Live streaming video

Talking with a friend who said his paper is going to be experimenting with live streaming video during prep sporting events. Just curious if anyone has experience with this. How hard is it to do and how much $$?

 

I've never done it for sporting events, but we've had success with ustream.tv. You can embed the player onto your paper's website.

Obviously you need a video camera, a tripod for that camera, a laptop that can be at the game and a good wireless signal for transmission. Also helps to have someone back in the office who can keep an eye on the "viewer" end of things and tell you when you've lost transmission.

 

I see the paper's experiment in failure. There won't be much traffic for crappy video. Plus you have to see enough ads to pay someone to run the camera and for play-by-play. I had one publisher who thought it could be done for a few bucks and they'd make a ton of money.

 

I think it could work for selected events, such as high school state championships that are held several hundred miles away. But you have to make sure you're unique ... if the school is live-streaming the same game, and the state association is live-streaming the same game, you're not going to have much of an audience.

You don't have to have play-by-play, either. For something like this you need more technical people than talent people.

 

And you probably have to get broadcast rights, too.

 

Since most of the players are under 18, I'm sure persmissions must be obtained from parents for their kids to be filmed.

It would be a good thing, but making it successful would be a huge undertaking. Unless there are some advertisers willing to step up to the plate for the streaming, then it will be tough to pull off.

 

Actually, you should be OK going through the school for permission. Those waivers parents sign at the beginning of the season should cover this type of thing. You don't need each kid's parents. The still photographer doesn't need each kid's parents.