UConn Welcomes Huskies’ Hockey Fans to New Toscano Family Ice Forum

Centralized production-control room handles in-venue shows at the facility

Sports fans in Storrs, CT, are accustomed to the dominance of UConn’s women’s basketball, but, since the start of this year, supporters of the university’s athletics programs have another venue in which to cheer on their Huskies: Toscano Family Ice Forum. Home to the men’s and women’s ice-hockey teams, the 2,600-seat arena entertains patrons with brand-new LED videoboards and is tied into a centralized production-control room.

“Many teams in our conference have on-campus arenas, so this has been a long time coming,” says David Kaplan, assistant director, Athletics/Video Services, UConn. “Athletics is the front porch of any university, and we’re very excited to add this new facility to our Athletics village.”

Toscano Family Ice Forum is the newest venue on the campus of the University of Connecticut.

Campus Link: In-Venue Shows Are Produced From Centralized Control Room

A project conceived prior to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Toscano Family Ice Forum has become the new-age answer to the two programs’ needs. Previously, the men’s team played home games at XL Center in Hartford, CT — a 25-mile drive east of campus. The women’s team played home games at the school’s 24-year-old Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum, in which video production was minimal compared with the new venue.

A nine-display centerhung has four 10-ft.-high x 18-ft.-wide main video displays and 10- x 3-ft. corner wedge displays.

“We didn’t have a full-fledged show on campus,” notes Kaplan. “We basically did a one-camera shoot without any videoboard and control capabilities. We didn’t ramp up productions for hockey on campus until we moved into the rink in January.”

The arena has three LED ribbon displays, including this one in the north end measuring 3 ft. x 49 ft.

The university decided that a more modern venue close to the heart of campus was the better option. When the idea was eventually greenlighted by the administration, the university tapped Metropolitan Interactive to provide technology and systems integration. Based just outside New Haven, CT, the company has ties to the state of Connecticut and was critical to the construction of other athletic facilities on campus, including renovation of Burrill Family Field at Connecticut Softball Stadium in 2020 and the opening of Elliot Ballpark in 2021.

Toscano Family Ice Forum can seat up to 2,600 students and fans.

As the building was being constructed, Kaplan and his team worked closely with Metropolitan Interactive to assemble a brand-new production-control room. Located within the Rizza Performance Center — home to UConn men’s and women’s soccer, baseball, softball, and lacrosse programs — the new space is linked to Toscano Family Ice Forum via fiber. It is handling productions not only for men’s and women’s ice hockey but also for men’s and women’s soccer, lacrosse, baseball, and softball.

The control room houses Ross Video solutions and services, including a Carbonite production switcher and XPression graphics. Replay is handled by Evertz DreamCatcher servers, and, for total control of all LED videoboard elements, the in-venue production team deploys Daktronics’ Show Control.

Joe D’Ambrosio (left) and Noam Watt in the broadcast booth for UConn Women’s Ice Hockey vs. Holy Cross on Feb. 17.

Learning Curve: Staffers Sidestep Challenges on Opening Night

Bringing any new production system online is a tough challenge. Moving into the new facility mid-season, the crew didn’t have much time to become familiar with the new workflows. And, besides the in-venue–production equipment, there was new Daktronics LED real estate: a nine-display centerhung with four main video displays measuring 10 ft. high x 18 ft. wide, 10-ft.-high x 3-ft.-wide corner wedge displays, and a 12-ft.-high x 8-ft.-wide LED video in the main entrance. Other LED fixtures include a 1.5-ft.-high x 61.5-ft.-circumference ring display mounted below the main displays, three ribbon displays (one that’s 3 ft. high x 49 ft. wide in the north end and two on each side of the rink at 2.5 ft. high by 113 ft. wide.

Toscano Family Ice Forum offers more production capabilities than the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum it replaced.

Without much time for practice before back-to-back home games in the new venue — women’s ice hockey vs. Merrimack College on Jan. 13, men’s ice hockey vs. Northeastern University on Jan. 14 — opening the facility midway through the 2022-23 season made the challenge more complex.

“We had to create a whole new videoboard show from scratch,” says Kaplan. “We didn’t get an opportunity to do run-throughs, dry runs, and testing out the overall system.”

David Kaplan (center), here with Noam Watt (left) and Joe D’Ambrosio, is in his 28th year at UConn.

Luckily, Kaplan surrounds himself with a dedicated team comprising full-time employees, freelancers, and students. His team is led by Director, Creative Video Services, Baillie Boggs, who creates and coordinates creative video content and the overall design for all videoboards on and off campus, and Assistant Director, Video Services, Emily Vallario, whose primary responsibility is to produce the broadcast for ESPN+ and NESN. Vallario is joined by Assistant Director, Video Services, Lindsey Lemoine, who is technical director in the control room; Video Assistant Aaron Paladino, who creates and executes the various broadcast-graphics packages; and Video Assistant Noam Watt, who serves as on-air talent and directs/produces various shows alongside Vallario. Video Assistant Peter Tauro also serves as an editor and content creator for in-venue and broadcast productions.

Fruitful Future: UConn Athletics Adds Another Venue to Campus Footprint

After playing in different arenas and opening the new venue midseason, productions at Toscano Family Ice Forum have hit their stride after only a month. For Kaplan, in his 28th year at the university, the quality of productions has risen to a level that the department wasn’t able to attain a few years ago.

UConn men’s ice hockey team played its first home game in Toscana Family Ice Forum vs. Northeastern on Jan. 14.

“Before the pandemic,” he says, “we would stream most events with one or two cameras and no graphics package. Now we’re doing multi-camera broadcast productions with manned and remote cameras that the new facility takes feeds from, full broadcast-graphics packages, commercial content, and sponsored elements.”

In the long term, fans of each program will become more and more familiar with the space. From an institutional perspective, the new arena will benefit future generations of UConn Huskies on the ice and in the university at large.

“It’s great for UConn Nation and both hockey programs in terms of recruiting,” adds Kaplan. “Rather than taking a bus down to the XL Center, students can walk over and watch their fellow student-athletes play. We’re extremely excited.”

UConn men’s ice hockey concludes the 2022-23 regular-season schedule vs. Boston College on Saturday, March 4 at 4:05 p.m. ET on ESPN+.