The University of Pittsburgh Athletics Department unveiled Pitt Studios Thursday afternoon in the Petersen Events Center.The opening ceremony consisted of remarks from Director of Athletics, Deputy Athletic Directorand University of Pittsburgh Director of Film and Media StudiesThe entire event marked the first live broadcast in the new facility, as Associate Athletic Director for Major Gifts, Director of Broadcast and Video Productionsand Pitt football sideline reporterhosted the event from inside the studio located in the lobby of the Petersen Events Center. The trio hosted guests includingof the University of Pittsburgh Film Studies program, Pitt student and WPTS host, as well as Pitt volleyball senior setterThe grand opening concluded with a ribbon cutting ceremony, followed by a tour of the facility.Pitt Athletics has forged a unique partnership with Pittsburgh-based NEP, the world's largest outsourced production partner supporting premier content producers of live sports, entertainment, music and corporate events. The partnership features an apprentice-training program that allows future NEP broadcast engineers to gain valuable hands-on experience during live ACC Network broadcasts. NEP, in turn, lent its technical expertise to Pitt during the build-out of the Pitt Studios facility on overall system design, including equipment suggestions and final installation of the technical operations center and control rooms. In addition, this partnership includes naming of the 'NEP Production Hub' at the location of the control rooms and editing suites.The 6,000 square foot broadcast facility will house three redundant broadcast control rooms, multiple editing suites, and a showpiece broadcast studio in the lobby of the Petersen Events Center. The broadcast hub is connected via fiber to the Petersen Sports Complex, Fitzgerald Field House and Trees Pool, and will be responsible for over 100 sports broadcasts per year to support the launch of the ACC Network.There is also a significant educational component to the project as Pitt Athletics has collaborated with the University of Pittsburgh Film and Media Studies Department to partially fund a faculty position and to aid in the creation of a broadcast curriculum, giving Pitt students a chance to observe and interact with broadcast professionals during live network broadcasts for ESPN."Up to this point our students have had to go elsewhere to gain this kind of experience," said Director of Film and Media Studies. "I know our Film and Media Studies students will have meaningful placement opportunities and will be directly responsible for live content via Pitt Studios and the ACC Network."In addition, NEP Group has been a primary partner in this endeavor developing a co-op program, which alternates classroom instruction with full-time fieldwork in broadcast engineering, through the Swanson School of Engineering.In the hope of providing more students with hands-on experiences with our media partners, Pitt Athletics applied for and received a personalized education grant from the Office of the Provost to support three students with internship and externship experiences.Outside of the University of Pittsburgh, Pitt Studios will form an academic partnership with Point Park University – a leading educational provider for broadcast journalism and production. Point Park students will be interns working on the live ACC Network broadcasts. In addition, via the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education's cross registration program, Point Park instructors will be able to bring their students to an on-site classroom to monitor live broadcasts.Visit PittsburghPanthers.com for complete coverage of Pitt Athletics. To learn about NEP's complete range of broadcast, live events and media asset management solutions, visit nepgroup.com.For over 30 years, NEP has been a worldwide outsourced technical production partner supporting premier content producers of live sports, entertainment, music and corporate events. Our services include remote production, studio production, audio visual solutions, host broadcast support, premium playout, post production and innovative software-based media management solutions. NEP's 3,500+ employees are driven by a passion for superior service and a focus on technical innovation. Together, we have supported productions in 87 countries on all seven continents.NEP is headquartered in the United States and has operations in 24 countries. Learn more at nepgroup.com