COM Student-Run Terrier Game Broadcasts Provide Valuable Experience

Tucked away in a small cinder block room behind a pair of narrow metal doors underneath the Case Gym bleachers, a dozen crew members are furiously finishing preparations for a live broadcast of a Terrier men’s basketball game.

The camera operators, audio engineers, and producers, BU students all, take their cues from director Caroline Rickert (COM’18). After a quick preshow meeting, they scatter to their assigned posts.

Under the watchful eyes of Chris Cavalieri (COM’81), a College of Communication assistant professor of film and television, and Leo Paré (COM’13), BU Athletics marketing and digital media director, the students are set to begin live coverage of the matchup with LIU Brooklyn.

After a brief technical difficulty the crew navigates on the spot, the four-camera operation moves along at a frenzied pace, delivering Terrier fans live professional coverage.

The production is the result of a partnership begun in 2010 between Athletics and COM that intensified after BU joined the Patriot League in 2013. The league, which had just launched its own network and teamed up with Campus Insiders, an all-digital platform that covers college sports nationwide, provided each of its 10 member schools with the equipment necessary to provide high-definition streaming of home games for a number of sports.

Games air live on the Patriot League Network. BU men’s and women’s home basketball games can also be viewed on BUTV10. And this fall, BU and Campus Insiders launched a partnership to live-stream 32 men’s and women’s ice hockey home contests free of charge through BU Athletics’ Terrier TV.

“Given the competitive nature of athletics, we made it our goal to become a leader among the other schools on the PLN,” Paré says. “In partnering with COM, BU Athletics experienced tremendous growth in the overall production quality across the board, which set us apart from the pack.”