Minutes before the MSU football team kicked off its first home game of the season Saturday, a team of a different kind was working behind the scenes to get the crowd excited for the impending action.
In a press box three stories above the field, members of Spartan Vision manned cameras and computers, urgently relaying cues and camera angles to each other through headsets.
"Ready for Sparty. Shoot Sparty. Shoot Sparty," ordered Sports Broadcasting Director Rick Church from his perch in the press box. Almost immediately, a cameraman on the field focused in as the mascot ran triumphantly onto the field, projecting the image onto Spartan Stadium's giant video screen - which measures 24 feet by 32 feet.
At the same time, in the basement of Breslin Center, more members of Spartan Vision were at work in a control room, pressing buttons with eyes glued to television monitors showing the stadium and the crowd. A message came over their headphones from Church: "Roll 'Thunderstruck.'"
Fans were already anxious to see the Spartans take on the Central Michigan University Chippewas. From their stations at the control room and the press box, the Spartan Vision team watched the crowd explode into screams and applause as a computer graphic of Sparty came alive on the video screen and AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" roared from the stadium's loudspeakers.
"When you hear those opening couple of guitar notes, the crowd goes crazy," said Dave Ellis, Spartan Vision's sports broadcasting video producer. "I get chills just talking about it."
Ellis and Church are just two members of the Spartan Vision crew, which employs more than two dozen students each year to run Spartan Stadium's video screen. Team members spend each summer readying players' head shots, choosing music and picking computer graphics. Preparations for each home game begin a week in advance, with some members spending at least 40 hours each week putting the finishing touches on video clips. Then, on game day, the crew runs the "show" by operating equipment such as video cameras and replay machines and producing computer graphics and sound.
"It's really quite a process," said journalism junior Mary Beth Lantzy, a Spartan Vision team member since 2002. "On the weekends, we're here all the time. I do miss tailgating, but when you're up there and you're watching a game and you're this close, it's worth it."
Since 1998, when the video screen was put into the stadium, Spartan Vision has been the only sports broadcasting group with an all-student crew in the Big Ten. Because of the crew's youthful energy and enthusiasm, it knows how to have fun on the job but also takes its responsibilities seriously.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, hours before the game, the Spartan Vision crew gathered in the belly of Breslin Center to hear Church read aloud a list of stations and the accompanying people who would be assigned to them. The students sat among tripods and piles of wires, munching on doughnuts and joking about the hot dogs they would inevitably be served for lunch.
Once each member was given a post, the crew trekked to Spartan Stadium to set up. With the sounds of Spartan Marching Band practicing and tailgaters partying in the distance, some members unpacked cameras and tripods in the press box, while others untangled headsets on the dewy turf in an end zone.
"Over the six years we've done this, we've changed the way people go to games," Ellis said. "It's up to us to be on our game the whole time. We want to be able to flow with the game and keep the energy up in the stadium.
"From when the doors open until half an hour after the game is over, we're essentially programming a TV channel and the fans in the stands can't change it."
After setting up, the team dispersed to their stations and reviewed the 16-page script for the day. A script is printed for each home game, detailing when every announcement, every video screen graphic, every marching band song should occur.
Once the game began, Church sat in the press box and called out the script's important events, such as when Zeke the Wonder Dog bounded onto the field.
"I'm like the Wizard of Oz, the guy behind the curtain," Church joked.
At halftime, the eight team members tucked away in the Breslin Center control room were busy running instant replay and sending more computer graphics to the video screen to get the crowd riled up. But despite the excitement in the stadium a few buildings away, all is quiet except for the hum of television monitors and occasional headphone chatter. The students, sitting in front of computers and blinking lights, are so wrapped up in their work that they barely comment when the Spartans score a touchdown.
"Things can get pretty hectic at sometimes, but we try to keep it as cool as possible," said sports broadcasting producer Bob Armstrong, who leads the control room each week, calling camera angles and deciding what goes on the video screen. "Sometimes, if it's really crazy, the game ends and we'll be like, 'Who won?'"
But some Spartan Vision members said the stress can be rewarding.
"Our team of 25 has a job just like the football team on the field," Church said. "Every once in awhile, something we put on the screen gets the crowd excited enough to gather behind the team and get them over a hump to win the game."
When Saturday's game ended, nearly eight hours after their day began, the Spartan Vision crew's celebration was subdued. The day was far from over - all the equipment had to be taken down, the post-game press conference had to be taped and game footage was waiting to be reviewed.
"You don't even realize how much goes into one game," said history senior Mike Ford, who manned one of the press box cameras. "All this effort, it all goes into one game. Then you tear it all down and do it again next week."
Staff writer Dave Salisbury contributed to this report.
Emily Bingham is The State News projects reporter. She can be reached at binghame@msu.edu
