UB's ESPN3 University Production in Full Swing
12/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York's Alumni Arena control room is in full swing as ESPN3 production continues on 37 UB athletics events, including every home men's and women's basketball game and wrestling match this season.
In September, The Mid-American Conference and ESPN announced that UB had been chosen as one of three institutions selected to begin the ESPN University Production Initiative at their respective universities. Chosen along with Central Michigan and Northern Illinois, the ESPN University Production Initiative allows for a minimum of 35 sporting events at each school to be picked up on one of the ESPN Networks through out the year.
"As we continue to build America's next big time college athletics brand, this is a huge opportunity for us," said Athletic Director Danny White. "With the ESPN University Production Initiative, we will now have the ability to showcase our great University, our facilities, and most importantly our student-athletes to over 230,000 alumni worldwide."
In year one, the Bulls will be producing 37 events. The schedule of events includes the entire home men's and women's basketball schedule as well as all five home wrestling dual meets. The package also included the final four home matches for volleyball.
"The University Production Initiative that ESPN and our conference have put into place is a real winner for our student athletes and our fans," Associate Athletic Director for Communications and Broadcasting Boone Enser said. "To create a full-fledged ESPN production control room we repurposed quite a bit of equipment that had previously been used exclusively for the arena's video board. The consultation we received from our ESPN partners has made it a very smooth transition. In my 25 years of broadcasting, I have seen an extreme amount of change. I was lucky enough to be a part of the first fully digital television studio in the early 1990s when we launched The Golf Channel. What we have put together here today outshines what we had then. There's also the fact that now a student-athlete from the other side of the country or the opposite side of the world can have their parents watch every home Bulls basketball game, volleyball match, football game or wrestling event, I have to say the digital reach of ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN app is truly mind-blowing."
All 37 events will air on ESPN3, but ESPN will have access to cut to any event on their main station, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews or during basketball season, the ESPN Buzzer Beater channel.
About ESPN3
ESPN3 is ESPN's live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually. It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast (via the WatchESPN app), Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The network is currently available to more than 92 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.
$website.include("/sports/mbkb/2014-15/photos/0004/index")
