Four Cameras and Instant Replay: Inside Saturday's BYU Broadcast

The broadcast crew is going bigger than ever this Saturday. When the Vikings' 1st XV takes on BYU at 1:00 PM at the deWilde Rugby & Polo Fields in Ferndale, the livestream will run on four cameras, with Noah Wright and Tony Ridnell on the call and a replay system the program built itself.

$1,200 raised toward $2,500

Thank you, alumni and friends. The Livestream Campaign has raised $1,200 of its $2,500 goal, nearly half, with $1,300 still to go. Every gift goes toward the cables, converters and power the crew needs to broadcast from any field.

Four angles, one switcher

All four cameras feed a Blackmagic ATEM Mini switcher. Evan Laman, WWU Men's Rugby Creative Director, will produce the broadcast and choose which angle goes out live. Broadcast director George Jelley, a current player, will work a second laptop with all four angles in front of him.

Replay Works: instant replay, built in-house

The NBA, the NFL and Major League Rugby all run instant replay. George has wanted the same for Western since he arrived three years ago. The professional option, a TriCaster like the one Western uses for its basketball and volleyball broadcasts, costs tens of thousands of dollars and needs a trained technician at the controls.

"I really wanted it to be a capability that we were able to do with a limited and not as knowledgeable staff. Our staff for this weekend is going to be me and Evan Laman."

So George built one. Working with Claude, an AI coding assistant, he created Replay Works, a replay system that runs in a web browser. It can clip any of the four camera angles, not just the one that's live at that moment. Each clip gets a name, such as a try in the corner against a particular opponent, so the crew can find it later and build highlight recaps for Instagram without scrubbing through 80 minutes of match video.

On match day, George will pick each clip and set up the replay on his laptop, then send it to Evan's laptop, where it plays automatically.

"Laman doesn't even have to do anything. It's a really sweet setup."

The idea took shape during planning in early fall, when the program talked through the sponsorship spots it could offer. One of the biggest is a replay sponsor, so Replay Works can help pay for the broadcast too. To ask about sponsoring replays, contact us.

"It's something that's going to take our level beyond student production, to something where we can really say Western set the standard."

George is the first to admit live broadcasts don't always go to plan:

"There's so much that can go wrong between now and Saturday. You never know what's going to happen. But I'm really, really excited to put this together, and I think it's going to be wicked."

Match day: Saturday, November 14

deWilde Rugby & Polo Fields, Ferndale, Washington

• 10:00 AM: Women vs. Washington State University
• 11:00 AM: Men's 3rd XV vs. University of Washington
• 1:00 PM: Men's 1st XV vs. BYU, live on four cameras with Noah Wright and Tony Ridnell on the call
• 2:45 PM: Men's 2nd XV vs. Central Washington University

Can't make it to Ferndale? Watch live at wwurugby.org/watch.

Help the crew reach $2,500

1. Go to the donation page: wwurugby.org/alumni
2. Designate your gift to the Livestream Campaign so it goes directly to the broadcast.
3. Give any amount. Every gift moves the crew closer to $2,500.

See you Saturday. Go Vikings!

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