At Raceland Schools in Kentucky, live sports broadcasts are more than a stream. They are a full production experience built to engage the community, showcase student talent, and bring professional-level presentation to every game.
At the center of that workflow is NewBlue Captivate Sport.
From dynamic scoreboards and animated graphics to real-time player stats and sponsor integrations, Captivate Sport helps Raceland deliver polished broadcasts across football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, and more.
Led by educator and media director James Collier, the program has grown into a full-scale student-run production operation. What started as a way to stream games has evolved into a professional-style production environment powered by real-time graphics, live data, and streamlined workflows.
“Captivate is what I use for all of my graphics. It’s a big part of our broadcasts,” says James.
The goal was never just to stream games, but to create a broadcast experience that felt polished, engaging, and professional for viewers at home.
“People tell us, we feel like we are sitting at home watching ESPN.”
Data-Driven Graphics Without Slowing Down Production
One of the biggest advantages for the Raceland team is how quickly graphics can be updated during live broadcasts.
By connecting NewBlue Captivate Sport to Google Sheets, player stats, rosters, and images automatically populate throughout the production.
“We connect everything through Google Sheets. You just drop down the name and it pulls everything in. I can update an entire team’s stats in about five minutes.”
That workflow allows the team to focus on the production itself instead of manually rebuilding graphics throughout the game. Whether updating leaderboards, player stats, or sponsor elements, Raceland can keep graphics current in real time while maintaining a smooth live workflow.
Starting Fast, Then Building Further
For James, one of the biggest strengths of Newblue Captivate Sport is how approachable it is to start using while still offering room to grow creatively. Captivate Sport provides ready-to-use templates that can be quickly adapted for any broadcast.
“They give you the templates to start with, but you can create and build it as far as you want it to go.”
Using Designer, Raceland customizes layouts, connects data, and tailors graphics for different sports and productions without needing to build every element from scratch.
As the team has grown more advanced, James has also incorporated custom creative elements from Photoshop and After Effects into Designer, blending original assets with real-time graphics inside NewBlue Captivate Sport.
“It’s an extremely user-friendly platform, but you can also get extremely advanced the more you learn about it.”
Starting with Captivate Sport templates gave the team a fast foundation, while Designer provided the flexibility to continue evolving their look over time.
In one case, James saw a graphic style during a professional sports broadcast, recreated the concept inside his own workflow, and had it live in production the very next day.
A Complete Broadcast Workflow
NewBlue Captivate Sport is only one part of Raceland’s larger production ecosystem, but it sits at the center of how graphics, data, and live production come together.
The team combines Captivate Sport with tools like OBS, Photoshop, After Effects, Google Sheets, replay systems, cameras, and live switching workflows to create a polished end-to-end broadcast experience.
That flexibility has allowed Raceland to continuously evolve its productions while adapting workflows to fit different sports, venues, and broadcast needs.
Support That Continues Beyond Setup
For Raceland, the value of NewBlue Captivate Sport is not just the product itself, but the support behind it. As the team expanded its workflows and integrations, NewBlue helped answer questions, guide setup decisions, and support the production as it evolved. That combination of support, flexibility, and time savings has made a measurable impact on the program.
“It’s worth the price that you pay for a yearly maintenance fee across the board. It’s a product that pays for itself.”
A Real-World Production Environment for Students
Behind every broadcast is a student team gaining hands-on experience in live production.
Students take on roles across graphics, cameras, replay, switching, and broadcast operation, learning professional production workflows in a live environment.
“Allowing the students to be at the forefront and constantly finding ways to make things better than they already are, that’s a win-win.”
That experience has become one of the most rewarding parts of the program, giving students the opportunity to work with the same style of tools and workflows used in larger sports productions.
The team is constantly experimenting, refining graphics, and finding new ways to improve the viewing experience.
Built for the Community
For Raceland, the focus has always been creating a complete viewing experience for families, fans, and community members who cannot always attend in person. That includes everything from live scorebugs and lower thirds to animated transitions, player profiles, sponsorship graphics, and real-time stat integration.
By bringing production fully in-house, Raceland gained more control over how their broadcasts look, feel, and operate on game day.
“We wanted to make it feel professional. We wanted people at home to feel connected to the game.”
For James, that level of quality starts with the tools they rely on every day, especially NewBlue Captivate Sport.
“When we were looking at what we needed for our broadcasts, I told them this is the product I use for all of my graphics. It’s not something I was walking away from.”
Ready to create polished, professional live sports broadcasts? Discover how NewBlue Captivate streamlines graphics, data integration, and live production workflows.
