N.C. State students, staff and alumni come to Carter-Finley Stadium each football season in hopes of cheering their football team to victory. In recent years the pregame festivities within the confines of the stadium have become a production in hopes of pumping up fans for the game about to be played. There is a wide variety of ways fans are entertained before the first kickoff. Recently there have been military personnel jumping out of planes, new women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper trying to get the crowd going and of course the “Power Sound of The South” performing the fight song each week.

Marching band member Cessa Pilarinos, a freshman in industrial engineering, said, “I enjoy doing the pregame activities and being able to act crazy on the field.”

Another facet to the pregame entertainment is the video and graphics production that airs on the three major video boards in Carter-Finley Stadium. The introduction video is a collection of video clips and graphic designs used to introduce the starting lineup of the football team and to show an animation of Wolfpack victory. This video is set to music, which usually is a high tempo, popular song. Some songs used in the past have been “In the Air Tonight” by a rock group Nonpoint and “Boom” by P.O.D. This year the production staff decided to have local band Airiel Down create a rock cover of the fight song and used that in the introduction video.

According to Billy Kronenwetter, a junior in mechanical engineering, “This intro video this year is not as good as it was last year.”

Manufacturing of the introduction video is handled by CanesVision productions, which also produces video for the Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State men’s basketball. The recent switch to high definition in the RBC Center has changed the production of football games slightly. CanesVision staff does not have to carry as much equipment and all of the production is centered in a control room in the RBC Center.

Along with the introduction video there is the entrance of the football team itself. The pyrotechnics display and the playing of the fight song by the marching band enhance this entrance. Production crews are in charge of timing the introduction video, the marching band and the entrance of the football team. Earlier in the season there were some issues with the timing of all of these pregame activities and the volume at which the introduction video was played.

“[The video] doesn’t pump fans up as much this year as it did last year,” Kronenwetter said.

In keeping with Wolfpack tradition, the marching band leads the crowd in the “Red and White” and also the alma mater. New traditions have been started, such as the creation of different cheers to new music the band is playing on the field. At halftime the band entertain fans with a halftime performance aimed at pleasing the general population.

“I enjoy seeing the fans so excited and having a good time,” Pilarinos said.