The Dallas Stars Hockey Club added a new look to its promotional and in-arena video content this season, producing a range of material with Sony’s XDCAM HD422 Professional Disc system.
The team’s video production department is using the XDCAM HD PDW-700 camcorder and PDW-HD1500 deck to capture and produce content for on-air broadcast, scoreboard playback and Web streaming.
The cameras are serving as the team’s main electronic field production (EFP) cameras for all video needs this season. Additionally, the XDCAM’s file-based workflow is producing workflow efficiencies, allowing the team’s video department to get content shot, edited, produced and output much faster and in higher quality, said Stars director of marketing operations Chandler Merrit.
For each home and road game, the team’s video crew uses the XDCAM camcorders to shoot promotional segments that air on television between periods. The crew also shoots video spots, consisting of player, coach and Stars executive interviews, for the team’s Web site as well as highlight clips and news from around the NHL.
During home games, the XDCAM HD camcorders roam the arena and feed crowd shots to the scoreboard. The Stars have also produced promotional spots for sponsors, which run on the board during breaks in the action.
According to Jason Walsh, assistant VP of broadcasting and creative marketing, the team has merged its three separate video departments — one each for broadcast, in-arena presentation and the Web site — so the XDCAM content could be distributed as widely as possible among the team’s fans.
The XDCAM system’s ability to function seamlessly between the HD and SD worlds was well-suited for mixing archive footage with newly shot content, he said.