smays.com

When every game is webcast

A few months ago I got a call from Brian Slawin. Someone told him I fooled around with streaming live video and he wanted some ideas on how to stream his daughter's softball games so family members could watch her play. He gave Qik and Kyte a try but wasn't happy with the results but he kept at it. This past weekend he packed up his laptop, webcam and Sprint cellular card and headed for the ball field.

"Initially, I was concerned that a wireless cellular card wouldn’t allow enough upload bandwidth to actually stream the signal, but it turned out that even at 100kbps upstream, the signal was rock solid and remarkably clear. My gear includes an HP Pavilion PC, the Sprint card, a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro, a power strip with 1400 joules filtering and some other cables, etc…

Watch live video from Airshowguy @ Work on Justin.tv

"Turns out I got lucky…my Sprint signal was 5x5 and there was power right at the backstop plus an angled desk/bench that made for the perfect setup.  I used the Justin.tv streaming system and it was tons of fun to have about a dozen parents/friends watch each game and join in the chat with Justin’s embedded chat feature. I made like a play-by-play narrator typing out what was going on…and every now and then playing “Joe Buck” for fun."

"I’ll need a better setup than just hanging the web cam from a couple of lanyards and a bag…when it got windy, or when there was a foul ball, the camera shook and I had to reposition it numerous times.  Likely a tripod or perhaps a platform that is more securely attached to the fence and would allow for a higher angle is what I’m going to experiment with next."

Brian's company has some big plans.

"I can see a time where we’d actually hire broadcast teams (students in broadcasting programs in local high schools or colleges) to broadcast the games. We’ve already begun working with a softball tournament company on the East coast and are going to try and bring this forward for next summer’s tournaments in the New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey area."

"But for now, I’ll continue to enjoy traipsing after my daughter this fall and into next summer as we travel to Junior Olympic softball tournaments throughout the Midwest.  Be sure to visit Warcats18Gold.com for more information about the team and if you’re nearby, be sure to come by and say hello at the Eleventh Annual St. Louis Softball Showcase in Chesterfield, MO Oct 31 – Nov 2."

During my early radio days ('70s) there was tremendous pressure on the radio station to broadcast high school football and basketball games. We did some high school baseball but I don't know that we ever found air time for girls softball. There just wasn't enough time, staff or advertising support. And if one of the local radio stations didn't broadcast the game... you had to be in the stands.

No more.

New look for Mizzou website

Branden Miller tweets the new look for MUTigers.com, the website of the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou is one of the universities with which Learfield Sports works, but I have nothing to do with the websites.

But I've always thought most of them were cramped, too busy and impossible to navigate. This new design is a huge improvement. I haven't poked around on the new site yet but plan to later today.

I hope similar make-overs are planned for our other properties.

Webcasting high school football games

From a post by Liz Foreman at Lost Remote:

"Beginning this Friday, Gannett will have 12 live high school football games showing on widgets posted to USAToday.com and many of our local broadcast and newspaper sites. The games are being produced by our broadcast and newspaper sites as well as a high school AV department. Most of the games are single cam, laptop, aircard + Mogulus productions."

I wanna see the rejects

PR Newswire: The University of Oklahoma and Sooner Sports Properties recently partnered with mobile sports fan network FanChatter to provide Scoreboard Photo Sharing at every Sooner home football game this season (sponsored by McDonald's.)

The McDonald's Sooner Football I'm Lovin' It feature invites fans to show how much they're "lovin'" the Sooners during the game by texting or emailing photos from their phone to a custom address. Every fan that sends a photo receives an instant text message reply thanking them for their submission and alerting them to special deals on McDonald's menu items.

Twins Scoreboard Photo Sharing powered by FanChatter Stadium from FanChatter on Vimeo.

Select photos are then displayed on the videoboard before the start of the 4th quarter and all approved photos are forwarded to a McDonald's branded gallery website where they can be seen and shared with friends. The feature's reply message and branded gallery components offer added messaging platforms to advertisers while also enhancing the fans' experience between games.

I don't think I blogged it but I floated this idea a couple of years ago. Disclosure: Learfield --the company I work for-- has the marketing rights for the Sooners.

First football Saturday

It has become something of a tradition to swing by the Sport Operations Center at Learfield on the first big football weekend of the season. [90 sec]

Sports journo sees future on the web

Big time sports journalist Jay Mariotti has resigned from the Chicago Sun-Times:

"It's been a tremendous experience, but I'm going to be honest with you, the profession is dying,'' Mariotti said, "I don't think either paper [Sun-Times or Chicago Tribune] is going to survive. To showcase your work ... you need a stellar Web site and if a newspaper doesn't have that, you can't be stuck in the 20th century with your old newspaper.''

His bosses have a different take on things and you can read what they have to say at CBS2Chicago.com.

Sprint in the NFL radio business

MEDIA WEEK: "Sprint Nextel subscribers will be able to listen to live radio broadcasts of National Football League games this season as part of new partnership between the wireless provider and sports league.

The live, cell-phone-accessible radio broadcasts—the centerpiece of the new NFL Mobile Live platform--will be available to all Sprint wireless subscribers who purchase a basic data plan as part of their services. In addition, as part of the agreement a select group of premium subscribers will be able to view live broadcasts of the NFL Network’s eight Thursday Night Football games on their phones starting on Nov. 6."

Hmmm. Here's one of several "take away's" from this story by Mark Ramsey:

"For some reason, many broadcasters confuse the term "content" with "the stuff that's on our air." When I use the term "content" I mean the material that's of serious interest to listeners. Stuff they will seek out. Not filler. Not commodities. McDonalds and NOBU may both offer "food," but that's where the similarity ends, and don't think for a moment the patrons don't know the difference.

In this case, the content is owned in its entirety by a third party - not a radio company. When it comes to professional sports play-by-play, radio is a distribution channel, not a content owner. Thus we will lose out to the owners of content in deals like this."

Our company does broadcasts for a whole bunch of big (and small) colleges. We've been streaming (via Yahoo!) for years and on satellite radio for the last few years. It seems inevitable that these broadcasts will go directly to phones, sooner or later. Stay tuned? Dialed in?

Tall women horsing around on the beach

Kerri Walsh's and Misty May-Treanor just had their way with the Brazilian team. For you fashionistas, KW and MM-T were wearing the little white numbers with the mesh sides. But I digress.

During one of the breaks, Michael Scott explained his appreciation (which I happen to share) for women's beach volleyball. Download Quicktime file (20 seconds)

Go mobile or go home

I will, eventually, have to break down and get a smart phone. I don't really want one but not having one is going to be a liability in my job. Articles, like this one from the American Journalism Review, make this increasingly clear.

"In January, ESPN reported it had more hits for NFL content on its mobile Web site (4.9 million) than it did on its PC site (4.5 million), according to RCR Wireless News. Those numbers suggest the mobile jock market has legs, since sports fans will access their cell phones to get scores and inside information even while they're watching games on TV. Two mobile TV partnerships – AT&T's Mobile TV and Verizon's V Cast, both of which use Qualcomm's MediaFlo TV-enabling technology for cell phones – have been launched with the sports market in mind. Both mobile TV services bill themselves as providing full coverage of sporting events, along with some regular network programming in English and Spanish. Content partners include CBS Mobile, NBC 2Go, Fox Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, Viacom's MTV and Nickelodeon, among others."

NY-based crews calling Olympics

NYTimes.com: "The announcers are at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, nearly 7,000 miles from Beijing, sitting inside 14-foot-wide booths that are equipped with 24-inch HD monitors and headsets that pipe in the ambient sounds from the game sites in China. Every bit of 13 sports, and some of basketball, is called in this fashion on MSNBC, USA and CNBC.

The announcers never see anything more than what the viewers see. There is no deception afoot here. The announcers make it clear that they are in New York, as do the studio hosts."

Makes me wonder if --in a pinch-- one of our guys could "call" a game by watching it on TV? Yes, I know we'd lose all the good ambience from the booth. And much more. I'm just wondering.

Bush declines to slap Misty May-Treanor's bikinied butt

From LA Times Top of the Ticket blog: "Defending gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh gave (President Bush) some (vollyball) pointers. Then after a good play, in the tradition of female volleyballers, Misty May-Treanor turned, bent over slightly and offered her bikinied rear-end for the 43rd president to slap. "Mr. President," she said, "want to?"

Want to? Want to?! W declined but you know he had to be thinking: Nobody respects me now and in six months I'll be out off office. Why shouldn't I pat this Gold Medal tush?

Bonus Photo courtesy of Horn Dog Heater.

Learfield Sports "flight simulator training" (video)

I stopped by the Learfield Sports Operations Center last night and walked in on training of new board ops for the coming football season. A recorded play-by-play broacast (from last year) is used to train the noobs. Fans (from the word "fanatical") have a low tolerance for mistakes. Broadcasts are expected to be error free. I don't have the nerves for it. Rather sub as air traffic controller.

I'm running away from home

I've packed my little bag and said goodbye to Barb. As soon as I can come up with Kerri Walsh's phone number I'm going to call her and have her come get me. We'll tell people I'm her father (okay, her grandfather). I'll be the one crouched by the net, ready to towel off my Goddess of Beach Volleyball.

Seriously, this is the only sport worth waiting in line for. I'd like to meet the person who came up with the idea of sponsoring the back of her bikini bottom. [Photo: Kerri (6'3") hugging her teammate Misty May-Treanor (5'10")]

Sports fan blogs (NPR Audio)

Interesting story on NPR this morning about a sports blog called The LoHud Yankees Blog. The blog seems to be a collaborative effort by Journal News beat writer Peter Abraham and a shit-load of fans. According to the NPR piece, a post can get as many as a thousand comments and readers will post to the blog form the stands, in the middle of a game.

I have a theory about blogs like this one. If the Yankees organization tried to create  such a successful blog, they couldn't. Wouldn't matter how much money they threw at it. There is some organic quality to really successful blogs like this one that is damned hard for big institutions to foster.

Smart companies will find and encourage and support efforts like this one. Is there a risk that someone will post something unflattering about the Yankees? Of course. But get a clue... they'll do that anyway.

Most of the pro leagues have some sort of dumb-ass policy regarding live-blogging of games by reporters so I'm a little curious how the Journal News is pulling this off. If Mr. Abraham or someone from the paper stumbles across this post, I'd love to know the answer. Could it be the Yankees are smart enough to know a really good thing when they see it?

The Low Key Sports Network

Not being a sports fan, I don't get all the hoopla surrounding play-by-play announcers. Our company hires and manages some of the biggies in collegiate sports and fans are heart-attack serious where these guys are concerned (no women announcers?).

But I finally found (over at With Leather) a play-by-play announcer I can relate to.

Line drive to the frontal lobe

Found this scary video (and amusing description) at With Leather: "Notre Dame's Wade Korpi took a line drive off his dome during his start last weekend against Rutgers, leaving him on the ground for about five minutes before he walked off the field under his own power.  When asked to comment on the play, he said, "Butterfly jelly banana good hammer.""

I don't follow baseball so, if the ball ricocheted into the first baseman's glove, would the batter have been out?

Bonus Still Shot: Man gets one in the kisser by flying bat.

NFL: Radio and TV okay, the web...no way

I've posted a couple of times on the restrictive policies of the NFL and the MLB regarding audio, video, still images and other content on websites.

Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre is holding a news conference to officially announce he's hanging it up. First words out of the Packer media guy's mouth: You can broadcast on radio and TV, but no streaming from websites. Except for one: Packers.com.

Hardly a mystery. The Packers do not --as far as I know-- own radio or TV stations. But they DO have a website and and it's got lots of sponsors. Just one more example of how the web is changing --if you'll forgive me-- the playing field. Once upon a time, the teams and the leagues needed the media to reach their fans. They still need them, but maybe not as much and not for everything. As more and more fans --and advertisers-- move to the web, this will be a big issue.

Update: Lost remote reports that traffic at Packers.com was so heavy, they had to switch to a breaking-news layout.

Major League Baseball imposes online restrictions

Lost Remote's Cory Bergman: "Major League Baseball is instituting new restrictions for web content. Websites will now be held to two minutes of video (or audio) a day gathered at MLB facilities — but formal press conferences are exempt to this rule. Similar to the NFL, there’s no live streaming. But in an unique twist, sites will be limited to 7 photos per game. And no photo galleries, either (it’s unclear what they mean by that.) All non-text content must be removed after 72 hours. If you don’t follow the new rules, your press passes could be revoked. The Sports Business Journal has the story here, but a subscription is required."

Paranoid Theory #1: MLB (and NFL) want to control their content from creation all the way to the end user (the fan). They foresee a time when they don't need TV and radio networks to broadcast games and related events. It will all be streamed directly to a mobile device. MLB/NFL will keep all related fees and/or advertising. Media outlets that want to cover these events, will do so on MLB/NFL terms.

New blogging rules from the NCAA

"The NCAA this week announced a formal program limiting how often bloggers with media credentials can update their blog while attending championship college events.

The sports governing body set blogging limits for each sport. For example, those at football games can update their blogs three times per quarter and once at halftime. For basketball, bloggers can post five times per half, once at halftime and twice per overtime period.

The policy even sets rules for water polo (three per quarter, once at halftime), bowling (10 blog posts per session) and fencing (10 per session)."

It seems pretty clear that the NCAA wants to prohibit anything approaching real-time coverage of the event. Companies --like the one I work for-- pay millions for the exclusive broadcast rights to collegiate sporting events. A reporter (or a dozen reporters) up in the press box live blogging the game --in theory-- dilutes the value of the rights we purchased.

The phrase that caught my eye was "bloggers with media credentials." If I'm just a fan, can I blog at will? If your credentials are at stake, you probably wouldn't fight this. But if you're  a civilian, you could tell the NCAA to piss off. Does this mean the NCAA thinks only bloggers with some media connection can/will have a significant audience? [News.com via J-Walk Blog

Sports bars draw fantasy footballers on laptops

Interesting trend showing up in sports bars. Fantasy football fans are showing up with their laptops to watch games on the big screens while following stats on the little (laptop) screens. Smart bar owners are embracing the trend with free wifi and drink specials. You can listen to Ethan Lindsey's at NPR.org.

Rediscovering high school football

Cover story on Broadcasting & Cable looks at how some local TV stations are "rediscovering" high school football:

"Vital to high school football's rise in popularity is the fact that technology has finally reached a point where the typical teen, raised on YouTube, can easily upload video and share highlights from that night's game. Station managers say the interactive nature of new media -- whether it's user-generated video, scores or trash-talking -- is a critical component of their school content.

Hearst-Argyle Television has taken the interactive concept a step further, training students in seven markets to be “sideline reporters” for its social-networking platform High School Playbook. A total of 60 students shoot high-def cameras, edit and post their work on the Web site."

The good news --and the bad news-- is this is no longer the turf of any medium. I know TV, cable and newspapers are jumping in. I hope there are radio stations doing them same. How hard would it be?

Let's say there are 10 HS football teams within the range of my station's signal. I recruit and train 10 reporters (and 10 back-up's) on how to shoot/edit game highlights. They upload same to the station YouTube channel (sponsored, of course) and we promote like mad. Incentive? Maybe some pocket money. Best video of the season wins a video iPod (others get iPod Shuffles and iTunes gift cards).

Game Day 09.01.07

One floor below my office is the Learfield Sports Operations Center. On Saturday, the place was hopping for the opening weekend of the college football season. Our guys produce 19 college sports broadcasts here (and some more off-site).

The play-by-play audio comes back to Jeff City where our producers and board operators mush it all together and send it back out --via satellite-- to about 800 radio stations from coast to coast. Think shuttle launch but more people will be pissed if something goes wrong.

They start back in May and then work their asses off for the next four months. I won't even try to mention everyone by name. And this short (6 min) video doesn't begin to capture the energy (and sometimes tension) of "game day." But Broadcast Operations Manager Tom Boman does a nice job of summarizing some of what it takes to get all these games out to stations.

Once again, shot with the Casio EX-S770 and edited in iMovie.

Blogger removed from NCAA baseball game for blogging

A blogger from the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., was expelled from a college playoff game for live-blogging.

According to the Courier-Journal, staff blogger Brian Bennett was approached by NCAA officials in the fifth inning of a game between the University of Lousville and Oklahoma State, told that blogging "from an NCAA championship event 'is against NCAA policies (and) we're revoking the (press) credential and need to ask you to leave the stadium.'" [News.com]

This hits close to home. The company I work for is one of half a dozen big players in collegiate sports marketing. We pay millions for exclusive broadcast and marketing rights for the sporting events at our partner schools. Does that extend to a reporter blogging int he stands? Does it extend to a fan blogging in the stands? I think our "company position" would be that it does. If and when it comes up, I think we have to handle it correctly but I'm not sure just that would be.

NBA taps into Second Life

"The NBA has launched an elaborate series of interactive milieus in the popular online virtual world Second Life, including a 3D NBA store, a mock NBA arena and even a press center where Web users can roam and play using video-game-like avatars.

Second Life, which claims close to six million registered users worldwide and is visited by more than a million or so every two months, has increasingly become a testing ground for marketers and media companies. The new NBA Headquarters in Second Life is the first such exploration of the virtual world phenomenon by the league." [Story at MediaWeek.com]

This is what I've come to think of as a "For the Record" post.

Blog lemonade

The "West Virginia" printed on the shirts players wore after winning the NIT title with a 78-73 victory over Clemson on Thursday night is missing the last "i" in "Virginia." WVU sports information director Shelly Poe said the NIT printed the shirts.

Embarrassing? Maybe a little for the NIT. But certainly not for West Virginia. Their accomplishment is in no way diminished. But it will get a little ink for a day or two.

If I were the Resident Blogger for West Virginia Athletics, I would be having some fun with this.

• Invite fans to send in videos of themselves wearing the T-shirt and explaining the misspelling.
• Post an explanation loaded with typos.
• Have a fake professor (with British accent) explain how the spelling on the shirt is --in fact-- the original, "correct" spelling of "Virgina"

Blogging lemonade.

Disclosure: The company I work for handles multi-media marketing for Clemson.

March Madness stats, YouTube deal

Lost Remote: "As of 4 p.m. on the first day of the NCAA tournament, CBS Sportsline said it had logged 1.5 million visits and 800,000 registrations to March Madness on Demand, the site’s free live video service. Just before the tip off of the Maryland-Davidson game, 189,000 users were waiting in line to watch the game live. Impressive. Meanwhile, CBS cut another deal with YouTube, this time to stream March Madness highlights on the site. The section is sponsored by Pontiac, which is also sponsoring coverage on the air."

Hmmmm.

Blogging the Hoosiers

Disclosure/Disclaimer: The company I work is the current multimedia marketing and broadcast rightsholder for Indiana University (and a bunch of other high profile colleges and universities). The views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own and have no connection to Learfield Communiction.

It was brought to my attention today that a couple of Indianapolis newspapers --The Herald-Times and The Indianapolis Star-- were blogging about the Hoosiers. Hoosiers Insider and the Hoosier Scoop are pretty typical for newspaper blogs.

Hoosier Scoop had audio of a post-game press conference and included short video clips from the press conference and students storming the floor following Indiana’s 71-66 win agaisnt No. 2 Wisconsin. And they had someone (an intern?) live-blogging the big game.

"3:38, second half: Indiana 64,Wisconsin 59"

Companies like ours --and there are only a handful-- pay a lot of money for exclusive broadcast and marketing rights. But we've entered the world of blogs and podcasts and YouTube and camera phones and maintaining "exclusive" control of the sporting events becomes something of a challenge.

And what's a "broadcast" now? Just radio and TV? And the fans are getting in the act. How do we stop them from putting audio, video and still images on their blogs and in their podcasts? And should we stop them? Should we encourage them?

But back to the Indianapolis blogs. Here's what I'd do:

Hold a contest to find the best Hoosier blogger in Indiana. To be eligible, you have to have been blogging for at least six months. Fans come to a website to vote on the three finalists. The winner gets a brand new laptop and digital camera...and a seat in the press box for every home game, where they blog the game. What the hell, let's plut a webcam in the booth so fans can watch the announcers. I'd have our on-site producer pulling play-by-play audio highlights and making them available to post. All of this, of course, would be sponsored.

I'd leverage our broadcasts and access to coaches and such, to out-blog the newspaper guys.

I remember, back in the mid-nineties, the first time we saw a university include webcasting in their bid specs. It seemed almost... cute. A novelty. I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring.

Improve your swing with video iPod

Baseball players are using their iPods to do their pregame video studies. According to a story by Jayson Stark at ESPN.com, Astros pitcher Jason Jennings thinks his iPod turned his whole season around. Stark predicts: "One of these days you'll see a pitcher take a walk behind the mound during a key at-bat, pull out his iPod and take a quick video-refresher course before launching the big pitch of the night. Heck, if NFL quarterbacks can get plays radioed right into their helmets, why not?" [Thanks, Barb]

Unrelated sports note: I'm guessing I might be one of the few people on the planet that has NO idea which two teams are playing in Sunday's Super Bowl.

Boise State victory a smash on iTunes

LostRemote reports: "Boise State’s incredible victory in the Fiesta Bowl sold like crazy on iTunes, but it still tops the most popular list of TV shows five days later. And that top clip isn’t the full game, which is available for $2.99, but the “short cuts” condensed version for $1.99."

Rose Bowl announcer talking about bloggers?

TV on in the background. Last couple of minutes of the Rose Bowl. I thought I heard the announcers say something about "the bloggers will be out" if Michigan loses. Did I hear that correctly?

I have no doubt there are a shit-load of fan blogs for every college and pro team, so I'm not sure why I would be surprised the subject would be mentioned in the broadcast. Can any of you sports fans enlighten me on this? Have bloggers become enough of a factor they get mentioned in such high-profile broadcasts?

Drunk, weepy Cardinal fans

Two very drunk fans at the final game in Busch Stadium. I've been that drunk but not when the TV camera was rolling. No idea how long this link will hold but thanks to David for the pointer.

Steve Spurrier Podcast

New South Carolina Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier has the highest SEC winning percentage in history. And he is --I am told by those that know-- something of rock star among big-name football coaches. Our company produces the Gamecock football broadcasts and the weekly call-in show, featuring Spurrier and the the play-by-play guy. Tomorrow night is the first show and in addition to airing on a bunch of SC radio stations...and streaming at Yahoo! Broadcast... we've set up a podcast feed. There has been almost zero publicity on this but I've got a feeling fans will find this quickly. Thursday nights from 7:05 - 8:00 p.m. EDT