Welcome back and thanks for tuning in.
You're listening to episode three of On the Jumbotron and today we have a fantastic guest
joining us.
We're thrilled to chat with Brandon Meyer, the Senior Associate Athletics Director for
Marketing and Multimedia at the University of Nebraska.
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Here's your host, Christopher Lee.
Hello and thank you for joining me today right here on the Jumbotron.
My name is Christopher Lee and I'm excited about today's guest.
Brandon Meyer is joining us from the University of Nebraska.
I'm here.
What's going on my man?
Thanks for having me.
Good.
I'm so happy that you're here.
You're at Nebraska and Nebraska is doing some phenomenal things.
But before we get into the phenomenal things, I want to go back to where it all started
for you.
So where did you get this bug that itched though?
I need to be involved in production.
You know, I was in the right place at the right time.
I got a job in high school at a local TV station, one of the smallest markets in the country.
At a small market, you get to do it all.
I got to do weekend sports.
I got to do a lot of camera work.
I did studio camera work.
I cleaned the bathrooms.
I did everything that everything I could there.
And part of our job was to come to Nebraska here and cover the games.
So I got a chance to kind of see what they were doing here and meet some of the early
pioneers of the Jumbotron and big screen industry and quickly figured out like, oh
my gosh, this is something I really want to really want to try.
I really want to do in the future.
So that's kind of where it all started.
I went to school here in Nebraska, got a job in athletics in Husker vision, which was a
new department at the time.
They just put in the very first big screens in college athletics and really got to learn
from a few of the early innovators of this field.
And that innovator is, you know, his name is Jeff Schmall.
And what a guy.
What a guy.
Let's take that little rabbit trail right there because you brought it up.
I was going to go there, but I didn't know we were going to go there this soon.
He is almost like the grandfather of game day production.
Is that an accurate title?
You think he's definitely one of the early pioneers of, of, you know, in stadium production
and running a big screen.
Jeff had a very similar background to me.
He was at a local, he was the sports director at a local station and kind of made this leap
from television news over to athletics and, you know, and really embraced it.
You know, cared a lot about content, knew a lot about content and just, you know, used
a lot of his skills that he had.
He was an all-American tennis player at Nebraska.
So he was a student athlete and, you know, knew a lot about cameras and media and editing
and storytelling from his days at 1011 and made the transition to, to college athletics
because at the time there was, there wasn't anyone nationwide.
I think at the time maybe the Yankees and the Dodgers had big screens and, you know,
it was something that was part of a professional team's repertoire at the time.
And so, you know, he, he kind of sort of had to invent the position as he went and, and
build it as he, as he saw fit.
That's remarkable.
So were you there before the video board or you saw it come up or was the video board
already there?
It was there a year after it was installed, so probably HuskerVision's second year of
existence is when I began working there.
So okay.
So when I was working at Virginia Tech, I saw our big screen, our, our Jumbotron put
up and I know the complications with all of that.
So being only a year in, what some of the things that y'all have to go through and learning
curve?
My gosh, I'll sound like a dinosaur if I begin talking about that.
But there was no LEDs.
The screens were CRT, which was kind of a really early technology where the pixels are
not as big as a pencil tip, but they're about as big as a quarter and the modules were,
you know, about two and a half inches by two and a half inches.
You know, there was no, when I started, there was no nonlinear editing.
We got our Avid system the next year.
So I learned doing A-roll, B-roll edits on M2 and beta machines and, you know, just kind
of learned the hard way on doing some of that stuff.
We weren't like splicing film.
We were state of the art at the time, but again, really learned all of the basics of
video production from lighting to shooting to lenses and different videotape formats
and all that.
So it was a different world.
You had a big deck on one shoulder, it connected to your camera on a big umbilical cord that
always had like 50 pins inside that they would always break.
So every once in a while I get out of bed and I still feel those three quarter inch
and M2 machines that I carried around 20 years ago.
I know what you're talking about.
I mean, I had to do some AV editing.
I remember the big beta decks.
I remember all that stuff.
And yeah, my shoulder.
Yeah, I still feel all that.
I still feel all that.
These guys today got it good, man.
These things are they're a hundred times more powerful and then they only weigh a few pounds.
And they're so light.
They are.
And then people still complain.
I'm like, you don't know.
You have no idea of what it used to be like.
So just working with with Jeff and learning from him and going into game day production,
how did how did y'all prepare for the fans?
Jeff had two mottos.
One's entertain and form inspire.
He said everything we create has to sort of do one of those things.
And all of those things are important.
Like you know, there are some videos and some things that need to entertain.
There are some things that need to inform and and deliver statistics and give folks
more stats.
And you know, there are other things that need to inspire fans to get out of their seat
and and get loud.
The other thing that I think it's so true in today's world where our creatives are they're
working on so many different platform forms from phones to Internet to social media to
big screens.
They're creating content in a hundred different canvases.
You know, but Jeff said content is king.
Like it doesn't matter where it's going to air, but good content will always win out.
And I always say I took that from Jeff and he said sometimes it's going to air on a crappy
little screen and sometimes it's going to air on a big screen in the stadium.
But he's like, if it's good content, it's going to appeal to fans.
And that's so true.
I mean, content, I mean, it's it's something that like another quote of his was, you know,
always make it interesting and give fans a reason to applaud.
I mean, yeah, that that line right there is is so important to understand that you are
creating for the fans.
I mean, as an editor, as a producer, I know that I get heavily involved in making my stuff.
But then I have to remember it's not just for me.
It's for the for the for the behinds that are going to be in the seats.
It's for that person that is coming to the game for the first time that's never been
to a game before.
It's also for the season ticket holder who who has been here, who wants to complain about
things.
It's all about them.
I mean, is that something that you stand true to today?
For sure.
And that's what's different about creating content on these different platforms.
You know, a lot of times the same video you put out on social media, you can't put it
out in the in the, you know, in in venue because there will be a loud roar and they're going
to need a second or a second and a half, you know, to to catch what's what's next.
So that's been something I preach when I reviewed different pieces of content like, oh, that's
a really good line, but you got to let it breathe because the crowd is going to go crazy
and then they're going to come back.
And if you go on, if you go too quickly on to the next thing, they're going to they're
going to miss it.
The other thing is just using graphics like a lot of times, you know, there we have 85,000
people who attend our games like I bet over half of them don't exactly hear exactly what
said.
So we try to enhance what those videos are with graphics.
And so I always got like you got a fancy closed caption it so that people understand what
that line he said was.
And so now it's a different medium for sure when you when you adapt or create content
for for a stadium.
So Jeff understood that and Jeff planned for it and instead he did really.
I mean, he would sit out there and kind of study like, oh, this is how they react to
that.
What traditions have you all kept from his day?
Well, the big one is this conversation with Brandon Meyer continues after this short break
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Now let's get back to the conversation and thanks for joining us on the Jumbotron podcast.
So what traditions have y'all kept from his day?
Well, the big one is the tunnel walk, the team entrance.
That was sort of Jeff's vision from the beginning was to create this video that would reveal
the team walking down the tunnel and the music that the team still walks out to is the music
Jeff chose long ago back in 1994.
It's still the serious music.
And so, you know, that's a that's probably the biggest tradition, you know, that that
stayed true here in Nebraska.
You know, I think the other one is less content.
It's more student based.
Jeff hired a lot of students.
I was fortunate to be one of those students that was hired and learned from them.
And Husker vision still to this day leans on probably got about 50 right now over there
that that help them out.
And we couldn't do anything that we're doing without their help, without their creativity,
without their innovation, you know, and without their hard work.
And that's that's a tradition that I hope stays here at the university for years to
come.
They give a they make a big deal of a student of the year.
You know, they really honor and celebrate those.
And what's really cool to see is some of those kids are having scholarships that are in Jeff's
honor and shot clean is now doing a scholarship.
He took over the department after Jeff left.
And that's it's really neat to see, you know, those guys sort of celebrate and honor the
great student program that has put so many professionals like myself out into the sports
world.
So being a student and now being the person where, you know, where Jeff was sitting and
now where you're sitting, I mean, does that does that at times blow your mind?
I just think it gives me a unique perspective to, you know, there's there's two ways to
think about students.
One, they're not good enough to do, you know, what we need them to do.
And a lot of folks have come across a lot of people that say that they're like, yeah,
this student student can't do this.
Like we need to we need to hire an outside company or we need to bring in freelance professionals.
Or there's some that are like that sort of embrace it and go, oh, no, students have the
passion.
They have the energy.
They have the creativity and the drive to do great work.
And you know, we're going to let them do that.
You know, I would say at the Houston Rockets, like I wanted to to get more of a student
program going and professional sports are a little different.
Like you're not sitting on a campus surrounded by one hundred and fifty kids that that's
their major and this is what they wanted to go into.
So no, it was a little different.
But I would say one constant, though, is this teamwork like this industry.
You can't do much by yourself, to be honest with you.
I mean, it's about coordinating and collaborating and it's about working with a with a team.
And that's that's what I do right now.
More than anything is just try to wrangle all of our content creators and get them to
collaborate, get them to share content, to share ideas, make sure there's not duplication
of effort.
Try to build systems so that they can easily share content.
And so we've got we've got like 50 people that hold a camera at any given time here
working at Nebraska and just making sure that they're all going the right way.
And you know, doing the right thing is is a big part of my job right now.
And then you have 50 50 plus ideas from from creators who are using their phones are almost
like their jumbotrons and that, you know, they you know, they're on there, they're
being creative, they're using and searching TikTok or they're searching other forms of
media to find these things.
What sort of ideas are they bringing to Nebraska to you to be put on the jumbotron?
You know, I think what they're doing is using those techniques and using those things that
they see on TikTok to sort of adapt it to different things we're doing here.
I mean, to be honest, yeah, they're constantly bringing us ideas.
I would say very trendy ideas like, hey, this is a trend I saw on TikTok.
What have we got to Batman's basketball players or women's basketball players to to do this?
And then we create some big screen content with it.
So you know, more than anything, that's it.
I think it's just good for for new ideas.
You know, but they're they're they're constantly sometimes I feel like TikTok is now probably
old and they're on to a new platform that they're out there grabbing ideas.
So what is the best idea that a student has brought to you?
That's a good question.
The best idea that a student has brought to me.
The answer is coming up after this short break.
But for now, check out this in case you missed it.
Replay brought to you by fun 360.
It's an OTJ replay brought to you by fun 360.
Jeff's Jeff had two mottos.
One's entertain and form inspire.
He said everything we create has to sort of do one of those things.
And all of those things are important.
Like, you know, there are some videos and some things that need to entertain.
There are some things that need to inform and and deliver statistics and give folks
more stats.
And, you know, there are other things that need to inspire fans to get out of their seat
and and get loud.
The other thing that I think it's so true in today's world where our creatives are they're
working on so many different platform forms from phones to Internet to social media to
big screens.
They're creating content in a hundred different canvases.
You know, but Jeff said content is king.
Like, it doesn't matter where it's going to air, but good content will always win out.
And I always say I took that from Jeff.
And he said sometimes it's going to air on a crappy little screen and sometimes it's
going to air on a big screen in the stadium.
But he's like, if it's good content, it's going to appeal to the fans.
In case you missed it brought to you by 360 can smile, spin, share.
Now let's get back to the podcast.
When I was at Oklahoma, a student brought some ideas on a on a women's gymnastics video
intro video.
And like it was for women's gymnastics.
And we were kind of like, man, OK, like, let your creativity soar and use, you know, use
all these techniques and cold sparks.
And there's some things I hadn't even heard of before.
Right.
And and the video turned out amazing.
And you know, it's kind of one of those that I look back and go, you know, wow, what a
what a great idea.
You know, you you took a chance and like and it really, really paid off.
So but there was like some glow in the dark paint used and all kinds of just kind of wild
stuff.
And I was like, oh, man, this is not going to work.
But no, it turned out to be one of the best videos we've done that year.
And I think won a bunch of idea awards.
I remember the smoke bomb era.
Yeah.
Where everything was a color smoke bomb.
Yeah, for sure.
Remember that?
Did you all do anything like that?
We did.
Yeah.
That was kind of on that same path.
And then just things got so messy with the camera and you had to be, you know, careful
about where you release the smoke bombs and, you know, facilities.
They got upset with us.
They're messing up the field.
You're messing up the court.
But I'm like, but this shot is going to be so cool.
Yeah.
Heck, just the other day, you know, someone said, why don't we do a drone fly through
the new facility?
You know, here's some ideas like, you know, I don't know if that was completely student
led, but it's like, you know, yeah, just getting different perspective is great.
And we did one.
And I think it has more views than any video we've put out this entire year.
But a continuous fly through of our entire new Osborne athletic complex.
Those videos are pretty hot right now.
Yeah.
Continuous fly through and whoever is driving those drones, man, they are good.
It's one thing I just love about the industry.
Like I'm at a level where I'm sort of overseeing creatives.
But yet, like, I just love that you can't ever master this.
Like, you know, every six months, new technology comes out, new cameras come out.
They're now talking 6K and they're, you know, they're smaller, they're lighter, they're
point of view, they can fly on a drone.
Like, you know, you can't ever just sit back and go like, I've mastered this.
Like the industry will pass you by, you know, so quick.
So I love watching our creative guys push the limits.
And like I cringe, but yet I smile every time they come to me and they say, hey, we need
some extra money.
We've got this idea.
I'm like, you know, but I, but I get it.
Like that's what it takes.
That's one thing that you all at Nebraska are, are good at is pioneering things.
And recently, volleyball day.
I mean, that was a huge, huge success.
Let's, let's talk about that and the planning and you know, the outcome from that.
Oh man, it was.
Only the great outdoors can accommodate a celebration this big.
Women's sports simply has never experienced any number of fans above 91,700 in the history
of the planet.
Now it's competing in front of 90,000 people at Memorial stadium.
It is an amazing story.
It was a great event.
You know, I, I thought it was a crazy idea at first, but I'm like, man, I'm, I'm, I'm
into crazy ideas.
I had no idea that we would get 92,000 people to attend a volleyball event.
I think my, my prediction was like 40 or 50 and keep in mind, like the all time record
was 18 something at the time.
So I'm like 40, like we're going to double the record.
Like that's, that's a big number.
But it was just all ever, ever the stars aligned on everything on the project, to be honest
with you from the announcement and the president and AD and the governor sort of challenging
fans the week we started off the football team was away.
You know, everything aligned the weather, if we'd had the event a week before or a week
after it wouldn't have happened a week before would have been too hot.
It was a hundred degrees in the week after it was raining, but the stars aligned, we
got a beautiful night, the ticket was affordable.
You know, volleyball is, is huge here in Nebraska.
The popularity is big and there's just a lot of people who can't get a ticket.
So this was that opportunity.
You know, we plan to do sort of an end stage show and do a concert afterwards.
And there was even just complications with that.
The NCAA said, you know, like, well, you can't announce the concert then, or then you wouldn't
hold the record.
So we, you know, we sort of put our concert plans on hold until we went on sale.
And you know, 24 hours into the on sale, we had to open up the South end zone and because
we needed more seats.
So it was a crazy event.
You know, I've never been a part of anything like it.
There was a magical, special feeling in the building that night.
It was, it was like you were a part of a world record that you're only going to get to be
a part of it's at some point.
I've never felt like that at any other event.
There were, there were people crying.
It was just, it was special.
So and I just, I'm fortunate that I got to be a part of it.
And you know, I got to learn from it.
It's cool.
Also, my, my boss at the time, I said, like, what's our budget?
And he was like, you know, we really don't have a budget.
So I said, you mean we can do drones and fireworks and like, whatever I can come up with, we
can throw at this.
And he said, sure.
So that's, that's fun for me as well.
Like I, we've, we pulled out every, everything we could to make that event special.
So was that the, was that the first drone show?
That wasn't the first drone show that you guys had done, right?
It was, it was our first time ever doing anything with drones here at Nebraska.
So yeah, and even that aligned like six months before that, a company had come to us that
is just right up the road and said, Hey, we're starting this drone company and we want to
test it out.
So no, it was, it's, but I'll tell you to tribute to our fans.
Our fans are awesome.
They, they came out, they were loud.
They didn't complain that they may have had a bad seat for volleyball.
They just wanted to be part, you know, of this special night.
And man, it was magical.
What special content did y'all have on the jumbotron that night?
You know, Tyler Rice, who always works, he works in our house, Christian department kind
of does a lot with volleyball, did an awesome, you know, kind of tunnel walk video for the,
for the girls.
So that was part of like, Hey, we want to incorporate the football tunnel walk into
the, into volleyball day.
Gosh, there was, there was just a lot of sort of celebratory historical type videos that
night.
And then after the event, we had, we had a whole light show.
We had a drone show.
We had a fireworks show that led into our concert.
It was probably six minutes long.
So but yeah, there was all kinds of really good video content.
And then, you know, all kinds of content to help celebrate that, you know, that milestone.
We, we really tried to, it was five o'clock the night before the event, when we, when
I said like, look, that's our deadline to get the drone folks, the actual number of
tickets that were sold.
So it was, it was cool to get that from our team, get that to the drone folks, they programmed
it, they sort of flew them up in the sky and did the 92003 with the drones.
It was a world record for a women's sporting event at the time.
So and I believe obviously still, still holds the world record.
So let's get into a little bit of the rehearsals because you mentioned that and the structure
that you guys have to do for game day preparation.
Let's let's talk about that for a little while.
I'm a big rehearsal guy, probably learned that in the NBA.
You know, every, every game, if it's a seven o'clock game, we rehearse at four o'clock
with everyone on the team from cheerleaders to mascots to video board operators to audio
operators.
So it's just not call time at four.
That's rehearsal at four.
That's rehearse.
Yeah, we rehearse from about 430 to five.
But you know, it's your, your, you're part of a show, you know, and a lot of times there's
so many different moving parts and elements that that you that you got to rehearse it
and you got to try it.
You got to tweak it.
And then I also think it's just really important in this day and age to let other people's
eyeballs see see things.
We used to have a back in the day we had like a Friday meeting where we watched every piece
of content in the Husker vision studio.
Now we kind of do that on the Dropbox zoom type deal platform where people can watch
it all and give feedback.
But and then again, Friday at one o'clock here, we'll go up and watch every single element
and play it back and monitor audio levels.
And then we'll do it again tomorrow before Rutgers game.
We'll do it again in the morning and run through all the content.
So now I mean, man, rehearsing is is important.
It's key.
We've got skydivers in tomorrow.
We're rehearsing with them here at noon today.
So but they won't actually are they going to rehearse jumping?
They'll do a practice jump.
Yep.
They'll all do a practice jump figure out exactly where they want to land, how they
want to hit the ground, who's going to carry what flag.
So no, man, I'm a big practice makes perfect like rehearse it if and I also don't like
to play back anything that I get sort of last minute either, you know, I'm like, I want
to see it on the big screen.
I want to hear it.
I want to make sure the playback is fine once or twice before we ever run it in our venues.
And that's why you guys are so successful at Nebraska, because just like with Jeff,
attention to detail.
You want to know how things are going to be.
You want to know how it's going to sound in the arena.
You want to know how it's going to sound in Memorial Stadium.
You want to know.
So there's you're not leaving anything up to chance.
Those that don't rehearse, those that don't practice, you're leaving yourself open to
have disaster.
Virginia Tech has a mantra called a one day vacation.
And that's what they want to do with their with their fans that come in.
They want to have them relaxed.
They want to have them, you know, enjoy the game.
And they also want them to be entertained.
And it's just if you don't rehearse, if you don't practice, if you don't know that this
video is going to cut out at this point and then the cheerleaders need to do what they
need to do, you're going to be you're going to have downtime and you don't want to have
downtime at a game, especially if the football team is needing their fans to be, you know,
loud and proud.
You don't want to have downtime.
So true.
By the way, Virginia Tech is on one of my it's my one of my bucket lists that I've yet
to see a game there.
You got to get to.
I've got a good friend, Brandon Hall, who just just went back to Virginia Tech.
So I'm going to lean on him one of these days.
But that's one of the parts of my job that I love is just going around and seeing what
everybody else does and seeing how they do it and and stealing their ideas as well.
Right.
That's right.
I mean, I don't know if it's it's if it's stealing or if it's like it's a what was
it the rip off?
What was that?
Brad rip off and duplicate, rip off and duplicate.
Yeah.
R&D.
You're not really stealing.
You're just ripping off and duplicating.
How is it?
How has it been working with the new coach, Matt Ruhl?
It's been great.
I mean, Matt cares about every piece of his program from recruiting to nutrition to to
what music is being played and how we're how we're getting the crowd going.
We had a meeting with Matt this summer.
And, you know, Matt was like, hey, you guys can impact our game.
And here's what I'd like to see.
And we had really good dialogue about music and tempo and videos and timing and all that.
So, man, to have a head coach, it's like engaged in what we're doing and, you know, and gives
us constant feedback on what we're doing.
Has been awesome.
And Matt's the first one to say, man, I love that.
Or or say, you know, hey, that didn't hit.
You know, let's let's try something different.
So that to be honest with you, that's what makes our jobs like, you know, that's what
fuels us.
That's what makes our job so much fun is, you know, kind of seeing their reaction to
different things.
So that's special for not only me, but our entire crew to know that that that's engaged
and is is on our team.
That's great to have him on your team.
I mean, are your kids Brady and Bailey, are they on the team or are they criticizing,
you know, what dad is doing or daddy could have done this better or how are they how
are they are they judgmental?
Because I know my kids are judgmental on things that I do.
My wife, my kids, all of them, man, they give me feedback all the time.
So but I love that they they get to attend the games like we did.
We did a light show.
We did a drone show and my family sits in their seats where they couldn't see the drone
shows kind of behind them.
So they were like, man, this stinks like we want to see the the drone show, dad.
So the other day we had to I said, well, all right, we'll come down to this spot at this
time so you guys can get the full the full effect.
But no, they we I talk about different ideas with them all the time.
Like I have a freshman in high school and you talk about Tick Tock and trendy, you know,
I'm like, hey, what do you think of this idea?
So we started kind of a video this year with Will Compton, where Will comes on right before
kickoff and sort of does a WWE style hype video.
And I kind of threw that idea by my son and was like, he was like, yeah, I think that
would be great, dad.
Here, but try this.
So he usually pushes the limit a lot more than I'm comfortable with.
But now it's good having their having their feedback.
And it makes me happy to see that they're engaged and what dad's doing and give me music
ideas and keep me young.
So let's talk about the one idea that didn't work, because everybody has those those those
times where they play a video or they have an idea and they think it's going to work
in their in their arena stadium.
And it doesn't do you have a story like that?
Um, I have we've got many videos that just probably never worked.
But what I think is probably more important is just the timing of where those videos played.
You know, that's what I've learned over the years.
Like, if the video is bad, I'm not going to run it.
But if the video plays at the wrong time, then the video may not be bad.
But the video, you know, probably didn't go over as well as we wanted to.
And so timing is just timing is just critical.
We try to keep some of our lighter videos like, you know, feel like there's a good menu
for big screen production.
Like you got to have an interactive feature.
You got to have sort of a good music video.
You got to have a shuffle or some some sort of game that your fans can play along with.
You got to have some hype videos.
But if if it's late in the game in the fourth quarter and I'm running a shuffle like shuffle
is probably not going to go over that well.
Right.
So a lot of them just come down to execution, man.
A lot of the videos that are very dialogue heavy and that are maybe hard for people to
understand or, you know, they don't they don't go over that well.
If it's if it's two student athletes and there's no caption, there's no text on what they're
saying back and forth, then, you know, it'll get a golf clap.
And that's I love that about this industry.
Like we don't have to wait for YouTube views in order to see like, did this video perform
well or did people like it?
Did they comment like, you know, instantly when you play something, if it's good or bad.
That is so true, especially with, you know, ninety two thousand people right there looking
at the video.
You know if it's good or bad.
Yeah, for sure.
Because you're going to get a big roar or you're going to get that.
I've been doing this so long.
I'm experienced enough to know, man, is this a I always say like, is this a turd?
If it is like I can I can spot them pretty easily and go, OK, like, do we have to play
this?
If we do, then we're moving into a to a spot where it won't impact our our game, our fans
and even like the the heartwarming videos.
You have to play in those.
Definitely.
You're just right, because if if the mood is up and you play something like that, you
know, if it's like, you know, unfortunate somebody is going through some type of medical
illness or whatever that can kill the mood in the stadium.
So you have to realize where, you know, you mentioned placement, where that video needs
to be, you know, where things are going to lift up and keep the momentum going.
One hundred percent.
And I would say if there's probably one thing in Nebraska we've done that we could do more
is place those in different spots like we.
We have a lot of presentations and we have a lot of honor, you know, that we honor people
during the game.
And you're right.
Sometimes they can they can take the wind out of the out of the crowd.
And so now it please me, you're right, is is so important.
You mentioned earlier the the the light show that you all do.
Yeah, take me through that.
I'll watch some videos on there and the LEDs, the lights and how everything goes red.
It's it's awesome.
How did that come about?
First, I want to give credit where credit to do.
There's a guy on the Husker Vision staff, Kevin Raguse, who can has learned to program
our stadium lights.
So first and foremost, like that's without him being able to write code in order to control
each individual musco LED light in the stadium.
Like we we can't we can do that.
So it starts with Kevin.
We're going to stop right now.
We're just going to do this for Kevin.
Yes, for sure.
All right.
Thank you, Kevin.
All right.
You can continue.
He's amazing.
And he does it quick to like he can do this within a day or two days.
But Kevin programs the lights.
And then we just add all of these layers to that.
You pick the music, kind of pick a video or a track.
Kevin programs it to that.
We share that with our pyro guys on the field that do the light towers.
We share that with spirit.
Say how can you get involved?
Like, you know, we share it with our show light guys who may bring in spotlights.
We share with our drone guys.
They sort of program, you know, to that as well.
And then obviously all of the LED boards in the stadium were fortunate.
We have a ton of them.
And when you do different colors on them, they give off some some cool light.
Our pyro guys do a really good job of shooting up sort of ends and, you know, off of our
scoreboard.
So a total, total team effort for our light show.
But again, like we talked about earlier, rehearsing, sharing, you know, your vision, your your
sort of music, your track, and then changing it up all the time and like sitting down with
our team saying, OK, like this is the 400 sellout.
Like, how do we you know, how do we make this one better than the last one?
But yet how do we have a little piece of thunderstruck?
Because you know, that's become really popular with our fans.
So now I love I'm sure my team doesn't love it, but I love getting in there and throwing
out crazy ideas for our fourth quarter light show and then kind of just love watching our
fans react.
Well, that's what it's all about.
It's about experimenting.
Yeah, it's about being inspired.
And it's also about, you know, just taking a chance.
Yeah, 100 percent.
That's what production is all about.
I mean, it's all about the almost like a call and response.
You know, I put this out here.
Let me see how you're going to respond back to it.
And I mean, and that's why I love production.
That's why I love all things video production with, you know, the from the jumbotron all
the way down to the field, all the way down to, you know, these things right here, which
are little jumbotrons.
I mean, yeah, right.
You mentioned earlier, like every six months is going to be something new.
So it's it's always pushing the envelope of what we can do and what we can create and
what we can become.
Yeah.
My staff brought me back these like bracelets from a Taylor Swift concert.
Right.
And they're like, let's do this.
Like, that's a that's a new that's another element.
That's a that's a new element.
I saw one of those at a at a presidential rally.
I went to a concert.
I went to a concert recently and I saw the bracelet and put it on.
And then it just started going off.
It scared me for half a second.
You're always thinking and pushing the envelope and then what the drone shows and what they're
doing.
I mean, I can I can.
It's amazing.
My mind kind of explodes at times with with what is going to happen next.
I mean, with with A.I., with A.R., V.R.
I mean, are you all experiencing any of that right now?
A little bit.
I'm working on an idea.
I don't want to share yet, but I'm working on something that I'm going to test.
What's great about the university is I can test it in some of our smaller Olympic sports
and we're going to test it.
And if it goes well, we'll definitely adapt it to football.
So you asked me earlier something you said, like what missed?
You know, we last year spent forty thousand dollars and brought in lasers like, you know,
and I'll be honest with you, like they sort of missed.
You needed you need smoke and you need you need the atmosphere in order to really make
the lasers show up.
But like, but at least I know now.
So we did some specific designs out on the football field during the light show.
So we're always experimenting with with things.
Sometimes they hit, sometimes they they miss.
Sometimes you need to adapt them a little bit.
But we are projecting on the field doing some laser projecting on the field.
We did it last year and that worked out.
But some of the other lasers we put up along every every 10 yards along the right in front
of the fans.
They went up and it was very concert idea and it didn't show up that well.
So it needed more like smoke.
Right.
And I'm like, well, if I fill the I fill the entire bowl with smoke and then they come
out of the TV break, then I'm going to be in trouble.
Right.
Yeah.
How do you get rid of that smoke once you just put it in to do something real cool on
the floor?
How do you get it out real fast?
That would be challenging.
But you guys are going to figure it out.
I'm pretty sure of that.
We'll try.
We'll try anything once.
You're you've been to idea conference.
It's like I've been to the idea conference.
How has that enriched your your perception of your job and what you do?
Man, it's just an amazing community of really good people who care about the industry and
care about each other and help each other and build each other up, share ideas with
each other.
And really, man, a rising tide like, you know, rises all boats.
Like I've watched everyone that attends idea over the I think I went to my first idea conference
in 1998, but I've watched just this industry grow and evolve and and, you know, and I love
it.
It's so much fun to.
I had a boss in Houston say like, what is this idea boondoggle you're going on?
And he challenged me.
He's like, write a write a page review of what you learned.
And I was like, oh, I like that.
And I go, trust me, I have no problem writing a page about what I learned at the idea conference.
Because like we just talked about, there's, you know, this industry is always evolving.
And even on the non the engineering type side, like we're now into IP routers and IP video
systems and and, you know, things are changing quickly.
And I want to be knowledgeable and know what's going on in the industry in order to serve
the folks that report to me and the departments that report to me in the best way.
So no man, ideas great, but more than anything, it's, it's great connecting with with friends
and learning from them and networking with them.
So there, some of the guys there that I met are the reason that I'm sitting here right
now.
They they I went to Houston and I honestly I was fresh out of college.
I didn't know anything.
And I started my Ed at Miami Heat.
I met Sergio and the bulls and I started like pounding them with questions.
And they've, they've been a wealth of knowledge for me and helped me through every little
hurdle that that I've had.
So and I wouldn't have met him without idea.
Now, every conference that I've gone to, I've always come back with more fire, more inspiration
and just more knowledge and business cards and contacts from different people, you know,
to and also challenging myself to take the information back to where I was and to make
things better.
And that that that whole conference is just awesome for that.
I love the competitiveness as well.
Like I want to compete for the best big screen.
I want to win the GMA, you know, like I I told my guys the other day, like I'm tired
of Auburn winning every year.
Like let's step up our game.
Like we, you know, we have good people, we have good ideas, like let's let's elevate.
The problem is like every school is is elevating and it's very competitive.
But I love that.
I love that about the conference is very competitive.
And I mean, and yeah, Auburn does win a lot.
I think the Miami Heat win a lot.
I'm trying to think of who else the Houston Rockets win a lot.
Yeah, some of the hockey stuff is is awesome.
I love I love hockey because there's like so much time in between, you know, intermissions
there to do cool things.
So yeah, no, I love idea.
I think this year is in Boston and I've personally never been to Boston.
So I'm really looking forward to to go in there.
Brandon, I just appreciate your time.
I appreciate you making putting me on your schedule to be able to talk to me about game
day production, to talk to me about how you structure things and how you go about building
teams and and the importance of using students and not always, you know, professionals, because
those students will become the professionals just like yourself.
It's my pleasure.
Thanks for thanks for doing this.
It'll it's going to be fun to follow some of these podcasts.
So it is.
And I mean, the idea of on the jumbotron just came to me one day.
And I mean, I was doing a gig at a local school and I just kept people just react to seeing
themselves on the jumbotron.
And I was like, but they have no idea the behind the scenes of what it takes.
And I was like, I understand the time, the dedication, the hours, the, you know, the
creativity that you need to do this and to always keep it fresh.
And then the other cool thing about it is we get to represent our school.
We get to represent the places where we got our where we got our pieces of paper, our
diploma, our degrees, our whatever.
We get to represent them and tell the story.
That is the other thing.
We're telling a story in real time that's bringing a legacy to what we're doing.
We're documenting things and we're documenting the teams and everything.
I mean, the drone show will be talked about for years.
Volleyball Day will be talked about for years.
And that's what it's all about.
It's about educating, creating, entertaining and setting memories for people that that
they can that they can go back and draw from.
They may remember a score.
They may remember a drive, but they're also going to remember them seeing themselves
on the jumbotron.
They walk away with those memories more than they do the game.
I always have parents tell me like they know their their son or daughter talks about being
held up for the Simba cam more than they or or seeing the mascot more than they did the
winning touchdown.
And those are cool.
Well, again, my friend, I thank you for your time.
I thank you for being on this podcast and keep being creative.
Keep being pioneering.
I cannot wait for the idea that you didn't tell me.
I thought we had a scoop.
I thought we had a scoop, but I cannot wait to see what's going to happen.
Because I when the drone show went up, I mean, even Travis Hunter was talking about it.
Nebraska is a good team and they beat us.
Fair and square.
And we just got to come out and do better.
We got to play Colorado football and that's not Colorado football.
No discredit to the team, good team.
They play a good ball.
But I want to give more credit to the fan base and the way they got the stadium set
up.
They get you here from the time you step foot out your locker room to the time you get to
the field.
Our environment was top 10.
Yeah, I got to give it to them.
I was top 10.
The little light show in the fourth quarter.
That was good too.
I ain't even gonna lie.
That was a good little show, boy.
That fans was loud on third down when you break the huddle, when you get in the huddle.
I can't even think to myself how loud it was.
Yeah, shout out Nebraska.
That was fun.
That was really cool.
I was like, man, Coach Pram is watching the drones.
So that was good.
That was one of my top 10 moments just watching him.
I'm like, man, he's not coaching.
He's just looking around enjoying it.
So that was cool.
He's like, why didn't I think of the drones?
Why didn't I get drones on the Colorado?
But yeah, you guys are just excellent at what you're doing.
Thank you, man.
We got a great team here.
We really do.
It's not me.
I just, I'm not going to lie.
I just try to keep it all going in one direction, but we got an awesome team here and it's
fun.
Maybe we can do a part two one day where we're sitting and talking to the team.
Let's do it.
The people that are being creative and pulling everything together.
We have so many good creatives and good people here that you should do a little zoom call
with four or five of them.
And they know a lot more than I do.
We'll set that up.
We'll definitely set that up.
But again, thank you guys for being on the podcast.
We'll talk to you another time.
See you, man.
Thanks for watching another episode of On the Jumbotron Podcast with host Christopher Lee.
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Until next time, stay creative and humble and always entertain, inform and inspire.