Bemidji State Hockey Coaches Get Video Anytime, Anywhere with Facility’s New Alpha Video System

There was a time when coaches and players had to head to the video room every time they needed to watch game tape. Today, however, next-generation systems like the one Alpha Video has installed for the men’s and women’s hockey teams at Bemidji State University in Minnesota allows coaches and players to break down video from anywhere in their facility.

Alpha Video’s Sports & Entertainment Group installed a full audio/video-presentation system for both the men’s and women’s teams in the hockey wing of the new Sanford Center prior to the start of the 2010-11 hockey season. The installation includes video monitors and automated controls in nearly every room of the hockey wing as well as two mobile coaching stations that can be moved throughout the facility.

“We wanted to be able to accommodate them in each room and allow them to view [game film] on every display,” says Project Manager Jesse Stunes. “It provides them with a portable electronic device that plugs into their system and allows them to get their [game film] wherever they need it to go.”

The men’s and women’s installations are nearly identical and allow coaches to access the team’s XOS Thunder digital coaching-analysis video platform from any room in which a system is installed, including the head coaches’ offices, coaching video rooms, team locker rooms, player lounges, the shared weight room, and the shared conference room. Alpha installed a total of 12 monitors as well as automated Crestron A/V controls in several rooms.

The mobile stations feature a built-in touchscreen monitor that permits coaches to telestrate over a variety of A/V sources, including video directly from the coach’s laptop. The video output from the coaching station can be easily connected to any monitor in the facility, including the large-screen locker-room monitor.

“We custom-built [mobile] podiums for each team, with an annotator that they could take throughout the facility, connect it through their network, and then tie that in so they can present video at each location,” says Stunes. “So, if the players are in the lounge and the coach wants to show them something, he just brings in the [mobile station], plugs it in, and pulls up the video.”