Case study: University of Texas: A new era of Longhorn live production
A big opportunity and a broadcast challenge
As the University of Texas (UT) at Austin prepared for its highly anticipated move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC), it faced both new challenges and opportunities.
The University of Texas at Austin is the No. 1 public university in Texas and a top-40 world university. At the core of UT Austin’s sports scene is the football team, the Texas Longhorns, who play at the iconic Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Joining one of the most competitive and high-profile collegiate conferences required more than just a new patch on their jerseys — it demanded a complete transformation of their broadcast approach.
Meeting the SEC standard
The rigorous SEC/ESPN standards meant that UT Austin needed a world-class production hub that students could still learn on.
Historically, the university outsourced its productions, but the quality no longer aligned with evolving media expectations. Transitioning to the SEC meant they needed to bring productions in-house, retire the Longhorn Network, and meet the rigorous SEC/ESPN broadcast standards.
Their mission: build a cutting-edge production hub capable of handling increased broadcast demands, delivering top-tier content to fans, and keeping pace with the ever-evolving world of live sports production—all while providing students with hands-on production experience.
“Leading up to joining the SEC, it was clear that we needed to level up our live production.”
Caten HydeSr. Associate AD, Creative & Video, Texas Athletics
Texas Studios
UT Athletics turned to its trusted integration partner, Diversified, to reimagine and rebuild its broadcast infrastructure from the ground up.
Together with Diversified, UT began building Texas Studios — a cutting-edge broadcast facility centered on an ST-2110 IP architecture and flexible control room design.
Ross Video provided a proven ST-2110 infrastructure, delivering scalable technology with a common platform tailored to each control room’s needs. This integrated workflow improved usability, efficiency, and production quality, ensuring seamless operations across all venues.
With Ross’ expertise and reliable solutions, Texas successfully modernized its production environment, meeting the evolving demands of college athletics while providing a world-class viewing experience for fans and stakeholders.
At the heart of the build:
• Ultrix and Ultrix Acuity switchers provide a powerful hybrid routing and switching solution
• XPression graphics bring storytelling flexibility and real-time visuals to life
• openGear infrastructure streamlines signal management
Everything You Need to Connect With Your Audience Every day, Ross powers live productions for billions of viewers. With the industry’s widest range of high-impact, high-efficiency solutions and services, Ross helps all manner of organizations create and share compelling content, from leading broadcasters to houses of worship, stadiums, corporations, education and governments. With approximately 1300 team members around the world and manufacturing facilities in Ontario and Austria and the most reliable service in the industry, we are here to turn your ideas, plans and strategies into reality.
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