Knights Inspired by Brewers

Tom Stock, Oak Creek High school’s video production teacher, had a small “in:” he used to work for the Brewers. Over the past 10 years, the Brewers and Oak Creek have formed a good working relationship, learning about the Brewers’ video display system with Oak Creek having a few events on the field, such as graduation.

SEE IT IN ACTION
Tom arranged a tour, and he, the students and Oak Creek’s Athletic Director, Scott Holler, went to learn as much as they could. The school purchased a new video display for this fall, with Tom and the students creating the majority of the content for it. 

“We covered everything from behind the scenes running of the scoreboard, audio/visual questions, replays, Daktronics Show Control Systems and more,” Tom said. “The Brewers’ Director of Scoreboard Operations, Deron Anderson, let us observe and ask questions such as how to approach training from Daktronics. They were very helpful and said if we have any questions we can contact them. Due to our history, they also brought up internship possibilities for students for the summer, which left the kids floored. And to top it off, Deron got us tickets for that night’s game in some great seats.”

Some of the biggest takeaways for the school was seeing the system controls in action and the ease of operation for personnel.

“The students mentioned it’s as easy as clicking a mouse. You play with it, like scripting with a show. Home games will have a show starting on the display at 6, pregame at 6:45 and then the game at 7.”

STUDENT RESOURCES
With student resources available, Tom can put their muscle to work in his classes: intro to film, cinematic arts, editing using Adobe Premiere and KnightVision productions for upperclassmen serious about a career path in the field. So far, several students have chosen the path in furthering their education.

Oak Creek will start production with football in the fall, then track and soccer in the spring. Their main focus on content includes:

• player intros
• a 2-minute interview with the Coach for the pre-game show
• a dance cam
• and new ideas they picked up from the Brewers.

They are also updating the gymnasium to a video display this year, so operating the same Show Control system for indoor sports like basketball, volleyball and wrestling will prove to be a seamless experience.

LOCAL SUPPORT
As for funding, the school secured support from local and regional businesses, with no expense to taxpayers. Two main sponsors will have longer commercials during breaks, and of the 12 sponsors total, half already have corporate commercials ready for play. The others will have Tom’s students create their commercials for them, providing more hands-on classroom training.

“I told the kids once we get the board up and running, one evening we’ll set up an X-box and they can play video games for a few hours to break it in. We also anticipate having a ribbon cutting ceremony and are considering making a night of it with a movie on the turf. People could see some game previews and then enjoy popcorn while they watch.”

We look forward to this fall, Oak Creek!

Make sure to subscribe to our monthly email to stay in the loop on what Oak Creek and other schools are doing to enhance the use of their video displays by incorporating it in the classroom to create better fan engagement.