What high school athletic director wouldn’t want to see their school featured in a high-def telecast with all of the assorted features and snappy graphics typically associated with a D-I college or professional sporting event? Probably all of them. No-brainer, right? Now, how many of those programs or their media partners have budgets to match those lofty productions? Therein lies the conundrum for local TV executives and schools who would love a professional quality broadcast of their games, but can’t swing the price tag.

That problem has been solved, or at least heavily alleviated, in middle Tennessee, where TV production company TNDV (Tennessee Digital Video) recently wrapped up a successful inaugural season of “High School Hoops” on Fox affiliate WUXP MyTV30 in Nashville. The live, high-def weekly basketball showcase looks more like Duke/Kansas then Oakland vs. Blackman in District 7-AAA in middle Tennessee.

TNDV, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and moved into a brand new 10,000 square foot facility, has been involved in sports production for years. The company has worked on live concert productions at the NCAA Final Four, ESPN’s Re/Max Long Drive Competition and the inaugural season of “Sing For Your Supper” on PBS.

The idea for “High School Hoops” came on the heels of the company’s success with “Thursday Night Lights,” which brought live HD high school football to Nashville for the first time. In addition to producing the games in high-def, TNDV created a custom 3D graphics package for the broadcasts and threw in some other bells and whistles including score bugs and starting lineups.

“They weren’t really thinking outside of the box in terms of how they were producing,” says TNDV owner Nic Dugger, who started the company when he built his own broadcast truck at age 24. “We said ‘let’s have some spice.’ Let’s have a high school game with a telestrator…let’s do eight channels of slow-mo replay…we’re attempting to make a high school production you would see on ESPN ’Game Day.’”

Viewers and advertisers responded in kind and WUXP quickly signed on for a second season of “Lights.” That success led to the demand for HD basketball broadcasts as well and “High School Hoops” debuted this past January with a matchup between Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy and Ensworth.

Cognizant of the need to produce high quality content on a budget, Dugger made a few important concessions. “We’re using all the right tools, but we’re not so worried about brand names,” he says, noting that TNDV uses crew that have slightly lower day rates than more veteran staff and uses a graphics package used by many sports production houses but less frequently by live sports production trucks.

“Finding equipment that’s more affordable and can be done for a lower cost deserves a fair shake,” says Dugger. “There’s more than one option…that’s a huge part of what’s made this budget work for three very successful seasons.”

For “High School Hoops,” MyTV30 selects their desired matchup each week, public or private schools are all considered, and then TNDV makes it happen, traveling up to an hour in any direction from Nashville with a 17-member video crew and mobile production truck.

The next season of “Thursday Night Lights” kicks off this August with the second season of “High School Hoops” getting underway in December.

As for expanding outside Tennesse, taking the model of HD high school sports to broader markets, Dugger is certainly interested. TNDV has partnered with high school sports producer PlayOn! Sports to cover playoff competition in other states in the southeast and, like any ambitious TV producer and sports fan, Dugger is already looking forward to the next season: “We’re already discussing baseball.”

Photo caption: A replay operator working from the TNDV truck during a January broadcast of “High School Hoops.”

Image courtesy of TNDV

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