ST. PAUL, MINN.—GatorVision is the University of Florida athletic department's broadcast and production initiative, handling live and on-demand event streaming and in-venue, game day coverage as part of its operation. The recently built control room, located in the College of Journalism and Communications building on campus, houses a full complement of production gear suited to both outside broadcasts and in-venue content.
The control room includes two Tightrope Media Systems Zeplay slo-mo instant replay systems. Brad Noblitt, director of engineering for University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, has assigned an experienced operator running the primary system. That operator simultaneously trains students to run the second Zeplay.
“The learning curve on ZeplayY is not nearly as steep as competing products,” Noblitt said. “We have a lot of student involvement at GatorVision, being part of the College of Journalism and Communications. Our primary operator teaches students how to use ZEPLAY keystroke by keystroke. Within an hour, the student can really understand the concept of the workflow.”
Noblitt adds that the latest software release has simplified how his team can edit, trim and build packages for game highlights. Additionally, the GatorVision team creates “melts” after every game for later use, with direct playout to our XDCam disc or as an exported .mov file.
