During the production of a recent Hahnville High School Volleyball game we decided to do a little experiment. We were able to send one of the multiviewer video signals of our Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Switcher to a recorder so we can see what the student director sees during a broadcast. This give us is a little sneak peek behind the “production curtain” or as it is referred to in the film industry, the “fourth wall.” 

During the Hahnville Senior Night presentations we fed the Clear-Com intercom audio into the recorder by putting a lavalier mic in the headset of an extra intercom and plugging the lavalier into the recorder to record with the multiview. We only did this for the pre-game presentations as a test, but it seemed to work well.

We had a little bid of a feedback problem in the intercom, so we disconnected it for the game, but it was actually coming from another Clear-Com station that had it’s speaker on.  We are going to try this again for our next football broadcast which tends to be more hectic and have a lot more moving parts.  During the game we fed the program audio into the recorder.

  In the layout of the multiviewer we have our system set up with “program,” or final output, in the bottom left-hand section and “preview,” or the shot up next, in the top left-hand section.  We had three active cameras for this match and we typically only use one of the replay outputs or “Replay A” as it is labeled on the monitor.  We also have our graphics systems set up with a green chroma key.

Many television stations do this in order to review a broadcast or for training purposes. I think this will be a very valuable training tool for this crew and future crews.  Also, this could be a great addition to a student directors resume reel.

Now that the 2016 Press Play Crew is a little “seasoned” with seven football games and four volleyball games under their belt they are a pretty well-oiled machine not only during the production but also in the setup and teardown before and after games.

As their Adviser, I am very proud of what this crew has accomplished in three short months.  Besides the live productions, they have also produced nine “On The Prowl” coaches shows and shows for the United Way, St. Charles Parish and the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office and many PSA’s.  Nearly all of them had no/limited live production experience.  They’ve come a long way!

The video above shows the senior night presentations with intercom audio and the video below shows the first set with program audio.  Both were directed by Hahnville Junior Asialyn Singleton.  The video of the second set was directed by Destrehan Senior Don Surmik and the third set was directed by Hahnville Senior Savannah Sheppard, and this was Savannah’s first time directing a live sporting event!

SET #1

SET #2

SET #3

On Friday, November 4th, 2016 we streamed the Thibodaux vs Hahnville Football Game using a two-camera shoot with a five student crew.  Below is the multiviewer output for that game.

On Friday, November 11, 2016 the crew streamed the first round playoff game between the Covington Lions and the Hahnville Tigers. This was a three camera production with two cameras near the press box and one camera in the end zone. There were some technical problems with the replay system and graphics system which you can see in the multi viewer output during the broadcast.

Football Three Camera Broadcast