With the eyes of 9.2 million viewers glued to their television sets to watch Michigan State University’s annual gridiron grudge match with the University of Michigan, there was little room for error in the national television broadcasts. Fortunately for FOX Sports and ESPN, they were set up for success by the seasoned veterans from MSU IT’s Unified Communications team.
Ensuring communication’s needs are met for the Spartan football team on gamedays is just a small aspect of the vast portfolio of services offered by Unified Communications. However, the national spotlight may have never shined as brightly on Spartan Stadium as it did on Saturday, Oct. 30, as FOX Sports and ESPN broadcast their national pre-game shows just outside the stadium.
Unified Communications team lead Nicholas Kwiatkowski said his team understands the importance of being prepared to work and adapt to the schedules of national media outlets.
“ESPN didn’t announce its Game Day location until noon on Monday,” Kwiatkowski said. “There are certain aspects of what we do that are last minute. That’s just the nature of it.”
To accommodate all of the media attention, Unified Comms had to ensure 461 wireless devices functioned seamlessly in a tight environment to allow each network to broadcast without interruption. The team also worked with the United States Air Force and MSU Marching Band to coordinate the flyover during the Star-Spangled Banner.
“The thing about my team is we deal with so many different aspects of communication on campus,” Kwiatkowski. “We work with several teams across IT to coordinate efforts.”
Responsible for MSU’s entire telephone system, campus contact centers, and emergency communications, among others, Unified Communications often has to work quickly to accommodate changing needs.
In true Spartan fashion, the team stepped forward this past summer when the university announced its intent to offer a more typical fall semester. Kwiatkowski said his team fielded more than 800 requests since June 1 as several units across campus prepared to transition back on-site following more than a year of remote work.
“We were trying to complete 18-months’ worth of changes in a few weeks,” Kwiatkowski said.
“We were getting hit with requests from many directions,” said team member Sherrie Medved. “It was kind of an unwinding of when we went home in 2020. There was a sense of urgency from end-users as everyone was waiting to understand what their work would look like.”
As different departments started bringing staff back on campus, Unified Communications had to make sure offices and workspaces were functioning in a manner that met each department’s unique needs.
“People have been away for so long, and so much has changed that a lot of reeducation has to take place,” Medved said.
The silver lining of remote work was the full exploration of the University’s Avaya phone system’s features. As a result, the team had more opportunities to educate users on the system’s full functionality, such as using the Avaya Workplace application to remotely use your campus phone number and voicemail. In addition, it has helped units on campus offer more flexibility for staff.
“For us, it has always been our struggle getting the word out about the Avaya Workplace app and some of the unified messaging features we offer,” Medved said. “I can’t talk about it enough. So many users have loved the flexibility once they became more aware of the Avaya unified communications features that are available.”
Many of those features remain important as units balance the need for an on-campus presence with telecommuting options.
The foundation for continued telecommuting options was established long before remote work became a reality for most in March of 2020. That transition to remote sped up the process, and Unified Communications was ready to respond.
“Our team worked equally as hard when people went remote, connecting 3,500 endpoints in the first two weeks,” Kwiatkowski said. “My team members are absolutely rock stars. We make sure customers have what they need when they need it. Our customers have been understanding and appreciative of the work our team has done.”
