Princeton Caps Off Extensive Program Transformation With H.G. Levine Broadcast Center New production hub features two control rooms and a studio By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 12:23 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
When the calendar rolls around to May, college students rejoice to the sound of summer. For one of the most prestigious schools in the Ivy League, Princeton University, the signs of this past summer marked the homestretch of its multiple-control-room buildout inside Jadwin Gymnasium. Like college football, with its phenomenal growth in the 150 years since its first game (which included Princeton, then-called The College of New Jersey), the production arm of the Tigers' athletics program has made an absurd amount of progress in a short time.
The two-bench control room is the newest addition inside Jadwin Gymnasium.
We always outsourced our football and basketball productions because, a year and a half ago, we didn't own a switcher, says Cody Chrusciel, assistant director, athletics/multimedia and broadcasting, Princeton University. Now we have three centralized control rooms, with one over at the football stadium that can run our videoboard.
This hasn't always been the situation at the university. When Chrusciel arrived in September 2015, a local third-party vendor was the go-to answer for all Tigers broadcasts. But the program was interested in branching out into in-house broadcast production, a massive undertaking that resulted in construction of the H.G. Levine Broadcast Center. The plan was put into motion in October 2016 when the first construction plans were drawn.
We decided to not hire an integrator, Chrusciel says, so John Bullis [assistant director, athletics multimedia and production, Princeton University] and I sat down and figured everything out. We didn't have an engineer, so, if it exists in the control room, we wanted to know how everything is configured and hooked up.
At Princeton Stadium, the condensed control room is the foundation of the program's hockey broadcasts.
With an existing fiber network throughout the campus, the program carved out a lane where two of the school's main sports, football (with 24 strands) and basketball, could rely on the infrastructure. After developing the concept, the effort began this past spring with a generous donation by Steven Mayer, a graduate of the Class of 1981 and student-athlete on the baseball team. The space's name, H.G. Levine, is a tribute to his uncle, who died after a car accident during his freshman year at Princeton.
On June 25, the team moved into its two-control-room facility. A few months later, the team produced the first event from the new digs: Women's Soccer vs. Boston College on ESPN+ Sept. 1.
During the first month of this control room, we produced six different sports out of five different venues. Four of those sports were done for NBC Sports Philadelphia, says Chrusciel. All [were produced] with a full-time staff of two.
Hybrid Home: Fiber, NewTek NDI Link Control Rooms and Venues
At the heart of the Jadwin control rooms are two NewTek TriCaster TC1 switchers. Two NewTek 3Play 3P1's handle replay functions; a portable version is also being used. For smoothness, Clear-Com HelixNet is behind in-house communications. On the audio side, Audinate's Dante audio networking is accomplished with a Yamaha TF3 in the bigger control room and a TF1 in the smaller one. Other significant tools include live shading for games with a late-afternoon kickoff and AJT Systems' LiveBook GFX, which is used by all Ivy League schools.
Four Hitachi Z-HD5000s and JVC cameras anchor the bulk of the university's live event productions.
In summer 2018, Princeton gave the Princeton Stadium control room a much needed refresh. After getting rid of 10-year-old equipment geared to dated SD broadcasts, the university needed to justify the refurbishment despite using the space only for five home football games per year. With an IP network courtesy of NewTek NDI and an aging/cramped Hobey Baker Rink nearing its centennial (in 2022), all hockey home games are produced from a half mile away.
The space features a NewTek TriCaster TC1 switcher, a 3Play 3P1, Dante audio via a Yamaha TF1 console, and other smaller versions of gadgets used in the main control rooms.
In both Jadwin and Princeton Stadium, the 2019 live event productions will total nearly 100 after the home slate of ticketed sports (football, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, and wrestling) and 20-25 broadcasts of other sports (water polo, volleyball, soccer, field hockey).
Football and basketball productions are handled by a total of 15 staffers. For football, four Hitachi Z-HD5000 cameras with CCUs will line the stadium roof, with end-zone action covered by a wireless RF handheld at field level in the corner of the stadium and an additional camera midway up the stands. One of eight JVC PTZ cameras resides in the announcers booth for on-camera hits; others are installed beneath the basketball videoboard in Jadwin, inside the main control room, and throughout other sports venues).
Near the entrance of the H.G. Levine Broadcast Center, podcasts are recorded for additional content.
For basketball coverage, the control room will double its workload, serving as the nucleus for the main game broadcast and handling the in-venue videoboard show.
All Things Princeton: A Willingness To Expand
Despite maintaining two separate control rooms, the crew still had cash to spend. At less than 10% of the total project cost, Creative Dimensions created a dedicated studio space adjacent to the control rooms, including an anchor desk and a setup with two JVC cameras.
The idea was that most of our games a
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
Princeton Caps Off Extensive Program Transformation With H.G. Levine Broadcast Center New production hub features two control rooms and a studio By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
