The scoreboard animation staff at Ohio State brought back a Golden Matrix Award from the Information Display and Entertainment Conference that was held in July in Pittsburgh.

The award was for Best Original Matrix Animation. OSU beat organizations such as the Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros to win the award for the 12th consecutive year. The winning entry was a three-minute montage of highlights done this past year for the Schottenstein Center, Ohio Stadium, Bill Davis Stadium and St. John’s Arena.

“It was a collection of animations, created by students and staff for the Schott and OSU,” said Craig Brown, scoreboard manager. “It was three minutes of animations back to back.”

Audio, video, matrix and marketing personnel of 80 sports organizations from the NCAA, NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB and various minor league clubs attended this year’s conference.

In addition to the scoreboard manager, the Scoreboard Animations staff is comprised of a student assistant manager and 15 full-time students from OSU and the Columbus College of Art and Design. Their majors reflect a variety of interests and inclinations: fine arts, art and technology, journalism, industrial design and computer science.

“I came to OSU for the computer program and I’ve always been a sports enthusiast and have enjoyed going to the games,” said Mandy Kosater, a senior in computer science who works for the scoreboard animation staff. “Then I noticed there were opportunities to do animation, it was a chance to provide something for the sport and the fans.”

Students are responsible for creating several animations for the on-campus venues over the year. They operate and create message and statistical files for 14 of the 36 sports at OSU.

“I like to do anything that fires up the crowd,” Kosater said.

The time the animation process takes ranges from days to weeks.

“It’s much easier now since when I started 11 years ago,” Brown said. “We used to have to draw everything out by hand and scan it in. We didn’t even have a mouse. Today, we have programs that allow us to transfer directly to the video boards and the matrix.”

OSU has won 21 Golden Matrix Awards since they joined in 1989, making OSU first in total awards received, winning at least one award per year since 1991.

This year, OSU received 4th place in the “Best Matrix Board Overall” category, but has won five times in the past 15 years.

OSU was also among the top three in the “Best In-Game Feature” and “Best Show Open” categories for “Bobblehead Mystery Theater” and “The Football Video Open,” respectively.

“When there’s a break in the action, I can’t help but watch the animations,” said Gordon Lay, a sophomore in biology. “Some of them are pretty clever.”

“The true sports fans tend to watch the field, but your casual fans tend to watch the scoreboard more: It’s information and entertainment,” Brown said. “It drives the game.”

Animations can be viewed at athletics.osu.edu/animation.