Emporia High School’s E-Vision crew was busy with a flurry of activity during Thursday night’s Glacier’s Edge basketball tournament as they worked to broadcast the game live on Cable Channel 8.
The E-Vision crew broadcasts both basketball games and a school broadcast, called “The Lineup.” From the cameras to the commentary, the E-Vision crew does it all. Thursday’s game was no exception. Crew call was at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and tip off was scheduled for 7 p.m. After downing a few pieces of pizza, the crew met for a short briefing by Technical Director Dylan Jacob, senior, and then dispersed to man down their various stations.
All of the students who help out with E-Vision are a part of the Advanced Video Broadcasting class, said Corey Wiltz, staff adviser and instructor in the technical education department.
E-Vision has been around for a few years, but this is the first year that E-Vision has aired live during the games, Wiltz said.
Wiltz said there are lots of benefits to the hands-on application of E-Vision.
“Probably one of the major things they (students) get out of it is teamwork,” Wiltz said. “And I get some enjoyment out of other people seeing what they’ve been doing. It’s a real-world application of what they’ve been trained to do.”
Thursday night, Wiltz wore more than one hat. He was adviser, executive director and expert at tie-tying. He tied both commentators ties as everybody was rushing around trying to get ready for the game.
“I wear many hats,” Wiltz said, with a chuckle as he was tying a tie.
Derek Ball, 18, senior, is one of the play-by-play commentators. He enjoys what he does, he said.
“I like E-Vision because I learn how to do different things,” Ball said. “I have learned how to be a real sports commentator.”
Amber McGill, 18, senior, was operating one of the cameras on Thursday night.
“We get to learn how to use a lot of stuff,” McGill said.
There are still other perks to E-Vision — road trips, McGill added.
“We get to go on fun field trips!” she said.
Kelly Gardner, 18, senior, is the audio controller and engineer.
“Everything you hear comes through me,” Gardner said. “Basically the broadcast is as good as the audio is.”
Gardner said working with E-Vision comes easy to him.
“It’s easy,” he said. “And it’s fun. I’ve learned about audio and how to write our own shows. It’s pretty fun.”
Jacob was busy communicating with the camera crew on Thursday night. Jacob bounced back and forth between cameras and alerted the crew when problems such as blurry shots arose.
“I like everything about it,” Jacob said before the game. “I like being in the middle of everything.”
Jacob said the work does pose a challenge, but he enjoys it.
“I like tracking down the source of the problems and finding solutions,” he said. “I like having all the knowledge to do all that.”
Another challenge is making sure things happen when they need to happen. Thursday night, the crew had some problems with the audio communication and Wiltz couldn’t communicate with the commentators.
“It’s hard to anticipate when things come up,” Jacob said. “You have to be able to take care of them. There isn’t much margin of error, but there are always errors.”