"New Remarkable Video Display At Cy-Fair FCU Stadium"

There is one common phrase used when it comes to Texas, "everything is bigger in Texas". And that's the honest truth! I like to think when the Berry Center was first being built, they kept that phrase in mind. The community members who served on the 2001 Bond Steering Committee conceived the idea of this facility and the project was approved by 84.8% of district voters. Now we have this wonderful facility that is dedicated to not only the events of Cy-Fair Independent School district but many other outside clients. One of the busiest times of year for us is football season.  

I don't remember high school football being this big back home in Connecticut or Massachusetts. But I absolutely love football season here in this district. Back in April, the week of the 18th. We had one of the worst floods Northwest Houston had seen in over some years. Leaving Pridgeon stadium (one of 2 stadiums owned by Cy-Fair) underwater. Over the summer construction has been ongoing. From new turf to the reconstruction of the press box and a new scoreboard. The Berry Center did not have as much damage from the flood but some major upgrades took place during the summer. There was a small window of opportunity for construction and installations, about 3 to 4 months to complete everything and be fully up and running by August 26th which kicked off football season. Pridgeon stadium is still about a month out from completion. All games will be housed at the Berry Center where the stadium is now Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union Stadium until further notice.   

Pridgeon Stadium - Photo Credit Cy-Fair Magazine (IG:@cyfairmagazine)

Last Friday was opening night, I was so excited. The energy before this game was unlike any other. I arrived at about 1 o'clock for a department training. One of the major upgrades that took place at the Cy-Fair FCD stadium (outside of the name change) was the new Daktronics video display. It's roughly 32 ft' high and 43 ft' wide'. The content can be displayed a few different ways. This year our main content layout houses our sponsor ad's, the score, a section for us to incorporate school logos, district ad's, videos, and whatever else is on our content calendar for game nights. Our full-screen layout has been dictated to show instant replays, touchdown graphics and things of that nature. We have a content operator that switches between content screens using Daktronics show control system. This is a new piece to the puzzle this year.   

Photo Credit: Manjot Jawa (IG:@manjotjawa) 

I was in the director's seat. Communication between the content op and I was imperative to our success as a team. We are not in a final state with all the new product just yet, so I was using our old setup to run the show with the TriCaster. We run 3 cameras (field cam, porch cam and a roamer), game opening videos with team logo's etc, district content (ad's and video from the CFISD cinemas crew), and ad's from our sponsors throughout the game. All while staying aligned with University Interscholastic League (UIL) rules and regulations. In the director's seat, I had another person on side of me in charge of recording the footage being sent to them for instant replays. As the director, you have to communicate with all 3 camera ops, content op, the person assigned to replay and the sound tech. We do that via wired and wireless Clear-Com systems that are ran through our entire press box area and down on the field.   

Friday night it was all eyes on our AV team. We had our Superintendents watching from the press box, we had a packed stadium full of students, friends, and family ready to kick off the season, and we had to deliver quality through the learning curve of a new operating system. With a few minor hiccups, we managed to reach success. We were able to create an awesome experience for the players, students and their families. They all went crazy showing their school spirit when they saw themselves up on the big screen. And that's what it's about, creating great experiences. Communication was definitely a key factor that brought us to success and I'm happy to be a part of it all. Each game we'll continue to grow stronger as a team and in our new gear. Stay tuned as I continue to share all the fun from behind the scenes of Texas high school football in CFISD.