July 22, 2010
LoboTV
Official Website | Archives Page
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Since arriving at the University of New Mexico three years ago as the Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, Kurt Esser envisioned a video branch of the athletics department.
One year later, LoboTV had been hatched.
The creative video branch of UNM Athletics, LoboTV produces creative video content for all Lobo sports. It’s responsible for producing features for coaches’ shows and video content – including press conferences and highlight packages – for GoLobos.com.
“We are always looking for a way to do the next good thing,” Esser said. “We knew that a lot of people were thinking about dropping media guides. We needed a way to replace them and had to ask, `How do you get that information out in a way that is easy and beneficial to the fans’?
“Video was that option,” Esser said. “We developed a budget from the dollars saved and looked for quality person to come here and run it.”
The Lobos’ search ended with Katie Brutlag, who came to New Mexico from the University of Nebraska’s HuskerVision – which started in-house video production in 1994 and is widely regarded as one of the best collegiate video departments in the nation.
“We lucked out,” Esser said. “Katie came from one of the leaders in entertainment video in Nebraska. I’ve been overwhelmed with her success thus far.”
According to Esser, LoboTV is a hit among the Lobo coaching staffs.
“They’re really excited,” he said. “They know that, when they go to visit with a 17-year-old, they have the ability to show that prospective student athlete a video feature on a Lobo All-American or highlights from our last big home game. That’s so much more compelling then telling that same person, `here’s a media guide.’ The video shows that we’re a leader in this area, and the amount of video that LoboTV is putting out is just incredible.”
New for 2010-11, LoboTV has cataloged and archived all of its productions from 2009-10 and bundled it together on a single archive page.
The introduction of LoboTV’s archives pages allows Lobo fans to access highlights, features, press conferences and more in one, easy-to-navigate location. LoboTV has posted more than 280 of its productions from 2009-10.
“It really simplifies access to all of our footage,” Brutlag said. “Whether you’re looking for basketball highlights from last season’s conference tournament, interviews from a softball player or features on the tennis team, they’re all sorted by season and sport.”
The archive page for the 2010-11 school year is also built and getting populated at a rapid pace.
As to the future of LoboTV, Brutlag sees continued growth, higher production values and an increased game-day experience for Lobo fans.
“The possibilities are endless,” Brutlag said. “We have a lot of room to grow here. It’s very exciting to see what the next few years are going to hold.”