BeckTV served as the systems integrator for the control room build at the new University of Louisville (UofL) Athletics Broadcast Center in Louisville, KY. The state-of-the-art, 7,850-square-foot television production facility, which opened its doors in September 2018, is designed to house all of the equipment and personnel necessary to originate live programming for the comprehensive linear and digital ACC Network, which will be launched by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and ESPN in 2019.
"We aimed high with the design of our broadcast center, and BeckTV helped us to complete a truly stunning facility that will do the UofL and the new ACC Network proud," said Jeremy Noe, executive director of ACC Network operations at the University of Louisville Athletics Broadcast Center. "Thanks to tightly integrated best-of-breed equipment within our control rooms, the UofL Athletics Broadcast Center boasts amazing flexibility and sophistication that will help us give fans more of the great ACC sports they love, better than ever."
The UofL broadcast center is connected by fiber to UofL athletic venues — home to the Cardinals sports teams — and to ESPN, which means that live sports programming can be originated from the new centralized production facility without the need for mobile trucks. The center will produce live, in-game content for UofL venue video boards such as those in Cardinal Stadium, Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium, the KFC Yum! Center, Jim Patterson Stadium, and Ulmer Field.
Within the new UofL facilities, two full video control rooms are dedicated to linear telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or the ACC Network. They can be used along with three scaled-back control rooms to support live telecasts of multiple simultaneous sports events on multiple television platforms. Cardinals coaches and players can do live interviews on any ESPN platform or broadcast channel from the broadcast center's bureau studio. A flexible studio space, including variable sets and a green screen wall, offers a customizable production environment.
"We're glad the University of Louisville got both the wow factor and the functionality it wanted with its new broadcast center," said Paul Nijak, senior system engineer at BeckTV. "One of the tricky bits about this project was that the university wanted to be able to broadcast before construction was complete. We're proud to say we delivered."
Working closely with BeckTV, the UofL was able to take its control rooms live prior to completion of the full broadcast center. This allowed the university to use its brand-new facilities to continue production of live programming for ESPN networks or ACC Network Extra, a digital television platform, up until the linear ACC Network launch.
