University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Background

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is an NCAA Division I university with a highly competitive athletics program. To support live coverage at this level, the College of Journalism & Mass Communications runs the Unlimited Sports experience lab, giving students the opportunity to produce live sports broadcasts at a truly professional level.

Each semester, around 60 students are involved in delivering live audio coverage of 12 Nebraska Athletics teams, as well as area high school sports events and championship games hosted on campus. These broadcasts play a vital role in connecting fans, friends, and family members with games they may be unable to attend in person — including the families of both the athletes competing and the students behind the microphone.

The Challenge

Unlimited Sports is built around one central objective: ensuring that as many sports broadcasting students as possible gain meaningful, hands-on experience producing live sports coverage for real audiences.

However, traditional broadcast infrastructure — including tie-line-based setups — can be complex, fixed, and engineering-heavy. While effective, these systems make it harder to scale student participation, limit mobility, and increase the technical burden on both staff and students.

For a student-led environment, this created real challenges:

• Broadcasts were tied to specific infrastructure
• Technical complexity slowed student involvement
• Mobility was limited for away games and off-campus events
• It became harder to give more students meaningful airtime

At the same time, these broadcasts were reaching real audiences — fans, friends, and family members of both athletes and student broadcasters — meaning reliability and audio quality could not be compromised.

Unlimited Sports needed a solution that could deliver professional-quality broadcasts without the complexity of traditional tie-line systems, while allowing students to get up and running quickly and confidently.

The Solution

Unlimited Sports chose Mixlr as a live audio platform that balances simplicity and reliability, without compromising professional-quality output.

By removing technical barriers, Mixlr allows students to focus on play-by-play, commentary, and storytelling, while confidently delivering live coverage of Nebraska Athletics and community sports. This approach directly supports the program’s goal of maximizing student participation while maintaining a polished listening experience.

Seamless Implementation & Key Features

Mixlr integrates seamlessly into the Unlimited Sports workflow, with most students trained and ready to broadcast in a matter of minutes. This enables students to quickly take ownership of live broadcasts, while allowing faculty to include more participants throughout the semester without increasing technical oversight.

🎛 Professional Setup, Simplified:

Unlimited Sports uses a compact, professional broadcast kit built around Mixlr:

• MacBook
• MOTU M6 USB-C audio interface
• Sennheiser headsets
• Crowd microphone

Key features include:

• A simple, intuitive interface designed for fast learning

• Reliable performance for both live broadcasts and recordings

• Auto-recording, producing consistent, professional-quality audio for student demo reels

The entire setup fits into a single backpack, allowing students to broadcast from campus venues, away games, and community events. This streamlined approach keeps the focus on delivering engaging coverage to listeners — not managing complicated equipment.

Game-Changing Impact

Since adopting Mixlr, Unlimited Sports has significantly expanded both student participation and audience reach, producing well over 100 live broadcasts in the past year.

This growth has been enabled by Mixlr’s streamlined, plug-and-play setup and intuitive interface, allowing students to broadcast from anywhere while delivering consistent, high-quality audio.

As a result, Mixlr has enabled:

• More students to gain meaningful, on-air broadcasting experience
• Coverage of Division I Nebraska Athletics alongside area high school sports and championships
• Live broadcasts that keep fans, friends, and family connected to games they can't attend in person
• High-quality recordings students use directly for demo reels and job applications
• Creative, student-led broadcasts — including Spanish-language soccer streams
• Special remote productions, such as a student-led broadcast from the Las Vegas Bowl

Students graduate with real-world experience, having delivered live broadcasts to real audiences — a critical step toward careers in sports media.

Conclusion: Why Mixlr?

For the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Unlimited Sports program, Mixlr is more than a streaming platform — it’s an essential tool for developing the next generation of sports broadcasters. By combining quick onboarding, dependable performance, and professional-quality audio, Mixlr allows students to take on real responsibility while ensuring fans and families can follow Nebraska Athletics wherever they are.

With Mixlr, Unlimited Sports continues to expand access, elevate the student experience, and strengthen the connection between live sports and the communities that support them.