Success Stories

High School uses GlobeCaster to produce school news and sports program

Education is important to Paul Saxton, the teacher heading up the video department at Eagan High School in Eagan, Minnesota. Students in Saxton's program learn to produce professional-quality video broadcasts using GlobeCaster. The live news program Eagan students produce, Eagan AM, is looked to by the rest of the students, teachers, parents and administrators as a way to keep in touch with the many events and stories happening at EHS.

"These kids have become incredibly advanced in video production," said Saxton. "With GlobeCaster, they have learned to create animations, make virtual sets, generate titling, and output video to cable like professional news and sports broadcasters." With GlobeCaster, Eagan students output video live to a cable access channel, to tape, and are now in the process of migrating toward Internet streaming.

Saxton's students cover most Eagan activities, including several sporting events like football games, swim meets and soccer games, the details of which are reported in the 'Wildcat Report' segment of the Eagan AM broadcast. Additionally, the school's theater is lined with six camera feeds, providing the ability to capture plays, band concerts, and other performances from nearly every angle. Students, parents, teachers and even students at neighboring schools tune into Eagan AM for weekly updates and video clips that feature events within the Eagan community.

The video program at Eagan has only been around for five years, but that's long enough for students to have made an impact outside of school. "Our students get internships with local television stations," states Saxton. "After graduating from Eagan, many students bring their demo tapes to college and amaze collegiate upperclassmen who have never produced anything as professional."

Saxton and his students have been impressed by GlobeCaster's functionality. "The chroma-keyer delivers a crisp image, the animation software has enabled our kids to create moving bugs and over-the-shoulder graphics with ease, and the character generator is untouchable," says Saxton. "GlobeCaster has exceeded my expectations because it's easy to use, yet its capabilities are deep enough that kids are only limited by their own creativity."

GlobeCaster is playing an essential role for sports and educational institutions like this one.