Conference USA

Driving Operational Efficiency Through State-of-the-art Technologies for Broadcast Command Center

Conference USA (C-USA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose 14 member institutions compete in the NCAA’s Division I sports. When C-USA relocated their head office from Irving to Coppell, TX, they collaborated with Diversified to address their evolving on-demand viewing requirements and drive operational efficiencies through state-of-the-art technologies in their broadcast command center, boardroom and meeting rooms.

Given the smaller size of their member schools, many of C-USA games are broadcast online rather than via cable or satellite. Their new command center system enables conference commissioners to stream and monitor games and officiating across the country from a central location. Technical components include:

• Media distribution system to stream multiple games simultaneously from Satellite and ESPN+ over the internet.
• 3 x 3 video wall that is simple to use, reliable and met their very specific needs for viewing games via cable, satellite or internet feed.
• Custom-engineered workstation PC with 8 simultaneous outputs to view multiple games via internet and provide remote keyboard and mouse access.

Diversified also coordinated with JLL, GL Seaman and the client to adapt the technology solutions to their unique architectural requirements. In the C-USA boardroom the display and camera were originally slated for standard wall mounted installation, however, an architectural change required the display and camera to be mounted behind a DIRTT (Doing it right this time) Glass wall. Realizing the glass would impact image quality, the solution involved a redesigned glass wall with a custom camera window and a 3D printed blackout box to house the camera and eliminate light reflections. The new AV system incorporates existing equipment with updated conferencing capabilities through integrated Shure ceiling microphones, a QSC Audio Digital Signal Processor, camera and USB extension for improved Skype video conferencing capabilities. The solution was nominated for the CoreNET CRE Collaborative Excellence award 2019.

As they celebrate their 25th year, C-USA now has the technology solutions to better serve members, student-athletes, fans and supporters in their dynamic conference.