Harvard University Athletics Enhances Broadcast Audio With Studio Technologies
![Announcer’s consoles and audio interfaces power 300 Harvard sports productions each year.](/cache/uploads/content_images/Studio_Technologies_â_Harvard_Sports_1_789_592_70_s.jpg)
Announcer’s consoles and audio interfaces power 300 Harvard sports productions each year.
Harvard University Athletics has grown its sports broadcasts significantly over the last few years, doubling online viewership and establishing partnerships with ESPN and other national and regional networks. To help deliver excellent audio during these productions, Harvard turns to products from Studio Technologies, manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions.
Units like the Model 204 and Model 230 Announcer’s Consoles, Model 45A Audio Interface, and Model 45DC Intercom Interface have enabled student-led production teams to run about 300 pro-level broadcasts across 42 teams each year, including football, basketball, skiing, rowing, fencing, and more.
Imry Halevi, Assistant Director of Athletics at Harvard, specifically highlighted the Model 230 Announcer’s Console, which has been the “workhorse for all Harvard’s productions.” The tabletop unit serves as an audio control “hub” for announcers, commentators, and production personnel. Halevi said games typically have two commentators who use Model 230 units while live on air, and to communicate with production personnel behind the scenes.
Harvard has also leveraged the Model 45A Audio Interface for additional flexibility with offsite audio sources. Halevi cited broadcasts for skiing carnivals in New Hampshire and Vermont, when production personnel weren’t able to communicate with camera operators via a phone call or Zoom. Using the Model 45A, the control room established a connection with the operators in the field by tying their live stream setup into their offsite communication system. “It was as though they were sitting next to us, it was just that much easier,” added Halevi.
Halevi said the school recently started using the Dante enabled Model 204 Announcer’s Console and Model 45DC Intercom Interface for “productions where running long analog XLR cables is not practical.” As an example, the Model 45DC is handling broadcast commentator audio from a soccer field that’s far from their control room but still in range of the campus IT network. “It’s allowing us to do many more flexible things using Dante,” said Halevi. “We’ve produced 10 games so far with our Model 204s and 45DCs, including three broadcasts on linear TV (NESN).”
With a staff of 65 students, Halevi also noted the value of Studio Technologies’ intuitive user interfaces and durable designs. “Students are not generally known as the most careful with equipment,” Halevi joked. “Thankfully, we’ve never had a console break. Everything has always worked and sounded great.”
You might also like...
Essential Guide: Delivering Intelligent Multicast Networks
This Essential Guide discusses the potential weaknesses of the ‘Protocol-Independent Multicast’ protocols that underpin multicast, and explores how a bandwidth aware infrastructure can maximize network capacity to reduce the risk of congestion.
Standards: Part 16 - About MP3 Audio Coding & ID3 Metadata
The MP3 audio format has been around for thirty years and has been superseded by several other codecs – so here we discuss why it still has a very strong position in broadcast. We also discuss ID3 metadata tags which often a…
HDR Picture Fundamentals: Brightness
This article describes one of the fundamental principles of broadcast - how humans perceive light, how this relates to the technology we use to capture and display images, and how this relates to HDR & Wide Color Gamut
Virtualization - Part 2
In part one, we saw how virtualization is nothing new and that we rely on it to understand and interact with the world. In this second part, we will see how new developments like the cloud and Video Over IP…
Standards: Part 15 - ST2110-2x - Video Coding Standards For Video Transport
SMPTE 2110 and its related standards help to construct workflows and broadcast systems. They coexist with standards from other organizations and incorporate them where necessary. In an earlier article we looked at the ST 2110 standard as a whole. This time we…