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Feb. 6, 2003

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Three women's basketball home games will be televised on a tape-delay basis on Greater Lafayette cable television as well as cable channels on the West Lafayette campus.

The Northwestern game on Feb. 6 will air at 10 p.m. on Thursday and at the same time on Friday on Insight Cable channel 5.

The telecasts are unique because the productions are actually the lab portion of an interdisciplinary video production course, Technical Video Production 491.

"This is the ideal union of a great entertainment product in women's basketball and leading-edge undergraduate learning at Purdue," said Jay Cooperider, assistant athletics director for communications and executive producer of the women's basketball telecasts. "These students are getting real-world experience, and our women's team will reach people who might not know how exciting this team is."

"This is important exposure for our team and program," said head coach Kristy Curry. "Our players work hard, and to have our fans be able to keep up with us on TV is great.

"I know that we can continue to count on our faithful fans to turn out at Mackey, but this increased notice is tremendous. I'm hoping that some of the folks who watch us Sunday night will come and cheer us on in Mackey for our remaining games."

To fans in attendance at Mackey Arena, it will appear that the game is being broadcast live. At courtside, two members of the Purdue sports information staff will provide play-by-play and color commentary.

Elliot Bloom, assistant sports information director, and Kathleen Offer, associate sports information director, will call the action. Bloom is primary sports information contact for the men's basketball program. Offer, primary contact for women's basketball, also provides color commentary for radio broadcasts at away games for the Boilermaker Sports Network.

The game will be produced in the video production facility in Mackey Arena that is used for the Jumbotron show in Ross-Ade Stadium. The director and course instructor is Bill Callison, video services manager for Hall of Music Productions.

The students will be under the supervision of staff of Hall of Music Productions, which also produces the "Joe Tiller Show" and "Gene Keady Show," televised throughout the state during football and men's basketball seasons. Hall of Music Productions also produces the Jumbotron show in Ross-Ade Stadium and provides technical, video and audio support for a number of Intercollegiate Athletics projects.

Students will be responsible for operating cameras, replay equipment, video servers and graphics machines, as well as serving as audio engineer and camera engineer.

"The hands-on aspect of this class is very unique because of the intense demands and high standards of producing a live video event," said Steve Hall, director of Hall of Music Productions and producer of the telecasts. "Although this is a tape-delay approach, all elements are exactly the same as if we were sending the signal straight out to local television or satellite."

The productions are a collaboration of Hall of Music Productions, Intercollegiate Athletics, the University Residences Television Antenna System, Information Technology @ Purdue and Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Liberal Arts.