The ROSCO system allows students at Oklahoma State University to gain hands-on experience producing live broadcasts of athletic events. ROSCO is a mobile broadcast control room that students operate to produce video and replay content for displays at venues like the basketball and wrestling arenas. By taking control of the production process themselves, rather than just observing professionals, students learn valuable skills that prepare them for careers in sports broadcasting. The ROSCO experience has helped many graduates find jobs in the competitive broadcast industry.

1. The Sounds
of Learning
Producing a live athletic ‘show’
not as easy as it sounds
PHOTOS / GARY LAWSON
Gideon Thompson, a 2010 broadcast journalism
and sports media graduate, works with Cal Garbe,
a sports journalism and broadcast production senior,
on the OSU Sports Media Club’s two EVS replay
machines during a Cowgirl basketball game.
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2. If you’ve attended
a Cowgirl Basketball
game or a Cowboy
Wrestling match
this season, you’re
undoubtedly familiar
with the sounds of
Gallagher-Iba Arena.
There’s the roar of
the crowd, the high-
powered music from the
band and the sounds of
the athletes pounding
the court or the mat.
But for a few
students attending the
events, the sounds are
completely different.
“Ready two — take.
Ready blue, ready ‘S.’
Effects to ‘S.’ Roll blue
— dissolve.”
These are the
direction cues for a
video replay making
its way from a camera
on the arena’s historic
floor to a machine in the
basement then up into
the rafters and onto the
video board.
These are the sounds
of learning.
For the past two seasons, students
from the Sports Media Club in the School
of Media and Strategic Communications
have been in charge of producing the
“show,” as it’s called, for the video boards
and online streams of Cowboy Wrestling
and Stillwater Pioneer Football. This
season, they also began producing for
Cowgirl Basketball.
“We call it ROSCO,” says Marc Krein,
associate professor of advanced video
production and sports media production.
“I’ve built four ROSCO’s in my career. I’ve
always felt that if you can give a system a
meaningful and catchy name, people will
remember the name and what it is.”
ROSCO has transformed the way
broadcast students at OSU are learning
the skills for their major and preparing
themselves for a competitive job market.
ROSCO stands for “Remote OSU
Streaming Control Operation.” In
layman’s terms, it’s a master control room
for a television studio on wheels, and with
it, the school is rolling into broadcast
education history.
“There are a couple of other institu-
tions that educate broadcast students
at live athletic events, but they bring
in professionals to run the bulk of the
systems,” Krein says. “These systems are
typically fixed facilities. ROSCO is mobile,
which enables us to work a wider variety
of events.
“Most of our crew is made up of
students from the Sports Media Club.”
Until now, fans didn’t know they
were watching a live preview of student
demo reels on the jumbotron. But from
the cameras and the video switcher
to the replay machines and the audio
board, most of the action produced for
the jumbotron demonstrates the talent
budding in the halls of the Paul Miller
Journalism and Broadcasting Building.
“I’ve done everything ROSCO has to
offer, but I think running the EVS replay
machine has to be the most interesting,”
says Melinda Thompson, a recent OSU
graduate who became involved with
ROSCO her senior year.
“There’s just so much to learn and
so much you can do with one of those
machines. It’s a lot of fun.”
(continues on next page)
Above: Danilynn Welniak, a broadcast journalism and sports media senior, operates the
high camera located on the concourse level of Gallagher-Iba Arena during a Cowgirl
basketball game. Below: Melinda Thompson, a 2010 broadcast journalism and sports
media graduate, operates the video switcher used to control the cameras and replay
machines feeding the Gallagher-Iba Arena jumbotron.
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3. ROSCO’s two EVS machines, or
“Elvises” as they’re nicknamed, are identi-
cal to the ones used in multimillion-dollar
production trucks for broadcasters like
ESPN, ABC and FOX. Each machine
can record two live feeds from cameras
and instantly rewind the feeds for replays
while continuing to record, not unlike a
household DVR.
But becoming a good EVS operator
requires hours of training and experience
on these machines. While other students
across the country are standing by watch-
ing the professionals, OSU students are
taking the controls night after night.
“Any initiative that brings students
into contact with real-life professional
situations is a unique educational experi-
ence,” says Derina Holtzhausen, director
of the School of Media and Strategic
Communications. “What ROSCO does is
to introduce students to the use of complex
and advanced technology in the field.”
Thompson says ROSCO has enhanced
her broadcast education and knowledge
more than she could have imagined. “It’s
the best way to learn because you’re not
watching someone else do it. You’re out
there doing everything yourself.”
That experience is paying off for grad-
uates who know all too well the difficulties
of starting out in the broadcast business.
“The experience not only educates,
but it’s also the reason the TV networks
contact us for qualified production
assistance from our students,” Krein
says. “We’ve had students working the
Super Bowl, Oklahoma City Thunder
games, OSU and OU events, and numer-
ous other productions.”
In total, Krein says it took one year
to develop the plan for ROSCO and two
years to secure all the funding and grants
before the project became a reality.
Building the system required quite a bit
of television engineering experience, Krein
says, which was provided in part by the
OSU Institute of Teaching and Learning
Excellence and video production manager
Tim Cushing.
Students also helped develop the
plan for ROSCO — a task that fell upon
graduate teaching assistant Jayson Evans
and undergraduate Jeremy Davis. Davis
graduated from the school in 2007 and
now works for OSU Communications as
a videographer. He became involved with
the Sports Media Club during his fresh-
man year, and he never left.
“As an OSU graduate and current
OSU employee, it’s great to see so many
students have the opportunity to get
“More than just setting up cables and
cameras, I’ve learned about the conversations
and problems encountered during a remote
production.” – Ryan Wycoff, senior
Ryan Wycoff, a broadcast journalism
and sports media senior, operates a floor
camera during a Cowboy wrestling match.
4 S PRING 20 11

4. To learn more about ROSCO and the School of Media and Strategic Communication’s Sports
Media Club, visit smc.okstate.edu.
Tyler Thomason, a sports media and
broadcast production senior, operates the
wireless camera during a Stillwater High
School football game at Pioneer Stadium.
real-world broadcast experience before
they graduate,” Davis says. “As a student,
I was always looking for ways to get
involved and learn about live broadcasts
because it’s not something you can fully
understand from a book or watching it.
“Being able to give students the ability
to experience the speed and chaos of live
broadcasts before they leave college is a
huge benefit, and I’m grateful that I’ve
been able to give back in a small way,”
says Davis, who serves as the engineer for
ROSCO. He helps set up equipment before
each show and troubleshoot problems that
can and often do arise. Besides events at
Gallagher-Iba Arena and Pioneer Stadium,
ROSCO also produced live streams for
OSU softball and soccer, Spring Sing and
Homecoming’s Sea of Orange Parade.
“ROSCO allows me to gain experi-
ence that students at many other schools
won’t ever have the chance to get,” says
Ryan Wycoff, a broadcast journalism and
sports media senior who runs cameras
for ROSCO. “More than just setting up
cables and cameras, I’ve learned about
the conversations and problems that are
encountered during a remote production.”
Anyone involved with ROSCO will
tell you there were plenty of problems
in the beginning. Gallagher-Iba Arena,
now more than 10 years removed from
its renovation, was not built to serve two
production crews using two different
sets of equipment. It took many events
and handoffs between ROSCO and Cox
Communications, which is contracted
for Cowboy Basketball, before a “perfect
show” was achieved.
“We are proud to have students in a
live lab during our events,” says Amy
Weeks, associate athletic director, who
served as coordinator between OSU
Athletics and ROSCO. “They have done
a great job, and the end results on the
boards have been very professional.”
In the future, Krein hopes to upgrade
ROSCO to high definition and also
upgrade the camera lenses used with the
system. He also hopes to branch out and
produce more non-sporting events such as
debates, lectures and concerts.
That diversity will further prepare
students for life outside of the classroom.
“Every event is different — the set up,
the problems, the outcome,” Thompson
says. “It keeps it interesting.
“The practical experience from
ROSCO prepared me for what it would be
like to work in a professional environment
and gave me the skills to succeed,” she
says. “I would not be where I am today
without what I gained from ROSCO.” O
Chase Carter
CourtesyPhoto
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