Power CW'er: Austin Minnihan (Cyclones.TV)
Power CW’er Austin Minnihan of Cyclones.tv publishes case study on their experience with CharacterWorks.
“Cyclones.tv is the official television and online sports network of the Iowa State University Athletics Department. Reaching over 500,000 homes in and around the state of Iowa along with more than 10,000 online subscribers (world-wide), Cyclones.tv gains large audiences for its over 100 live sport events and live show broadcasts each year. We broadcast sports ranging from football and men’s and women’s basketball to volleyball, wrestling, soccer, softball, and gymnastics.”
As Power CW’er Austin Minnihan explains, building a sports network from scratch with limited funding is a difficult task. With budget constraints in place, graphics quality is perhaps the aspect that suffers most; pre-designed, non-customizable, static templates have often been the norm. Thanks to CharacterWorks, this is no longer the case. Now, broadcasters throughout the world have access to a professional broadcast graphics package at an affordable price.
“CharacterWorks is a very customizable broadcast CG graphics designer, data parser and integrator, and graphic playout software. After a demo of the software, I quickly determined that CW would be the perfect CG for Cyclones.tv. There was just one issue that made my supervisors and I hesitate slightly.”
In his case study, Austin shares valuable insights obtained from their experience with CharacterWorks so far. The article begins with their initial hesitations in adopting the product, and it goes on to explain several details of their workflow, including integration of real-time data streams from StatCrew and Daktronics units and the role of CW’s built-in score-keeping facilities in supplementing these data streams. Also examined are various facets of broadcast operations involving TriCaster integration and CW’s Grid Controller.
“CharacterWorks has given me the freedom to do what I want and how I want to do it with my broadcast graphics. It is a system that gives me the ability to design my graphics so they follow our brand, and program my data to function in a way that works best for me. I have said it multiple times but the flexibility and customizability is really what sets CharacterWorks apart for me. On top of that, the cost of CW is far lower than many other CG systems of the same caliber.”
