Published Tuesday May 19, 2009Football: NU set for vision upgrade
BY JON NYATAWA
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN — The HuskerVision TV studio, viewed regularly as the set for Nebraska’s in-season coaches shows, looks like an unkept attic right now, littered with boxes, binders and machines.
The 14-year-old production room in Memorial Stadium — really the mission control for all things that appear on the video boards during football game days — is getting a makeover, but it doesn’t yet have usable tables. There are a few new TVs hanging on the walls and more are coming.
Stadium Drive, the street just west of the Huskers’ football facility, is closed off, blocked by an enormous crane that will eventually hoist up a new 21-by-24 foot video screen and swing it into place on the stadium’s northwest tower just below the corner of the press box.
And despite all this chaos, Nebraska’s director of technology, a 15-year veteran in the NU athletic department, is all smiles these days.
Shot Kleen knows that he’ll soon be able to play with his new toys.
“I’m like a little kid at Christmas time,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about high definition for 12 years.”
He’ll have two new big screens installed and two long video boards added to the balconies this summer at a cost of $3 million. A 3.8 percent increase in football season ticket sales next fall should cover about half of that. Nebraska’s new marketing partner, IMG, will pay the bill’s portion not covered by that price hike.
The summer additions to HuskerVision, which include a picture quality upgrade and an new archival system for highlights, will total about $4 million, funded directly from the athletic department budget.
The behind-the-scenes enhancements have been proposed and analyzed for some time, Kleen said. And it’s a good thing, since expenditures of any sort are considered untimely, especially in a gloomy economic state that’s prompted subsequent tightenings of the athletic department budget.
The intent is to improve fan experience, said John Ingram, the NU assistant athletic director for facilities. These stadium changes are sort of a repayment for support, he said.
“Putting big screens in the stadium isn’t so much keeping up with the Joneses,” Ingram said, “but it’s trying to reward our fans with the very best we can give them. They have been loyal. ... We have great fans.”
Memorial Stadium patrons will get the two new video screens on the northwest and northeast towers, mirroring the pair on the south end that were upgraded in 2006. One of the screens should be installed by the end of this week and the other by next week, although high winds could delay that process, Ingram said.
Ribbon boards, measuring roughly 4 feet tall and stretching more than 300 feet, will line the front balconies of both the east and west upper decks. Those will be added in mid-July, according to Ingram.
And fans will be able to tell a difference next fall.
Last year’s images were like watching a VHS tape, Kleen said. “The resolution wasn’t very good.”
Kirk Hartman, HuskerVision’s creative director, said the quality would be three or four times better this fall. At least.
“There’ll be details, small details, fans will see that were never seen before (on the big screens),” Hartman said. “The look in the stadium will be totally different.”
He’s already scheming up ideas.
Every logo, graphic and image that’s ever appeared on the stadium’s video boards must be rendered again, maybe totally redesigned.
The ribbon boards will likely feature out-of-town scoreboards, statistics that correspond with in-game replays and some corporate sponsorships.
But maybe, Hartman theorizes, those ribbon boards could provide the means for other things — like stretching a player’s eyes across them, possibly as a form of intimidation. Kleen liked the idea of having digital characters do laps around all the stadium screens.
“The possibilities are endless,” Kleen said. “What we can do is really only limited by our creativity.”
The presentation of the Tunnel Walk could be enhanced too, though Kleen and Hartman were guarded on most of the detailed secrets about their plans.
Kleen did say that during the Tunnel Walk next fall, at least one more mounted camera will be added to a pillar under the north seats, facing the exterior locker room doors. A camera right outside the locker room will still capture the players tapping the horseshoe. And another roving cameraman may make his way over there for the tradition-rich scene.
But before then, there’s plenty of training and rehearsing to do, a familiarization process that will extend through August.
On game days, a staff of about 30 people is responsible for what’s shown on the Memorial Stadium big screens.
Roughly two-thirds of those workers are students, who won’t arrive on campus for a couple of months.
So the sooner everything gets installed, Kleen said, the easier things might be by the time the Huskers kick off for the first time.
“We’re excited,” Kleen said. “But it’s a pretty steep learning curve.”
