SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—NewTek says Centennial High School of Peoria, Ariz., is the grand-prize winner of the company’s smart car HD mobile production vehicle contest.
The winning entry featured a rap video with lyrics about the educational goals of the school and its students. The prize includes a 2010 smart car (shown at right) equipped with a TriCaster 455 multi-camera live production and streaming system, a 3Play 425 slow motion/instant replay system, control surfaces and dual wing-mount monitors.
The initial entry and the video production was a collaboration between five seniors: Tim Litwiller, Yuriy Isparyan, Malik Farria, Jorge Flores and Isaac Keene. The effort began with an entry essay written by Litwiller that earned selection to a group of ten finalists. Once the team was notified that they were among the finalists, the students planned the entire video entry, and did all the shooting and editing. Ken Keene, Centennial High School Media/Video Production teacher who was advising the students, was out of town when the student team spent four 12-hour days editing their final contest entry.
Students plan to cover district sports, as well as use the vehicle to educate other students.
“We want to show it off. This was a concentrated school effort, with everyone involved, and it shows what we can accomplish when we work together as a team,” said Litwiller. “We will learn to use the NewTek equipment, and this mobile live production vehicle really will improve our school’s broadcasting capabilities.”
“It will be so cool to drive this sports production car down to the middle schools and demo the TriCaster and 3Play for other students,” said Isparyan.
The winning video and the 9 other finalist videos are available for viewing online.
The set of 10 finalists were selected from hundreds of entries in the 48 contiguous states and District of Columbia. A panel of judges that included sports video production professionals determined Centennial High School as the Grand Prize winner. The nine runners up, all of which will receive a TriCaster 40 multi-camera production system, include:
Arvada West High School, Arvada, Co.
Grissom High School, Huntsville, Ala.
Harmony High School, Harmony, Fla.
James Logan High School, Union City, Calif.
Montclair State University, Montclair, N.J.
Palisades Charter High School, Los Angeles
South Kitsap High School, Port Orchard, Wash.
Southeast High School, Bradenton, Fla.
University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, Texas
