University of Maryland’s Athletics Department renovates facilities with Sony

University of Maryland’s Athletics Department recently refreshed its facilities implementing the latest high-end technology Sony’s with HFR-capable HDC-3500 system cameras and two BRC-X1000 pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras.

Josh Clayton is the Assistant Athletics Director of TerpVision and Video Operations for the University of Maryland, overseeing and managing the imagery on the boards in the school’s venues while supporting broadcast and production efforts across a majority of their sports offerings.

This includes work with the Big 10 Network, streaming and outside television broadcasts. In addition, he serves as the game day producer for the school’s video board shows at their football stadium and basketball arena, and prides himself on creating a unique and memorable experience that brings fans from their homes into the university’s venues.

With “unwavering” support from the school’s athletics department, Clayton was instrumental in the camera selection for the upgrade, as he sought to address the increasing demand for content. While the school still uses some of their previous Sony imaging technology, as more shows were being requested, the need to simultaneously capture different sports grew.

This necessitated more cameras for the TerpVision team, allowing them to be in more places. As he looked to the future, Clayton said he wanted to allow his team to “put their best foot forward” and “boldly lead the charge” in bringing HDR to college sports and the Big 10.

As longtime Sony users, Clayton noted, “The legacy and security of the Sony name helped drive our decision. Sony’s support team always goes above and beyond, which takes a lot of the worry away. Sony helps position us to be the best and get the most out of our technology.”

Clayton also spoke of the compatibility and capability to consistently match the new cameras with the university’s existing technology as a key driver in the university’s decision. He said, “Another important element was the image matching and ecosystem compatibility between our older triax cameras and these new HDC-3500s. The first time we fired up the cameras without really painting, everything looked amazing. And that’s just what we wanted – to have everything work right out of the box and not have to worry about the details.”

”With regard to high dynamic range (HDR), Clayton shared, “We wanted to pave the way for HDR in college sports. We learned from the trials, tribulations and successes of other industry leaders and outlined what we felt would work for us. We’ve certainly learned a lot along the way. I like to use the phrase: we’re flying the airplane as we build it…and we’re also writing the instruction manual.”

He continued, “We want to ensure that the HDR content we are capturing is usable not just with the video board but also the in-house TV feeds around our concourses. The flexibility of the HLG standard in HDR provides us with a crisp and incredible image on our enormous HDR football board and even looks great on our non-HDR center-hung at the XFINITY Center.”

In addition to HDR, the University of Maryland is also invested in another beneficial trend in capture: high frame rate (HFR). Clayton’s team has two HFR licenses to enable 4X super slo mo for the HDC-3500s, which he uses frequently for gymnastics, volleyball, baseball and football, among others.