University of Portsmou relies on NewTek TriCaster for Live 4-Hour Broadcast Challenge

University of Portsmouth relies on NewTek TriCaster for Live 24-Hour Broadcast Challenge 28 May 2014

A team from the University of Portsmouth's BSc (Hons) Television and Broadcasting course will undertake an ambitious 24-hour broadcast challenge later this week, with three NewTek TriCaster multi-camera live video production systems at the heart of the workflow. The project will test the students' creative and technical skills on an extended live broadcast and showcase their work from the last academic year, while raising money for six chosen charities.

The University's live broadcast challenge began four years ago by delivering two live hours of original programming; then the challenge increased to four hours in 2012 and six hours last year, so this year's 24-hour event represents a significant leap. What we are attempting is going to be very hard to pull off, said course leader Charlie Watts. However, my students want to go into the television industry, and I think I'm partly responsible for getting major league broadcasters to look at what we are doing. This isn't some webcam pointed at the same area for hours on end - this is a live, varied, passionate, multi-camera production that looks like network television, and anyone viewing will be knocked out by what our students are creating this year.

The broadcast will feature a multitude of original programmes, radio items, documentaries and short films, featuring student work celebrating the last academic year, and will open and close with CCI Live, the flagship programme of the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI). The 24 hour challenge has been split into six time zones; each zone has a specialist student team focusing on a particular theme, and the live broadcast will include local community collaboration as well as an international focus for foreign students.

The production is underpinned by three professional TriCaster systems which will control the live and pre-recorded content and live stream to all of the campus TV's, the University website and the Portsmouth City Council Big Screen situated in Guildhall Square, Portsmouth.

Gary Bown, principal lecturer and head tutor for all outside broadcast operations at the University of Portsmouth, said, If students want to go to the moon, we'll build the rocket, as long as they agree to control the mission. Beyond the talent of our students, a key factor for this ambitious project is reliable technology, and we're safe knowing that NewTek TriCaster is behind everything we're doing. It's the technology backbone to all of our plans, and an enormous element of our confidence that we will pull this off.

Challenges like this provide a fantastic real-world broadcasting experience for students, said Carter Holland, chief marketing officer, NewTek, Inc. We're proud to see TriCaster at the heart of this operation, allowing the students to produce a professional, live streaming video programme that will have the look of a major broadcast television show.

The live broadcast will commence at 8pm on 29 May at http://www.ccichannel.port.ac.uk The team will also be encouraging donations to its chosen charities anyone wishing to donate can visit http://www.justgiving.com/user/49853169

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