Covering all the angles: Operating the video board | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Covering all the angles: Operating the video board Covering all the angles: Operating the video board Published: November 15, 2017 Author: Carol Bradley Notre Dame Stadium Mike Bonner Mike Bonner, executive producer of live events for Fighting Irish Media (FIM), has attracted a lot of attention since he joined the University in 2016 to manage the operation of Notre Dame Stadium’s new state-of-the-art video board (He worked at Yankee Stadium! He knew George Steinbrenner!). Bonner spent 14 years working for the Yankees (including five World Series), three years with the Broncos (with two Super Bowl seasons) and six Olympic games, including the Rio Olympics.  He’s often referred to as “the video board guy” now that he’s taken on the job of managing the operation of Notre Dame Stadium’s new video board, a 54.1-foot-high by 95.5-foot-wide behemoth with a crystal-clear, 4,798,976 pixel-LED display — the highest-definition video board in college football. But what Bonner really wants people to know is that he may be executive producer, but he’s part of a large team. “If we count everyone, we’re pushing 60 people,” he says.  His teams are stationed on the field and at three different locations in the stadium on game days.  Mike Bonner (right) in the ninth floor video board control booth in Duncan Student Center. Bonner’s production booth is located on the ninth floor west side of Duncan Student Center, facing the field. The rest of the team works out two locations — the control room and replay room — of the state-of-the-art Rex and Alice A. Martin Media Center on the first floor of Corbett Family Hall. “Their view of the game is looking at camera feeds,” he says. “Tony Simeone, the playback operator, is a jack of all trades. He also does on-camera work as the face and voice of our ‘Irish Scoreboard’ feature, giving updates on scores in other sports. Also up there I have the public address announcer (Mike Collins) a marketing assistant and his two spotters, an additional graphics person and the DJs (Craig Turney and Rodney Washington, who strictly play music. Others in the control booth on game day include playback producer Tony Simeone, the scoreboard operator and others who manage the game clock, the play clock, and down and distance. There’s also a separate ribbon board operator. The ribbon boards (393.07 feet wide by 3.78 feet high) on the east and west sides of the stadium run game-in-progress information at all times — the score, the time on clock, down and distance, possession and number of timeouts remaining. “I also have August Kuehn (temp/on-call), who we call A-1, or Audio 1. He manages all other sounds that come through the PA system. That includes the PA announcer’s microphone, the referees’ microphones and the band microphones. All of our videos have sound, and A-1 is tracking those videos to make sure they’re not silent, and also tracks the music the DJ is playing — he’s on the fader and can bring the music up or down.”  Nathan Bush, athletics digital media associate producer, in the main control room. Game director Brock Raum, who works out of the Martin Media Center replay and acquisition room, “Is my right-hand man,” Bonner says. “He is the one I’m communicating with the most. He executes the replays and calls cameras.”  Also in the media center are replay producer Nathan Bush, social media moderator Reilly Fangman, four replay operators, two camera shaders (who adjust the camera settings for various light conditions) and a robotic camera operator. “We have 12 robotic cameras within the stadium, operated basically on a joystick.” Each replay operator can bring in up to nine camera angles, he says, “So we can roll back replays of 36 different camera angles. That room is frenetic. Every play they are clipping off and lining up the highlights ready to go. If it’s a great highlight, they clip it off and add it to a playlist so later they can put together a package of several highlights in a row.” The replay room also supplies replays to the referees if they’re asked to take another look at another play, something that’s already resulted in multiple plays overturned on the field, many in favor of the Irish. Mike Bonner, seated left, executive producer of live events, with some of the crew of nearly 60 full- and part-time University employees, student interns and freelancers necessary to handle the broadcast of home football games. All those camera feeds are coming from another part of the team, the camera operators on the field (plus the feeds they take in from NBC.) “We have nine manned cameras inside the stadium,” Bonner says. “Two are up high on the west side 35-yard-line: one at the north and one at the south. Those we call our game and tight-follow cameras. We also have two low end-zone cameras, on both the north and south ends of the stadium.” Student workers Scott Hoyland and Natural Baptiste operate two wireless hand-held cameras can roam anywhere, inside or outside the stadium. Junior Micaela Powers operates the “slash,” a camera that shoots across the field toward the Notre Dame bench. NBC picked up some of her shots of the Georgia game, Bonner notes. Many of the other camera operators are freelance professionals (technically on-call/temporary staff).There are two hand-held wired cameras on the field. “They are tethered but can move anywhere from the 20-yard-line to the end zone at the north and south ends.” Each of those operators is assigned three student workers to make sure the cables stay plugged in and aren’t crossed with NBCs cables, and no one trips over them.  The Media Center main control room. Bonner’s team can also take 12 camera feeds from NBC, and vice versa. Up high, NBC operates the 50-yard-line camera. “We take that because they have the virtual first-down marker and we can run that on the video board,” he says. As executive producer, Bonner notes, “I run the show. But I rely on so many people. Our job is to entertain, engage and educate. Our job is to spread the University message, whether that’s a ‘What Would You Fight For’ feature or a great football video.”  Staff members Executive Producer: Mike Bonner Playback Producer: Tony Simeone DJ: Craig Turney and Rodney Washington  A1: August Kuehn  Ribbon Board Stats: Student worker Juan Jose Rodriguez  Marketing: Jasmine Cannady; Janna Hughes; Darin Ottaviani; Brian Pracht; Becca Moore, Robert Judin and Khadijah Wiley  Stage manager: Kevin Barrett PA Announcer: Mike Collins  Director: Brock Raum  Technical director: Rick Harman (temp/on-call) Associate director: Jaye Galloway  Replay producer: Nathan Bush  Robotic camera operator: student worker Callee Stirn  Graphics 1: Kyle Miller ’07 Graphics Assist: John McDermott ’07, ’10 JD Graphics 2: Student workers Regan Edwards and Hunter Thompson  Social media moderator: Reilly Fangman  Replay operators: Joe Stachler; student worker Henry Davis; Chris Hagstrom-Jones (temp/on-call); and Jasmine Curry ’17 (FaithND intern) Camera Shaders: Steve D’Ambrosia and David  Gooding (both Temp/On-Call) Postgame Show Producer: Josh Long (FaithND Producer) Camera operators:  Full-time employees: Claude Devaney (ND Studios); Michael Wiens and Tony Fuller (Marketing Communications); Jon Cotton (Athletics Digital Media). Temp/on-call: Bob Richthammer, Russ Hnatusko; Jon O’Sullivan and Gary Banks Student workers: Scott Hoyland; Natural Baptiste; Micaela Powers; Emily Regan and Denise Dorotheo. Grips: (all student workers): Mia Berry, Nick Taylor, Indi Jackson, Taylor Vucinich, Jack Kieffaber, Ana Urquijo, Dontae Knox, and Brian Haimes.    Posted In: Faculty and Staff Athletics Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 24, 2017 Air Force flyover for Notre Dame vs. North Carolina State football game September 07, 2017 Air Force flyover for Notre Dame – Georgia football game August 11, 2017 Historic project at Notre Dame nearing completion August 02, 2017 Mass and memorial celebration for Ara Parseghian set for Sunday August 02, 2017 Former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian dies at age 94 For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn