It's the start of the fall season. You just got a new camera. Your students are pumped, your principal approved the budget, and you spent the summer researching the upgrade.
But game one still feels like chaos. The audio is bad. Nobody knows who's directing. And the new camera sits on a tripod while a student figures out the software live.
The gear isn't the problem. The order is.
Watch Week 1 of the Striv Summer Series
Most Programs Buy Out of Sequence
Jordan Burns has run Nixa Live for six years. His program is one of the most operationally mature student broadcast programs in the country. And the thing he talks about most isn't equipment specs. It's the sequence.
Every dollar you spend on gear should take your broadcast to the next level. But only if you buy in the right order, at the right time. Spend in the wrong sequence, and you end up with a great camera and a laptop mic. That's not a balanced broadcast. That's a really expensive problem.
The question isn't "what should we buy?" It's "What are we actually ready for?"
The 5-Stage Gear Progression
Jordan laid out the progression that actually works for scholastic programs. Not what looks impressive on paper. What holds up when your students are running it live.
Single camera and a scoreboard. That's a real broadcast. Start there.
Announcers. Now you need an audio mixer and graphics that match the game. This is the moment your production actually sounds like a show.
Multi-cam. This is the biggest operational leap you'll make. It requires communication gear, a switcher, and a student who knows how to direct a show. Don't skip to this before your crew has stage two locked down.
Replays and specialty cameras. Hoop cams, wireless, sideline. These add production value, but only after your core crew is clean.
A dedicated studio. It doesn't have to be a classroom. But it's the last stage, not the first.
Most programs jump from stage one to stage four because that's what the impressive programs look like.
They skip the operational steps that make stage four possible.
Three Mistakes Worth Naming
Jordan was direct about what he's seen go wrong, including in his own program.
Over-investing in one area. A rising tide lifts all boats. Great cameras and bad audio still make for a bad broadcast.
Upgrading before auditing. You probably already own equipment you're not using. Do an inventory before spending anything. The gear you need might already be in a closet.
Adding before mastering. If your director can't punch a clean show with three cameras, a fourth won't help. More complexity before the basics are solid just multiplies the chaos.
The Lesson Six Years Taught Him
The thing Jordan wished he'd added sooner wasn't gear. It was communication between crew members.
Once his team could actually talk to each other during a broadcast, everything else clicked. The coordination problems he'd been solving manually just...stopped being problems.
He also said something worth sitting with: equipment that doesn't work reliably will cost you, students. If a student sits at a broken station and does nothing all night, you might lose them. Not because they didn't care. Because the system failed them.
On Funding It
Community grants, CTE matching grants, sponsorships, and Amazon wishlists. Jordan has never personally bought a battery for his program. Parents and fans contribute when they care about what you're building. That starts with a program worth caring about.
The phrase of the day: "Do less better, rather than more worse."
Print it. Put it by your gear closet.