St. Cloud State University’s Husky Productions will need to make more room in their trophy cases. The student-run organization received two Sports Video Group (SVG) awards during the 2021 SVG College Sports Media Awards ceremony, celebrated virtually in June.
Husky Productions earned the top honor for Outstanding Live Non-Game Production, while student in-game editor Elliot Knight won the award for Outstanding Short-Form Fan Engagement video. These latest awards bring Husky Productions’ total number of SVG awards earned to 14 since 2006.
“Sports Video Group is an incredible organization and we are humbled and honored to receive these awards,” said Brian Stanley ’93, Executive Producer of Husky Productions since 2012. “It goes without saying, last season was extremely difficult for all involved in college sports and television production. Our students tackled the pandemic protocol abnormalities head on, they adjusted, learned and persevered. These awards are a testament to their desire to deliver the highest quality broadcast year after year.”
The College Sports Media Award winners and finalists are selected by a panel of industry peers and look to celebrate the best in college sports video production. Nearly 500 entries were submitted after the 2020-21 season in five different categories: Live Game Production; Live Non-Game Production; Program Series; Special Feature and Short-Form Fan engagement, across four divisions. These divisions included Professional, Collegiate Conferences and Governing Bodies, Collegiate Athletics and Collegiate Student.
Husky Productions took home the top honor for Outstanding Live Non-Game Production for its pre-game show for St. Cloud State’s men’s hockey’s match-up with Minnesota-Duluth. It marked the second consecutive year Husky Productions took home the top honor in the category. Other schools nominated in this category were Auburn University, Texas A&M, Duke, Ball State, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Knight earned the top honor in Outstanding Short-Form Fan Engagement for his work on a St. Cloud State men’s hockey hype video. The video played between periods during Huskies men’s home hockey games.
“Elliot Knight has an incredible work ethic,” said Greg Spaeth ’19, Coordinator of Video and Creative content for St. Cloud State athletics. “That in combination with a desire to keep learning, along with his drive for professionalism, all accumulated in winning this award. We have incredible video resources at our disposal. St Cloud State is a broadcast university, athletics needs to deliver the same video quality for the in-arena experience as Husky Production delivers to its viewers. Anything less wouldn’t represent the production standard we are known for.”
SVG formed in 2006 to support the professional community that relies on video, audio and broadband technologies to produce and distribute sports content. Leagues, owners, team, players, broadcasters, webmasters and consumer technology providers have since joined SVG to learn from each other, turn vision into reality, and implement new innovations all while sharing experiences that will lead to advancements in the sports production/distribution process and overall consumer sports experience.
