Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 5 | May 2019

44 Inside Hokie Sports The Virginia Tech Athletics Department achieved another milestone recently when its video office—known as HokieVision—produced its first linear television broadcast. For those unfamiliar with the term“linear,” think real-time television programming, and the HokieVision staff carried out the broadcast of the final game of the Hokies’ three-game baseball series with Boston College on May 6. Fans got to watch that game on ESPNU. The game served as another test case for the HokieVision staff, as the athletics department prepares for the pending launch of the ACC Network in late August. To date, the video offices at ACC schools have been focusing on digital programming—the broadcasting of games through ESPN’s website and the ESPN app. To rewind, in 2016, ACC Commissioner John Swofford revealed that the conference and ESPN were partnering to create a linear network. He, other conference officials and athletics departments throughout the league wanted to promote the league to recruits, students and fans, and more importantly, wanted to find another potentially large revenue stream to help pay for coaches’ salaries, support staff salaries, operational budgets, and new and/or enhanced facilities. The league left the schools to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of infrastructure and equipment, giving individual school officials the freedom either to meet ESPN’s minimum standards for producing a broadcast or to go as big as a school wanted. Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock and his executive staff agreed on the need to invest $10 million on Tech’s network preparations. Tech Athletics invested in equipment, infrastructure, and in construction costs. The equipment included new video switchers, audio mixers, router core, intercoms, cameras, lenses, editing equipment, storage and archiving, lighting and set pieces for the four-set studio to be constructed in the West Side of Lane, broadcast cabling for camera positions, and broadcast booths. Part of the investment went toward the actual building of two control rooms and offices on the bottom floor of the south end zone of Lane Stadium, along with the construction of the studio in the west side of Lane Stadium. The south end zone area now serves as the operational hub for the Hokies’ network operations, and money also was spent upgrading HokieVision’s control rooms in theMerryman Center, which will continue to be capable of producing digital events fromEnglish Field at Union Park, Tech Softball Park, Thompson Field, Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility, Cassell Coliseum and board shows from Lane Stadium. The new equipment enables Tech Athletics to enhance its in-game video board presence at Lane Stadium, Cassell Coliseum, English Field and Thompson Field as well. Video board content is an imperative part of the fan experience—something of the utmost importance to Tech officials. “Thankfully, with this project, we are afforded the opportunity to rise to the challenge of accomplishing both goals,” said Brian Walls, assistant AD for broadcast and network operations. “We have the opportunity to produce great linear and digital content for ESPN, fulfilling our contractual obligations of the ACC Network agreement. At the same time, we have enhanced our entire operation by addressing our equipment needs and infrastructure, allowing our creative team to tell the story of our student-athletes and teams through higher quality in-venue productions and social media content.” Tech Athletics also has invested in people, hiring five full-time employees to help with preparations, with plans to hire two more. The hires include Eric Frey (senior director, ACC network operations), Sam Jones (chief engineer), Amanda Rutledge (coordinator, ACC Network), Ryan Stankard (coordinator, ACC Network) and Daniel Gibbons (ACC Network associate director). Four of the five worked previously at SEC schools and with the SEC Network, and thus they bring an immeasurable amount of experience and expertise in network operations. In addition, the HokieVision staff has enlisted the help of more than 60 students—most from the communications department on Tech’s campus—to help with day-to-day tasks. They all tested their new equipment and their skills during the Hokies’ three-game baseball series with Georgia Tech, producing digital broadcasts for all three games. “It went really, really well, as far as first shows from new rooms,” Frey said. “It was really smooth … We put out a good product.” They expect to do the same in the future. The ACC Network officially launches Aug. 22. Virginia Tech Athletics is well on its way toward being ready. For more information about how to get the ACC Network, visit GetACCN.com and follow along on social networks using #WeDoThis. The athletics department has invested $10 million to prepare for the launching of the ACC Network, and a recent linear broadcast has officials feeling optimistic about those preparations by Jimmy Robertson