University of Texas Opens Moody Center Sports and Entertainment Venue

University of Texas Opens Moody Center Sports and Entertainment Venue The 530,000-sq.-ft. arena will house men's and women's basketball, host concerts By Kristian Hern ndez, Associate Editor

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 - 7:00 am

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Austin, TX, has burgeoned with sports activity in the past year: Austin FC opened Q2 Stadium in July 2021, the University of Texas revamped Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in August 2021, and, this past April, the institution added a multi-purpose venue to its sprawling 437-acre campus. Built with the help of the Moody Foundation's $130 million grant, Moody Center will be the new home of the men's and women's basketball programs and will bring a new wave of entertainment to the 11th-largest U.S. city.

It has become an integral part of half of our athletics complex, says Drew Martin, executive senior associate athletics director, external affairs, University of Texas Athletics. The Moody Center's going to have a tremendous impact on all students at the University of Texas.

The Early Stages: Overcoming COVID Restrictions, Supply-Chain Glitches Like a fair number of large-scale projects scheduled to begin in the early months of 2020, the Moody Center originated as a pre-pandemic job. Breaking ground in December 2019, the university was looking forward to an uninterrupted timeline and minimal hiccups. After the arrival of COVID-19 in the U.S., however, construction and system integration were hampered by health restrictions and supply-chain issues.

Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, construction on UT's Moody Center made a lot of progress from April 28, 2021, (left) to July 26, 2021 (right).

Building an arena during COVID-19 was pretty hard, says Seth Bailey, VP, technology, Moody Center. From labor to hardware, everything was placed on a compressed timeline. We also had to overcome design tweaks, adjustments, and temporary solutions from some of our manufacturers.

The venue's rack room during the systems-integration process

Many entities came together to put the venue together piece by piece. At the top, the University of Texas teamed with Oak View Group for overall direction, Live Nation Entertainment to provide high-profile musical acts, and celebrity/UT Minister of Culture Matthew McConaughey. As time went by, other partners were brought in: Gensler to lead architecture, CAA/ICON for project management, AECOM Hunt for construction management, Idibri for AV design, Diversified for system integration, and Rectitude 369 for network infrastructure. Despite the delays, the university's passion and commitment to the venue's goal kept the project on track.

You could feel their desire and will for this to be an exceptional facility for their basketball teams and fans, says Bailey. We've built a lot of synergy in order to get this done in the right way for everyone to enjoy.

The staff at Moody Center and the University of Texas weren't alone in creating chemistry. A large number of venues popped up across the country in 2021. Notably, two hockey venues - Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in Elmont, NY - benefited two franchises in the National Hockey League. The common denominator between those projects and development of Moody Center is Oak View Group and Diversified.

We had the benefit of having Oak View Group as the foundation for all of these projects, says Tony Gaston, senior account executive, sports and live events, Diversified. Having straightforward communication with all of the key partners [helped us] provide a superior fan experience for more than 150 annual events.

At the Center of Operations: Inside the Production Technology Moody Center offers Martin and company amenities that weren't available in the previous home of men's and women's basketball. Opened in November 1977, the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center was a top-of-the-line facility on the collegiate circuit. Debuting some of the new technologies then on the market, the Longhorns provided a high-quality atmosphere for students and fans alike. Over time, of course, the building became antiquated.

[Housing] men's and women's basketball as well as [being] a concert venue, it was the crown jewel for the university and the live-music capital of the world, Martin says. As buildings age, [the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center] had seen its heyday, and it was time to have a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility.

The push toward modernity has produced a 530,000-sq.-ft. arena less than a mile from the Texas State Capitol. The $375 million building is made with 50,000 tons of concrete, 2,654 tons of structural steel, and 25% recycled material. It comprises more than 15,000 seats, 2,000 club seats, 57 loge boxes, 24 porch suites that extend 10 ft. into the venue, 20 traditional suites at midcourt, three premium clubs, and a super-VIP club.

Moody Center's sound system includes products from JBL, Crown iTech, and BSS.

From a style perspective, Moody Center has tapped the fanbase of the University of Texas Athletics and the creativity of the city. Each seat is embroidered with a Longhorn silhouette in burnt orange; in the main atrium, a massive Longhorn silhouette will be suspended from the ceiling. Throughout the venue are multiple murals painted by local artists.

From a technological standpoint, the in-venue control room houses top-tier equipment: a Ross Ultrix router and graphics, Grass Valley switcher, EVS replay, RTS intercom, KVM from G&D KVM, and BirdDog PTZ cameras. Outside of the control room, Gaston and his team tapped other surefire technologies to ensure a pleasurable experience: Clark Wire & Cable and Middle Atlantic for broadcast cabling, Shure and Extron for AV needs, VITEC's EZ-TV for IPTV, Extreme Network's Wi-Fi 6, and Verizon's cell

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2022/06/01/university-of-texas-opens-moody...
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