Full Sail, ESPN Make It Official, Open Joint-Venture Sports Lab

The unique relationship between Disney-owned ESPN and the Orlando-area Full Sail University campus has produced some interesting collaborations between the sports network and the school. Disney’s theme parks and other media operations have been a regular source of internships and employment over the years for Full Sail’s students and graduates at sports-broadcast entities, including NASCAR, Major League Baseball, truck builder NEP, and communications systems supplier RTS, as well as ESPN itself — one of ESPN Senior Technical Audio Producer Kevin Cleary’s A2s at the Summer X Games in July was a graduate of Full Sail’s program.

That relationship took another major step forward with the recent announcement of the new Full Sail University Sports Lab Powered by ESPN. The network will use this joint-venture facility for research and development of various studio and remote audio and video technologies.

The facility’s mission will be to develop technology enhancements, such as virtual applications, for the network as well as to provide Full Sail students the opportunity to work alongside ESPN’s emerging-technology team to gain real-world experience. Students selected to work in the lab will have the opportunity to design and execute new studio and remote technologies for ESPN.

The lab will complement the existing ESPN Innovation Lab located at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World in Orlando. That lab has been critical in the development of such technology packages as ESPN 3D, Ball Track, NBA Player Card, and Ultimate Uplink. ESPN’s technology team also designed and uses the network’s two advanced production centers, the Digital Center at ESPN’s Bristol, CT, headquarters and the Los Angeles Production Center.

The Sports Lab Powered by ESPN opens just days after the announcement of Full Sail University’s new bachelor of science degree in sports marketing and media.