Northwest ISD Navigator Magazine October 2017 | Page 19

was named by Student
Television Network as the
top student-run live show
in the Southwest U.S. for
the second consecutive year.
Students in the program
have also gone on to assist
in the management at
major colleges, such as the
University of Oklahoma, and
even professional teams.
here is the same kind of system
our students would use if they
were to be working out in the
industry.”
Each home football game, a crew
of about a dozen students scurry
around the field or in the press
box, providing audiences with
real-time game information and
footage. A few students man
cameras on the field, while a few
more operate cameras from the press box area. While those
students take video, several more sit at stations to provide
graphics with game stats – such as scores, ball positions and
more – and provide sound ranging from the leveling of an
announcer’s voice to referee communication and more.
If spectators don’t notice anything but the flow of the
game, that’s the point. The operations crew has to operate
at lightning-fast speeds to ensure audio and visual updates
are nearly instantaneous, to the extent that they don’t even
consider there are people working
hard to provide the information.
One of Mr. Rawe’s former students, Emily Erwin, serves
as game-day control room support at Heinz Field for the
Pittsburgh Steelers and University of Pittsburgh in her job
as a control systems specialist intern at Daktronics. Prior to
working at Heinz Field, she worked as a big screen production
assistant at the University of Oklahoma’s football games and
other sporting events. She attributes much of her success to
learning key lessons at Northwest.
“The Creative Media Production Academy introduces kids
to so many different aspects of
media production, and students
can leave with experience in
Jenny Santoscoy, a senior who
It’s just a lot of fun to root for our
many different areas,” she said.
operates audio at football games,
school and learn all these technical “Working Northwest ISD football
said working games for the first
games introduced me to sports
time last year started as a challenge
aspects of production.
production, and specifically
but quickly became exciting.
– Roy Alonzo, student
Daktronics equipment. I’m excited
to see everything Mr. Rawe and the
“It’s really nerve-wracking at
academy kids are able to do with
first, because the audience hears
the new equipment and see where
everything I do – so if I mess up,
these students take their talents after high school.”
it’s heard everywhere,” she said. “Doing the announcer audio
is probably the hardest part, because you never know what
Getting to Ms. Erwin’s level of professional accomplishment
his reaction is beforehand – if he’ll be louder or quieter than
takes great effort, something the academy’s current
normal. You have to pay close attention to what’s going on in
audiovisual students understand. They spend time during
the game, because if a big play happens, he’s more likely to be
class each day preparing for their game-day duties, and they
louder than normal.”
arrive early at the stadium to ensure equipment is ready.
Working the football games also reinforced her passion to
Despite the hard work, the students agreed the experiences
pursue audio as a career, Jenny added.
they’re gaining are preparing them for life after high school.
“I’m really interested in everything audio – the main thing
“We get as much as we can get done in the classroom, and the
I’m interested in is audio for music – so the stadium is great
rest of the work is done in our free time,” said Roy Alonzo, a
training,” she said. “I’d like to look into producing music or
senior producer of the game-day crew. “Like Mr. Rawe has
doing live audio engineering for concerts and things like that.”
told us, pretty much every industry is going to need video at
The hard work of the academy’s students has paid off in many
some point. Having this role here just puts that pride in me
ways. Last year, the academy earned a prestigious national
– it’s just a lot of fun to root for our school and learn all these
honor when NHSTV, Northwest High School’s daily show,
technical aspects of production.” n
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