SoonerVision Provides Multimedia for OU Fans

Brandon Meier, Executive Director of
Video Production for SoonerVision, stands
in the department's studio.
PHOTO: Chelsey Kraft

            At University of Oklahoma football games, basketball games and other sporting events, SoonerVision maintains screens and scoreboards that provide information for fans in attendance.

            Brandon Meier, Executive Director of Video Production for SoonerVision, says the department provides an important service by showing out-of-town scores and keeping fans entertained during timeouts with videos. Meier says the department also creates commercial spots, makes the intro videos for Sooner teams, produces highlight tapes, streams events and creates recruiting videos, among other tasks.

SoonerVision was created in 1997 when the first big screen was put in at the football stadium, but Meier says a multimedia department was established at the university before then. In 1946, an OU film professor named Ned Hockman combined with the athletic department to start filming sports. OU also had the first college football coach’s show in history, which featured coach Bud Wilkinson.

Meier, who has worked for SoonerVision for four years, began working at a television station in high school and realized he enjoyed the production process that occurred behind the camera. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, he worked there for eight years then for the Houston Rockets for four years before coming to OU. He says his favorite part of his job is the instant impact received from fans after a video plays.

“If you are a television producer and you produce a show in primetime, you may have to wait until the next week to get the Nielsen Ratings to decide if they liked it,” Meier says. “When we play a video in front of 80,000 people in the football stadium, at the end of the video they will either get up on their feet and give you a loud applause or they won’t. That instant impact is one of those things that is really fun and unique about what we do.”

SoonerVision's control room
PHOTO: Chelsey Kraft

            See the SoonerVision scoreboard and videos Saturday during OU’s last home football game against Texas Tech or read more about SoonerVision at http://www.soonersports.com/school-bio/sooner-vision.html.

Brandon Meier explains some of the history of SoonerVision and multimedia at the
University of Oklahoma.

"60 Minutes" Photojournalist Shares Career Experiences

Recently, “60 Minutes” aired a report over the combat in Afghanistan. The man responsible for capturing the shots seen on the screen is “60 Minutes” photojournalist Ray Bribiesca. On Monday, Nov. 1, Bribiesca spoke to a group of students at the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

"60 Minutes" photojournalist Ray
Bribiesca speaks with students of the
Gaylord College of Journalism and
Mass Communication about his
experiences throughout his career.

            When asked what was his thought process was filming the American soldiers in combat while turning his back to the Taliban, Bribiesca said he didn’t think; he just reacted to the situation. He compared the scenario to seeing a football player running down a football field a hundred yards for the winning touchdown in a national championship game. Then, the photojournalist has to react and capture the moment without thinking about anything else. At the same time, he addressed the possibility of danger in some situations.

“If something tragic happens to you, that is just part of the deal. It comes with the territory. All of a sudden you have the best shot in the world. He’s going with his hand here and he’s got the football over here and next thing you know somebody bumps you and you are on the ground. You get up and try to get another angle somewhere. That is just what you do,” Bribiesca said.

Bribiesca, who entered the Marine Corp as a combat cameraman at 17 years old, served in the Vietnam War. After returning from the war, he attended Oklahoma City University before taking a couple of courses at the University of Oklahoma. For over three decades, Bribiesca has had his job at CBS, where he said he has been assigned to a wide range of stories.

 “I have covered everything from presidential campaigns to Carter to President Obama. I have done every war. Every war. I have been wounded a couple of times. I have been taken hostage once. I have pretty much done it all, so to speak, and it has been great. It has been a great, great ride,” Bribiesca said.

            Currently, Bribiesca is beginning his final assignment for “60 Minutes” before he retires: a story on Yemen. Bribiesca said bad news is anticipated to come out of the country. He said that as people leave the capital city of Sana’a, there is a good chance that they will be killed or kidnapped. Bribiesca and “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan are going to travel this dangerous route for their story.