver

The event will also feature a State of the Industry address from sports-media veteran and strategic advisor Patrick Crakes....

24/03/2026

Victory+ Launches NWSL Sunday Night Soccer Franchise

Victory , a free sports streaming service owned by A Parent Media Co. (APMC), has launched its NWSL Sunday Night Soccer franchise. The platform says the launch ...

24/03/2026

FAST Sports: Contrary to Some Data, Sports Does Have a Future on FAST

Sports content in free streaming is still relatively scant, but it's growing, right along with its monetization capabilities Streaming-tech company Wurl re...

24/03/2026

New Doc Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN' Produced by ESPN Historian Mike Soltys Arriving April 6

Directed by Greg DeHart, the doc will feature Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famers...

24/03/2026

Tubi Unveils Plans for Creator-Driven Formula 1 Altcasts in Partnership With Apple TV

For the first time ever, Tubi - Fox's free streaming service - is working w...

24/03/2026

What Does 19% Year-Over-Year Growth Sound Like? For Canadian Artists, It Sounds Like a Career

As the music industry gathers for Canada's Juno Awards, the local edition of...

24/03/2026

Meet SongDNA, a New Beta Feature That Reveals the Creative Connections Behind Your Favorite Tracks

Behind every great song is a complex web of people, stories, and inspirations th...

24/03/2026

The Big Picture' Co-Host Sean Fennessey on Spielberg and the Art of the Interview

Few filmmakers have shaped popular cinema as profoundly as Steven Spielberg. So ...

24/03/2026

ALM/Busy Circuits announce the Quaid Gigaslope & FMco

Latest Eurorack modules revealed ALM/Busy Circuits have just introduced another two Eurorack modules, delivering a powerful new modulator that builds on the...

24/03/2026

Akai Pro unveil the MPC Sample

Smallest, most affordable MPC to date Akai Pro have just introduced their most accessible standalone sampler to date, making the iconic MPC experience avail...

24/03/2026

Electro-Harmonix release Oceans Abyss editor

Create & manage presets on Windows & macOS Electro-Harmonix have announced that their free Mac/Windows application now allows users of their Oceans Abyss re...

24/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz amplifiers enable high-field immunity testing expansion at IB Lenhardt Lab

Rohde & Schwarz amplifiers enable high-field immunity testing expansion at IB Le...

24/03/2026

NFVF CALL FOR PROPOSALS: FEMALE FILMMAKER PROJECT FACILITATING COMPANY 2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites eligible Tier 1 and 2 South African production companies to submit proposals to serve as the Facilitating ...

24/03/2026

L3Harris Ramps Up Production for Counter-Unmanned Systems

L3Harris ramps up production of its VAMPIRE C-UxS system....

24/03/2026

Delivering Victory Through Fuzing Precision and Scale

For more than 70 years, L3Harris has delivered essential fuzes and safe-and-arm solutions that bring the might to multi-domain battlefields across the globe, ...

24/03/2026

Clear-Coms EQUIP Wireless System Keeps Youth With A Mission - South Korea Connected

eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...

24/03/2026

Craft Interview: Rick Bernier, Senior Broadcast Audio A1 Engineer

Rick Bernier reflects on a career that has taken him to the very top of live broadcast audio. As a Senior Broadcast Audio A1 Engineer and Music Director, he has...

24/03/2026

FDJ United Leaves Nothing to Chance with UHD Lottery Prod...

Grass Valley has strengthened its long-standing relationship with ImSoPROD, the TV production entity of the FDJ United, with the deployment of Grass Valley LDX ...

24/03/2026

Utah Scientific to Showcase a Variety of Hybrid SDI IP In...

At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Utah Scientific will spotlight its expanding portfolio of hybrid SDI/IP routing, conversion, control, and signal management s...

24/03/2026

Miri V410 Live 4K Encoder-Decoder to Make North American...

Fresh off its global reveal at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, the new V410 live 4K encoder/decoder from Miri Technologies Inc. will make its North American debut at the...

24/03/2026

Cinegy delivers software defined television for the real...

Cinegy GmbH, premier provider of software-defined television technology, will show how its solutions answer the real challenges facing content creators and broa...

24/03/2026

ArtSound FM Futureproofs with DHD Audio Production Consol...

Canberra-based radio and online broadcast network ArtSound FM (https://artsound.fm/) has invested in DHD audio mixing consoles for two new studios at its headqu...

24/03/2026

IBC unveils 2026 Accelerator projects tackling industry c...

IBC today announced the nine projects selected for its 2026 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, bringing together organisations from across broadcast, strea...

24/03/2026

Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its Log...

Mediaproxy, the global standard for software-based IP compliance monitoring and multiviewing solutions, will showcase the next generation of its industry-leadin...

24/03/2026

Cegep de Jonquiere and Calrec take five with a substantia...

Underscoring its global reputation as one of Canada's most renowned colleges for television production, the C gep de Jonqui re public college in Qu bec has ...