COLLEGE STATION, Texas—12th Man Productions is the broadcast and production house for Texas A&M Athletics. We handle all in-venue video board productions for Texas A&M Athletics and as part of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), we are under contract with ESPN to provide and produce broadcasts of our games. With one of the largest football stadiums in the country and the largest in the SEC with over 100,000 fans, our responsibility to provide seamless productions is critical … and not just for football, as we produce 100-plus events a year for virtually every sport.
In my role as chief broadcast engineer, I oversee the technical side of live broadcasts, including the management of control rooms, equipment, and a team of 20 student engineers. At 12th Man Productions, we always try to push the boundaries when it comes to broadcast technology. One of the biggest shifts was our transition to an all-IP infrastructure, which began in 2018 when we integrated IP gateways between our venues and the central control room for video and audio transport. Fast forward to today, we’ve become a fully 2110 IP facility at our core, allowing us to scale, innovate, and increase efficiency across the board.
Pushing The Limits
Our first exposure to TAG Video Systems’ software-based IP monitoring solution came at the 2022 NAB Show, where we saw the possibilities of a system that was flexible, scalable, and able to process a range of signals. We immediately jumped at the chance to test it with a virtual instance on our existing hardware, as we were already heavily into virtualization.
We put TAG through its paces and found that, despite initial concerns, there was no noticeable latency compared to our baseband multiviewer. The system had the architecture we were looking for, was budget-friendly and was highly customizable. It was a no-brainer, and we deployed our system in June 2022.
Since that deployment, we’ve been pushing the limits of what TAG can do. Currently, our system features six MCMs running on Dell servers, controlled by the MCS software on a virtual machine. TAG is at the heart of our multiviewer system, handling 2110 and NDI sources for all four control rooms. As we’ve expanded, scaling the system has been seamless—we started with four MCMs and have since added two more, adapting as our needs have grown and as we realized what more we could do with TAG.
Transcoding NDI
One of those realizations came when we discovered TAG’s potential for transcoding IP signals. Initially deployed as a multiviewer, we soon realized we could transcode NDI sources into full-screen 2110 outputs. This has given us the flexibility to deploy NDI POV cameras at our sporting events, drastically reducing the complexity of our camera setups.
Now, instead of running multiple cables to each camera, a single Ethernet cable carries both power, video, and control with TAG handling the conversion to a 2110 source in our broadcast switcher. This same workflow has been applied to our graphics, where we have virtualized instances of Ross XPression that output NDI signals to TAG where it is converted to 2110 for all CGs used within our broadcasts.
The integration with Evertz DreamCatcher has also been a game-changer. Texas A&M was the first to adopt this integrated solution, which has proven invaluable for our production workflows. Timing is everything in our broadcasts, and TAG’s ability to overlay metadata from DreamCatcher has been critical. Our control-room staff now has access to timecodes, clip IDs, clip names and playlist names, all within the multiviewer, enhancing the precision and quality of our productions.
Another major highlight has been the support from TAG. Anytime I’ve reached out, the response has been swift and effective. The support team goes beyond troubleshooting—they also educate us further on the system. Every interaction with TAG has reaffirmed our decision to choose their solution, and if given the chance, I’d make the same choice again without hesitation.
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