NEP Gives Penn State Students Inside Look at Sports Production

By Dan Wilhelm

On Thursday, October 10 NEP hosted
20 students at the ABC/ESPN television compound outside Beaver Stadium at

Penn

State. The
event was held in conjunction with the SVG Youth Recruitment Initiative coming
out of the SVG CEO Retreat held earlier this year at NAB. The students,
selected by the Penn State College of Communications and its John Curly Center for Sports Journalism, received a behind-the-scenes view of the compound including SS26 HD and support units. NEP engineers and technical managers lead discussions on topics surrounding the work behind putting together a major
sports telecast. The students came from various majors including industrial
engineering, telecom and broadcasting.

The event was green-lighted by Tom Gianakos and Lynn Cadden at ABC/ESPN.
The ABC/ESPN production team headed by producer Bob Goodrich, director
John DelVecchio and production manager, John LaChance supported the efforts on
the ground prior to the Wisconsin at Penn State game on Saturday. NEP Human Resources representatives were on-site to answer questions about various career opportunities in the field. The event is
part of NEP’s continuing efforts with SVG in promoting apprenticeships and
training for new talent in the sports video industry.

Jon Veschio, NEP Broadcasting human resources manager, says that four students expressed interest in
NEP’s Mobile Engineer Apprentice Program after he explained the training
we provide. “These students do not have the desired
electronics engineering training that we typically look for in apprentice
candidates, but expressed interest in supplementing their current major classes
with this type of curriculum,” he says. “I am hopeful that this event may yield one or
two apprentices in the second quarter of 2008.

“I would also reiterate that the event was
a success,” adds Veschio. “We gave half hour tours to the students, all of whom were
focused on areas of television production at Penn State. The Penn State staff did a good job at selecting
students. The students were very enthusiastic and all indicated that
their eyes were opened as they had not realized the scope of the production and
the level of engineering involved.”