快播视频

Athletics and academics come together in 快播视频鈥檚 new ESPN Teaching Control Room.

February 18, 2020鈥擨magine helping to produce an NCAA Division I basketball game for broadcast while still a college student. That鈥檚 exactly the opportunity 快播视频 students have working with the College鈥檚 Athletics Department to produce games for ESPN3 and ESPN+. This year, that opportunity was kicked up a notch with the opening of the ESPN Teaching Control Room in the McCann Center.

The new teaching control room is significantly larger and features an audio board, replay station, graphics computer, and other industry standard equipment. Under the direction of Meghan Graham 鈥�18M, Director of Multimedia for Athletics, and engineer Mark Phillips, more than 50 快播视频 students have had a role in producing basketball, volleyball, softball, and water polo games. Unlike a mobile unit (which many colleges use), this room is large enough to have students working while others observe and get into the pipeline of working broadcasts themselves. The structure facilitates learning. It also affords Graham the opportunity to move around the space, working with her student producers throughout the broadcast.

Meghan Graham directs a broadcast

High End Productions in an Active Learning Laboratory

鈥淭he ESPN Teaching Control Room is an active learning laboratory for 快播视频 students to take the theory they learn in the classroom and apply it to practical experiences that will help prepare students for careers. This academic-athletic partnership has faculty and athletic staff engaged with a common goal of benefitting our students,鈥� said Director of Athletics Tim Murray. 鈥淭his is one of many reasons 快播视频 is an attractive option for students who are interested in pursuing careers in sports communications.鈥�

Steve Fenig, ESPN鈥檚 Campus Production Coordinator, gives the 快播视频 team high marks. 鈥溈觳ナ悠� productions are among the higher end of college productions I鈥檝e observed,鈥� he said. Fenig noted that many schools utilize freelancers to handle the broadcast work. 鈥淏ut at 快播视频 this is part of teaching and learning. Because students are involved, my role is more important. ESPN has certain standards; I provide feedback to schools on that. The 快播视频 team always uses the feedback and keeps making improvements. It鈥檚 clear Meghan shares the critiques with students.鈥�

Although she is directing the productions, Graham is definitely an educator in the control room, helping students to learn each job. 鈥淚n this field, experience is everything and learning by doing is the only way to go,鈥� said Graham, so she is grateful for Fenig鈥檚 feedback. 鈥淪teve is an expert in television production, so I listen to him intently,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are always ways to improve whether that鈥檚 by adding graphics or trying different techniques. And the students are receptive to the comments I share; they want to learn.鈥�

Fenig noted that 快播视频鈥檚 model鈥攈aving a dedicated technical person and an overall director in Graham鈥攊s a strong one. 鈥淚鈥檓 very impressed with Mark and Meghan.鈥�

Dan Oakes 鈥�21 has grown in his role as a student assistant in the control room. 鈥淲hen I first started I, like everyone else, began by working the main game camera for the productions because it is the simplest of the cameras. From there, I worked my way through the different camera positions and then into the control room.鈥� For Oakes, the hands-on work has been a tremendous learning experience. 鈥淚 have learned a lot about how an ESPN broadcast works and how most of the positions work from my experiences in the control room. That鈥檚 the main point: for the majority of the positions for a broadcast, the way you really learn is through experience and repetition.鈥�
 

Strong Career Placement

Jane McManus, Director of the Center for Sports Communication, has worked to connect more students with this experiential learning opportunity on campus. 鈥淪o many of our sports communications students can get real world production experience outside of the classroom through this collaboration,鈥� said McManus. 鈥淚t's been a terrific opportunity for them and gives them skills that future employers are looking for.鈥�

That鈥檚 certainly been the case for Oakes. 鈥淟ast semester I learned how to do replay in the control room which is very tough because it requires a lot of focus throughout the entire game and when I was first learning it and Meghan was explaining it to me I was lost but once I was 鈥榯hrown into the deep end鈥� and was actually doing it during a live broadcast, I started putting the pieces together and it all started to click.鈥�

Graham and the team in Athletics are proud of the array of students working and learning in the new facility. The opportunity is open to all but the work naturally attracts Communication and Sports Communication majors. 鈥淭his work involves a real mix of the technical and the creative,鈥� Graham noted. Students who have worked in Athletics production have gone on to rewarding careers with the MAAC, ESPN, MLB, Sports Illustrated, and Overtime.