HuskerVision’s New Home: University of Nebraska Secures Three 4K HDR Control Rooms, Production and Photography Studios, Radio Network Headquarters

The renovated 25,200 sq. ft. facility is housed in the old Husker Football offices and team space

During the summer offseason, many collegiate video crews take the time to recharge and re-evaluate workflows heading into the next athletic calendar that’s only a few months away. In the case of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE, live events and broadcasts just got a whole lot better. HuskerVision, Nebraska Athletics’ production, content, and creative video department, invested in $12 million full-scale renovation that now includes three new SMPTE 2110 IP-based, 4K HDR centralized control rooms and separate studios for production, still photography, and the Husker Radio Network.

“HuskerVision began in 1994, so it’s been 30 years since we’ve had had a significant upgrade,” says Brandon Meier, senior associate athletic director, marketing and multimedia, University of Nebraska Athletics. “When I think about all of the people working in sports that have gone through this program, we need to set the next generation up for the next 30 years.”

BeckTV loads in equipment upon arrival in April.

Renovation’s First Steps: Need to Centralize, Modernize Pushes the Project Forward

Before undergoing one of the most ambitious transformations in the program’s three-decade-long history, the staff needed to lay out a plan that would bring this new space up to speed with the latest technologies available in the market. Their previous production space flipped workflows from SD to HD back in 2008, but this project would be of greater scope and scale.

“We were down to end of life on a lot of core equipment like routers and switchers,” says Meier.

Onsite staffers construct the rack room inside the new space.

Not only did the need to modernize become a driving factor, the department also needed to streamline operations to accommodate two new LED videoboard installations: one in Pinnacle Bank Arena, the home of the Cornhuskers men’s and women’s basketball teams, and one on the northside of Memorial Stadium, the longtime home of Cornhuskers Football. This called for control room technology that can capture, corral, and display 4K HDR-capable content on the boards. With an ever-growing production crew, more space was also needed to centralize their efforts, and available space became available in the old football offices on the second floor of North Stadium. Understanding that this space would need to house the more than 100 University of Nebraska students of HuskerVision, Creative and Emerging Media, the Huskers Radio Network, and Athletic Photography, the university recruited the help of Stadia Video Group’s AV Consultant Mark Jacobson.

“Our first step was to engage with Mark, have him look at the site, and get some help with writing up an RFP [request for proposal],” continues Meier. “The RFP went out in October, awarded the project in December, began work around April 1, and are now finished up.

An empty rack room turns into a completed rack room.

A Return to Campus: BeckTV & HuskerVision Graduate Brock Raum Comes Back to Lincoln

One of the most respected programs in collegiate-sports-video-production community, HuskerVision has turned students with aspirations for careers in this field into superstars and veterans of the profession. Many have made their mark on the creative and production side while others have lent their skills and expertise to developing technologies and workflows. BeckTV’s Senior Engineer Brock Raum is a Class of 2012 graduate that has done both: after spending five years in the ranks of HuskerVision, he spent time as lead producer for the four-time super Bowl Champions Kansas City Chiefs from 2013-2017 and as Director of Live Production & Broadcasting Technology for the University of Notre Dame from 2017-2020 before joining his current employer. Meier, a former student himself who graduated in the Class of 2000, saw the opportunity to bring a fellow alumnus back into the fold.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without HuskerVision,” says Raum. “I went on a tour [of the facility] when I was a senior in high school and I fell in love with it, and I’ve been hooked to this industry ever since. While I didn’t work with Brandon when I was a student, I was in college with his little brother Logan. It’s an extremely special place to me and I care a lot about it, so it’s been very cool to come back and rebuild this place to help new students launch their own careers.”

When BeckTV came in at the beginning of April, Raum was fortunate enough to put his entire energy on this project through his company’s overarching work philosophy. Coming off the heels of the ambitious Intuit Dome that came online in late October 2024, he was able to focus on the needs and requests of his alma mater.

“We’re a company that dedicates an engineer and resources to an entire project, and we don’t pull off for other projects,” he continues. “I have some other projects that I’m prepping for, but we make sure that we’re committed to our clients and their success is our top priority. Every client has their own bespoke challenges, and these three large control rooms come with a lot of nuances.”

One of the three new 4K HDR control rooms with server-based HOME Multiviewers.

Due to this specialized work on the part of BeckTV, Meier was able to entrust Raum and his crew with putting these control rooms together during the offseason.

“We really let them do what they need to do, and they did an awesome job,” says Meier. “We took the control rooms over by Aug. 1, which is when we began training our students and crew on all of this new equipment.”

The space has rows that house their 20 channels of EVS replay.

Smooth Sailing: Continuous Productions, Prior IP Experience Provides a Quick Transition

The biggest and most evident reasons to this project’s success is holding true to two approaches: continuing productions in their previous control-room setup and leaning on lessons learned from HuskerVision’s first foray into IP. With this project getting started just before the heat of crossover season and then being done during the final month of the 2024-25 academic calendar, the crew decided to work on the new control room as their older home get chugging along with live broadcast and videoboard productions. The old control room was retired after two final productions: Baseball vs. the University of Michigan on Sunday, May 11 and Spring Commencement at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, May 18.

“It was important to executive [this project] on parallel paths that let our older control room run until the end of May,” adds Meier. “This allowed us to wind down the previous space as soon as the end of the season hit.”

Grass Valley’s Kayenne production switcher is driving videoboard shows and live B1G+ broadcasts from eight venues.

Secondly, the program’s use of IP on the audio side has given them the crash course before opening these new IP-based control rooms. As the first university to install a complete LAWO VSM/Home routing and IP management infrastructure, the program’s engineers have become accustomed to the possible snafus and hiccups that come with IP-driven technology. There’s always going to be some sort of learning curve when IP is added to the video side of things, but these professionals have taken everything in stride.

“Our engineers really understand the cores, switching, and what it takes to work with IP, but we had over 2,000 strands of fiber that connected the old HuskerVision control room to all of these venues,” says Meier. “Figuring out how to get that patched over and moved to the new facility was probably our biggest challenge.”

Lawo audio consoles are controlling sound from all three control rooms with HOME Apps driving the multiviewers.

Centralized Content Hub: New Space Brings Together New-Age Tech and Award-Winning Program

After it’s completion, HuskerVision now has a 25,200 sq. ft. facility of centralized control rooms and rack rooms that will produce in-venue videoboard shows as well as live B1G+ broadcasts from eight athletic venues around campus. This includes Memorial Stadium; Pinnacle Bank Arena; three playing areas for gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling at John Cook Arena, track & field, and swimming and diving at Devaney Center Natatorium in the Bob Devaney Sports Center; baseball at Hawks Field at Haymarket Park; softball at Bowlin Stadium; and soccer at Hibner Stadium. Fiber connectivity is also available to the Osborne Legacy Complex and Big Ten Network Studios in Chicago.

Inside of these three control rooms, staffers are working with a bevy of technologies including 160 input and 80 output production switcher capability with 3 control surfaces from Grass Valley, 51.2 terabits of IP fabric switching capacity from Cisco and Aruba, 40 equipment racks, 34 operator positions, 20 channels of EVS replay and record, 12 4K HDR camera systems from Grass Valley, 10 4K POV cameras and lenses from Canon, a handful of Panasonic broadcast cameras from the previous control room, and a centralized UPS backup power system. These control rooms, as well as dedicated video shading, robotics, and replay rooms, are outfitted with consoles and broadcast furniture from TBC Consoles. On the audio front, the crew is working with full AES 67 IP audio integration, three Lawo audio consoles, Riedel Intercom, Q-SYS audio cores and 132 Dante audio endpoints.

Grass Valley is also supplying camera shading for the program’s 12 4K HDR camera systems.

Outside these newly renovated areas, the building is equipped with an open workspace that comes with workstations for more than 30 students. In addition, a 2,617 sq. ft. studio space with LED Lighting and green screen cyclorama wall allows content to be captured of student-athletes of all 24 varsity teams, a still photography studio, a podcast-specific studio, four Husker Radio Network production pods and centralized studios with IP distribution to 52 regional affiliates, and a 146-seat ancillary meeting space.

Trusted partners were essential to making this possible. Along with BeckTV, a handful of others were critical during the initial phases including construction by Hausmann and Kiewit, architectural design by HDR, and design and integration of the Husker Radio Network by Inrush.

Women’s Volleyball Red-White Scrimmage on Aug. 9 was the first sporting event produced from the new control rooms.

Past and Present Influence the Future: Former, Current Staffers Pave Path for Future Students

The control rooms hosted their first event, Women’s Volleyball Red-White Scrimmage, on Saturday, Aug. 9 at John Cook Arena in the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The space was officially christened during the 2025 AVCA First Serve between Women’s Volleyball and the University of Pittsburgh on Friday, Aug. 22. The first event in the university’s crown jewel venue, Memorial Stadium, will take place during Nebraska Cornhusker Football’s home opener against the University of Akron on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Internally, this project wouldn’t have been possible without the university’s hardworking IT department. Whether it’s assisting with the fiber infrastructure or establishing a LPV, or large public venue, network, they’ve been highly important to synchronizing these new workflows. From HuskerVision, personnel that were working at the program when Raum was a student — Assistant Athletics Director Kirk Hartman and Chief Engineer Scott Guthrie — and Broadcast/Systems Engineer Garrett Hill were instrumental.

“It’s not very often that I get to come into a situation with engineers who already understand IP,” says Raum. “ Scott and Garrett’s learning curve was minimal, and I can’t emphasize how much weight that takes off my shoulders for things like configuration and educating clients on the subject.”

PrimeTime Lighting Systems is powering the production studios.

With a full athletic year of broadcasts and productions ahead, Meier has full attention on what’s to come on campus in Lincoln. Serving as a testament to the program’s history of excellence and a beacon for future students looking to refine their craft, this new home will set the foundation for the next wave of professionals in the industry.

“This space will continue to educate, teach, and carry on the great tradition of HuskerVision,” adds Meier.