Cowboys Stadium: The Programming Challenges Involved

Most people got their first glimpse of the new Cowboys Stadium — the largest domed stadium in the world — during the regular season home opener between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

The Crestron control system programmers, however, got a sneak peek.

Grapevine, Texas-based PanTech Design was charged with developing, installing and programming the Crestron system and control panel that operates five unmanned broadcast Canon BU-45H HD cameras strategically placed throughout the stadium.

One is underneath the stadium’s gigantic scoreboard for aerial shots. Two are located “at the very, very top of the catwalk above the stadium,” says PanTech president Troy Morgan. Another is placed in player tunnels for shots of the players heading to and from the field. One has yet to be installed.

Checking out the stadium was fun, says Morgan, but it was also a huge challenge.

Cowboys’ Challenge

Since the cameras are for broadcast, a director needs to be able to pan, tilt, zoom and do countless other features using a Crestron CAMI-DJ and a touchpanel.

PanTech is no stranger to programming control of cameras, says CEO Micah Thurlow. But this was the most substantial amount of control it ever programmed for cameras. “The challenge was in making it fast and intuitive for controlling all of the features that a broadcast camera has," Thurlow says.

Thurlow worked with Eric Dell, the project's lead programmer. Morgan says the two nailed it. He boasts that a director can sit remotely in the control room and easily make the cameras do just about anything — "even wipe dust off the lens with a little wiper."

In-Game Decision-Making

The Cowboys were satisfied customers, according to Cowboys director of broadcast engineering services Dwin Towell. He praised PanTech for getting it right the first time.

“We met, discussed the project, exchanged renderings and the next time I saw them, they had the product in hand," he says. "We plugged it in and it worked.”

PanTech owes some of that credit to Burst Communications, the integrator that did the majority of the audio/video installations in the stadium. “If they didn’t do their job correctly, in terms of terminating the fiber and all the interconnects, we wouldn’t have been able to come in and do it," Morgan says.

The guys at PanTech can’t deny that the Cowboys stadium project is even more satisfying because they’re all big fans.

“You have no idea,” Morgan says. “It’s one thing to be a fan and watch the game on TV, but to know that when you’re watching that home game that you are personally responsible for some of those camera shots … it’s just too cool.”

Take a tour of Cowboys Stadium with PanTech.