NewTek had an opportunity to speak with Nashville Real Estate Agent Jay Nelson, who broadcasts community sporting events with Emmy®-nominated TriCaster™.
Can you tell us a little bit about Re/Max® Realtors and your position with them?
I have been a part of the Re/Max® corporation for five years as an Affiliate Real Estate Broker in Nashville, Tennessee. RE/MAX® Associates, on average, lead the industry in production, experience, and professional designations. They are also well known for their contribution to Realtor boards and for their community involvement.
What brought you to NewTek products?
I was told about the TriCaster by a friend in the video business but didn’t believe that it could do as much as he said it could. I was blown away when I saw a demo and ordered my TriCaster that week. The portability, price and ease of use were the key selling points for me.
Jay, we understand you sponsor a broadcast for the local community, please tell us why you chose to embark on this opportunity?
I personally put up all the funds for the equipment and TriCaster. As a real estate professional, this community has allowed me to sell 137 Homes for over 24 million in gross sales in Nashville in 2005; this broadcast is the absolute least I could do to give back to my community.
You are currently working on a project for the Ravenwood High School; can you elaborate on how you brought TriCaster into play and what it has done for you?
TriCaster is the perfect device for on-site production, and when I first watched a demo I realized its potential with the capabilities it offered. The choice was simple. TriCaster is portable, lightweight, and easy to set up. It allowed us to live switch between the footage of the game, stills of the players with name overlays stating the players’ position, to the commentary during timeouts and breaks. TriCaster really boosts production quality of the live broadcast when the special effect transitions are added and its templates are used for showing the score and game stats. Furthermore, TriCaster allowed us to record to the hard drive for later use and streaming to the Internet
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Wow! With everything you are doing, you must have a large crew. How many people does it take to do the production?
Actually since TriCaster is straight forward and easy to use there is no need for a large crew. The production team consists of one color commentator, one person doing play-by-play, two people on cameras, and one person that runs TriCaster.
What do you do with the footage after you record the games?
Every broadcast that we originate is saved as an archived file on TriCaster. Since we are able to edit productions on the spot, with a DVC pro deck at hand, we are immediately able to run it out of the TriCaster and burn it to DVD. Furthermore, this allows us to burn copies of DVDs on site and sell them to students, parents, and fans at the game. In turn, all the proceeds go to the Athletic Department and Television Production Department for the High School as a fundraiser.
What made you decided to engage in such a production?
I have a passion for sports and coach peewee football in the community. I know the value of the DVD’s and tapes from past times. To have an edge with commentary going on is great …and it’s timeless for the kids. I know I wish someone would have done it for me when I was in school. It helps that I love football as well, which makes doing this production that much sweeter!! Go Ravenwood Raptors!! 2005 Tennessee 5-A football Champions.
As an end user of TriCaster what to you enjoy most about the product?
I can’t stress enough the importance of TriCaster’s portability. Since we shoot on location mainly from the stands at the games we can’t afford to lug tons of gear and take up vast amounts of seating with equipment. With TriCaster being so compact, it’s easy to set up and start production without encompassing a large area and it’s easy to carry to and from the game.
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