LTN Global To Provide Transmission Services for Conference USA 2020 Men's, Women's Basketball Tourneys Under the deal, the vendor will be back in 2021 and, potentially, in 2022 By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - 1:00 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
As the college basketball season will come slowly to an end over the next few weeks, Conference USA faces one of the most logically challenged endeavors of the entire basketball calendar. On March 11-14, its best 24 basketball teams (12 men's and 12 women's) will square off at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, TX, for their respective championships. To accomplish such a feat, the conference has entered an agreement under which LTN Global will supply transmission services not only for this tournament on ESPN and Stadium but also for next year's and possibly in 2022.
We're providing a type of production that we're calling LTN Direct, which is a traditional, onsite direct production, says Colin Moran, director, product management, LTN Global. What makes this tournament interesting and unique is that, at The Star, they basically put two courts right next to each other, so there are games happening at the same time. We've been doing this for the past couple of years, so we have a longstanding relationship with the conference.
Sowing the Seeds: A Production Bond That Started in 2014
2020 isn't the first time that the two parties have worked together. The working relationship goes back to the midway point of the past decade, when the conference's championship tournament tipped off in 2014.
Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, TX, will host the Conference USA Men's and Women's Basketball Championships March 11-14.
At the time, American Sports Network [then the conference's broadcast partner] partnered with LTN to install transmission equipment into all of our schools as a cost-saving measure, says Jordan Foreman, director, multimedia, Conference USA. They knew that they had reliable transmission services and wouldn't have to rent a satellite truck. After ASN [was folded into] Stadium, the equipment was still there for them and all of our other TV partners to use.
From LTN's perspective, a tournament being held in the same venue for the third year in a row has allowed the provider to strengthen and solidify a plan that allows a lot of room for error.
In Year 1, says Moran, we looked at the plot [of the venue] with the in-house engineering department to figure out if we can cross-connect some cables to get some drops here and there when we needed to orient our cameras for basketball. We have it down to a science since this is the third year that we'll be at this arena.
Two at a Time: Detailed Planning Overcomes Logistical Hurdles
Although a handful of the 22 total games on the tournament slate (11 men's contests including the quarterfinals and 11 women's contests including the semifinals) will be done in the traditional one-at-a-time pattern, 16 will be played at the same time. To handle this double-barreled, two-court action, LTN has worked closely with Dallas Cowboys personnel to develop an intricate plan to keep track of who owns what inside the facility.
With two games happening simultaneously on separate courts, LTN is helping the conference navigate difficult logistical waters.
The venue is natively set up for football since it's the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys. It has unique wiring, with the courts [extending from each side of the 50-yard line], says Moran. The employees at The Star are great to work with, but [it's] difficult to know where the in-house cables are running to. [Having gone over the plots with in-house engineering,] we make very in-depth input sheets about where in-house cabling is.
As the complex plan moved toward its current state, LTN involved outside vendors to supply the cabling needed to produce this type of event.
We rented some wiring from Bexel and ran it into the venue. CBS will be taking it out since they will be the last one onsite [after the finals], he adds. We have LTN transmission devices already installed in there with four redundant paths, so that makes the process pretty seamless.
Not only does a sturdy and organized foundation of transmission paths help with the execution of the digital broadcasts, but it also helps LTN check off other duties on its to-do list.
Not only are we trying to produce high-quality broadcast productions, says Moran, but there are also a lot of other responsibilities: [for example,] what the game officials need, what feeds need to go to what specific TVs, etc. We put a skilled project manager on these bigger tournaments that we do, not only to have everything documented but also to share [our plan] with the internal and external vendors to make sure that they know what equipment and cabling are ours.
At-Home Help: LTN Headquarters Saves the Conference Some Cash
Saving money is a driving factor in Conference USA's decision to go with LTN. For this massive undertaking, every Conference USA employee will make the 20-minute drive to the complex, including the three full-time employees and intern on Foreman's multimedia team. A fair number (around 70%) of LTN's crew members will be onsite in Frisco, filling production roles ranging from directing and producing to engineering and tech management inside the company's Lance and NETH production trucks.
LTN Global's Colin Moran (second from right) and his team will push out the final product to outlets like ESPN and Stadium from LTN's Lance and NETH production trucks.
Despite the all-hands-on-deck approach, though, cost-efficient procedures will also be in place to leverage resources located 491 miles to the north of the stadium.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
LTN Global To Provide Transmission Services for Conference USA 2020 Men's, Women's Basketball Tourneys Under the deal, the vendor will be back in 2021 and, potentially, in 2022 By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
