In between capturing live action footage for each The University of Texas football game, the school’s production teams capture, edit, and share hundreds of hours of content each week—and virtually every minute is produced using Sony’s cameras.
The Longhorns rely on Sony’s HDC-3500 system cameras, FR7 pan-tilt-zoom cameras, FX series camcorders, and Alpha mirrorless interchangeable lens models to create memorable experiences for every fan attending a UT home game. A mix of full-time staff, students, and local freelancers use the equipment to cut highlights, edit interviews, post social media content, prepare in-game videoboard content, develop pre-recorded segments, stream to digital platforms, and share game feeds with national broadcasters.
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Those collective efforts are generating results, judging by ticket sales and post-game fan feedback surveys, but the team is intensely aware of the need to continually raise their game. Like most organizations producing in-person sports events, UT’s competition isn’t limited to the opposing team.
“We’re battling against people’s couches,” said Caten Hyde, senior associate athletic director, Creative Development and Video Production, at Texas. “Our audience can choose to watch at home, with their own food and drinks and their beautiful TVs with surround sound. We have to deliver an in-venue experience unlike anything else they can get at a sports bar, at home or anywhere else.”
That constant pressure to improve, combined with UT’s 2024 move to the bigger stage of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the extended season created by the new College Football Playoff (CFP) format, has led Texas to prioritize its in-house content creation capabilities. Plus, Hyde’s team is responsible for supporting the school’s 20 other varsity sports, as well as football. “At any given point our department can have people at five locations across the country covering different sporting events,” said Hyde, now in his sixth year at Texas.
The university previously outsourced its in-game videoboard production. Driven by the increasing collaboration between ESPN and collegiate athletic programs, Texas built a professional-grade broadcast production facility in early 2024, centered around their significant investment in Sony technology. Hyde’s team worked closely with system integrator Diversified for technology recommendations and engineering support.
That building houses UT’s newly created Texas Studios Powered by Dell Technologies, which manages the live production coverage of UT games and distributes feeds to ESPN.
“Now we have a facility that elevates us to a national broadcast level and lets us fully take advantage of these cameras’ capabilities to blend a cinematic style of creative storytelling with live production coverage,” said Matt Alvarado, head broadcast engineer, who manages the live production and broadcast operations for Texas’ game day experience.
Once the final whistle ends a home game, the Texas production teams start preparing for the next home date on the schedule. A victory or loss determines the type of recap video and highlights required, as well as statistics, graphics, and other promotional content that needs to be produced during the week. By the day before each upcoming game, all teams have an extensive shot list and everyone knows their assignments.
About five hours before kick-off, the streets surrounding Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium turn into a giant block party with pop-up fan activities, food trucks, live music, and games.
“These pre-game activities have nothing to do with playing football but everything to do with the fan experience,” Hyde said. “It is sunup to sundown programming that requires total coverage from our teams of creators, all equipped with Sony cameras.”
Eventually, it’s time to play football and the production and content creation efforts shift to inside the stadium. Everyone has their assignments: the team runout, the coin toss, kickoff, the third quarter break that sometimes involves a drone show, and more.
Just like each creator in the stadium, every Sony camera has a designated purpose.
On the field and around the venue, 18 Sony HDC-3500 handle game action, FX3 and FX6 wireless cameras roam the stands capturing fan shots and imagery sent to the video boards, and the Alpha models (A9, A1, A7M4, A7R4, A7) focus on still images and social media content.
While each camera has a different design, form factor and sensor size, the common architecture shared by all Sony cameras allows the various imaging technologies to seamlessly coexist to tell a cohesive story.
The Sony cameras used by UT all share a consistent “look” that allows for inter-cutting of images for the screens in the stadium and for broadcast.
“Everything works well together from the handhelds to the broadcast cameras in terms of color profiles and grading,” said Alvarado. “Having the type of cinematic look that’s taken the broadcast world by storm on our video boards is awesome.”
A Hands-on Learning Experience
Fans aren’t the only ones benefitting from Sony’s imaging technology. The small army of student shooters on hand for each game is the result of a new partnership between the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the University’s Moody College of Communications to develop a sports broadcasting curriculum.
“Athletics is involved and invested in this program,” Hyde said. “We’re keeping our production values at the highest level and creating a hands-on environment for our students to get reps on the same gear used by professionals and ultimately give them solid placement opportunities in the workforce.”
With their new broadcast facility and fleet of Sony cameras, Hyde and his team feel well-equipped to continue fighting the battle against people’s couches.
“Influencing our fans’ decisions to come back next year and spend their discretionary income again with us is heavily based on the total experience they had on six or seven Saturdays,” Hyde said. “There were always 100,000 people here, but they weren’t always engaged the way they are today.”
“We have to create FOMO,” he added, “and that comes from producing a show inside the venue that’s so incredible it makes people watching say, “Why wasn’t I there?"