tl;dr: Texas Athletics joined the SEC in 2024 and built Texas Studios Powered by Dell Technologies, utilizing Dell PowerScale and Dell PowerEdge to bring production in-house. The result: faster turnaround, scalable storage and real-time coverage across 140+ live events a year — redefining what’s possible in college sports broadcasting.
When The University of Texas joined the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 2024, the move came with more than new rivals and road trips. It brought new expectations for what fans would see. Not just on the field, but on every screen.
That challenge sparked the creation of Texas Studios Powered by Dell Technologies, an in-house broadcast center built with Dell Technologies to produce, store and deliver content at SEC scale.
From outsourcing to ownership
For years, Texas Athletics relied on third-party vendors to handle video board shows and live streams. It worked, kind of. Outsourcing slowed turnaround and kept creativity at arm’s length.
“We were in last place among Power 5 schools in terms of live production capabilities,” recalls Caten Hyde, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Creative and Video Production. “We knew we had to take control of our story.”
Texas Studios allowed the university to take the bull by the [Long]horns when it came to that story. When Texas joined the highly competitive SEC in 2024 after 28 seasons in the Big 12 Conference, they couldn’t delay.
Inside Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, what began as a logistical upgrade became a creative transformation. It’s a facility where school pride meets real-time production.
The tech that makes it possible
At the core of Texas Studios are two Dell Technologies systems working side by side:
Dell PowerScale — unstructured enterprise NAS storage that provides the high-speed, redundant foundation for all broadcast content. It manages more than 1.7 petabytes of footage, clips and metadata, giving editors and engineers instant access across teams.
Dell PowerEdge — performance servers that drive live computation, rendering and stat graphics. PowerEdge machines process feeds from dozens of cameras in real time, powering the replays, overlays and video walls that energize every fan moment.
“PowerScale is the backbone of our production. It gives us the confidence to handle more than 160 events a year,” says Matt Alvarado, head broadcast engineer. “PowerEdge keeps everything running in sync, so fans never miss a play.”
Together, they form a unified system. The result is a single network for people working across different teams that’s designed for speed, reliability and growth.
By the numbers: Texas Studios performance
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Live events produced (Year 1) | 140+ |
| Annual content created | 330 TB |
| Total storage capacity | 1.7 PB (Dell PowerScale) |
| Students trained in sports media | 100+ |
| Production uptime confidence | 99.99% |
Why in-house wins
Moving from third-party vendors to Dell’s integrated platform gave Texas three clear advantages:
- Speed: PowerEdge processing cuts turnaround from hours to minutes
- Quality: PowerScale supports multiple 4K feeds without dropped frames
- Control: Texas owns every file, feed and archive without outside gatekeepers
“We’ve gone from last place to being one of the top leaders, delivering exceptional sports coverage for our fans,” says Hyde.
A small moment that says a lot
Walk the hallway at Texas Studios on a Friday before kickoff and you’ll find student producers at work mapping camera routes, managing audio and directing live shots. One student even served as technical director during a home game, calling camera angles that played on the stadium’s main screen.
That real-world experience exists because Dell’s infrastructure scaled professional tools into a campus environment, blending education with production at game speed.
Built to scale
As production demands grow, PowerScale expands horizontally by adding storage modules without downtime. Simultaneously, PowerEdge scales compute across more feeds and formats. Together, they prepare Texas for next-generation workflows like AI-assisted highlight editing, automated metadata tagging and NIL content creation.
“Long term, PowerScale doesn’t just hold our content. It protects and future-proofs it,” says Alvarado.
Broadcast innovation for what’s next
From Bevo Blvd to the Longhorn Network app, every moment of the fan experience now flows through Dell PowerScale and PowerEdge. Texas Athletics has turned its broadcast infrastructure into a competitive edge; one that honors tradition while setting a new standard for college sports media.
Learn more about how Dell is driving innovation and impact across Texas here.
