USports Livestreams: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Part 1

Over the past two years working from home, and zoom meetings became the ultimate norm, transmission of live video from one device to another has become a necessity. So has our expectation for delivery of video content over the internet. Sports are now being live streamed as an alternative to traditional television, but not all live streams are created equal.

The Pros

The MLB has a partnership to show some games exclusively with YouTube. Amazon Prime will soon be the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football. Live streaming used to be the inexpensive way to get sports to users. Now with a changing landscape, it may become the way to get live sports to users wherever they are.

Think back to the NBA bubble. With no fans in the stands, the NBA completely focused on the television product and went to great lengths to make it a theatrical production. The NFL often has multiple broadcasts of the same game – some for kids (Nickelodeon), some for the general audience, and one with the Manning Brothers! My expectation is not that the USports should be going to this length, but just that our expectations of the broadcast have been heightened greatly especially with the creation of some inexpensive accessible live streaming tools.

Having worked in an athletic department for many years, I understand that resources are often scarce, and the biggest resource is not necessarily money, but qualified people. When I worked at McMaster we had an exceptional partnership with Cable 14 who did an outstanding job capturing almost all of our matches. Some schools can create partnerships like this, others integrate it with academic programs and provide opportunities for other students.

Each school needs to find its own way to livestream and each conference streams in a different location. OUA.tv, Canadawest.tv and AUS.tv are all hosted by YareTV. The OUA and AUS are free while Canada West is a premium paid service. The RSEQ is a mix with some schools choosing YareTV, while others opt for YouTube, or their own system.

Personally, I like the idea of going to a single spot and knowing that I can see all conference games as well as having a set of standards to follow.

Live Streaming Basics

I’m not a professional broadcaster (our Editor Emily Cordonier is the broadcaster for most UBC home games and has been a CBC broadcaster for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics), although I did have the opportunity to provide colour commentary during the 2019 Can Am Volleyball Showcase. It’s hard and I spent days preparing so that I could try to deliver a better product.

There are a few things that make a broadcast possible, and I’ve broken them down in to “Must Have”, “Nice to Have”, and “Going Above and Beyond”.

Must Have

High Speed Connection – Broadcasting with a wifi connection does not work very well. Schools need to be streaming with a hard wired connection. YareTV seems to be a stable platform. Nothing worse than a stream that keeps dropping or freezing.

One Good Camera Angle – Ensuring that you have a good wide angle that captures the entire court so that we can watch all the action.

Scoreboard – Ensure that there is a scoreboard and it’s up to date. There are score bugs that can tie into the scoreboards in each gymnasium.

Nice to Have

Good Commentary – I know most people would put this in the need to have section, but I would rather listen to the PA announcer in the video than listen to bad commentary. I mean if it is really bad, I’ll likely mute the stream! I’ll touch on what makes good commentary below.

Multiple Camera Angles – This makes the game less boring. When a camera angle is changed in anything you watch, it signals that something is different. Even if the content is the same, our eyes and brains like when there are different camera angles.

Going Above and Beyond

Instant Replay – This is wonderful to see what you missed in the play. This requires a crew or a sophisticated automated system that can tag the play, and then someone skilled enough to know when to replay it, and not miss live action.

Graphics – Introductions or in between plays being able to show graphics on players or the match are a nice touch. Updating and showing live stats from the match takes it to the next level, but simply having headshots loaded with previous stats is a great way to add a little something extra to the broadcast.

Talent

I don’t really have a preference between a single commentator or two people working together in a play by play and colour commentary role. I’ve always found that volleyball didn’t really need much play by play! “He sets, he scores!” I do have a few expectations of talent and my first one is likely the most important.

1. Know the basics and use professional language. “A big spike” makes you seem like you don’t really know the sport! Do a little bit of research. Take a look at the rosters and look for any names that may be difficult to pronounce – practice a couple times so the first time you say the name isn’t on air. It provides a lot more information and insight to people watching the game.
2. I understand you are going to be biased to the home team, but don’t actively cheer for them when you are broadcasting. The match is in the home team’s gym, so it’s more likely that there are more of your fans at the game, and more fans of the opposing team watching the broadcast.
3. Bonus – Provide me some information that I would not get if I came to see the match in person. The PA announcer tells him who got the kill. I want more from a broadcaster. This could be background about an athlete, or a coach. Or an analysis on a play. You don’t always have to be right but give me something to think about. An easy way to do this is to arrive at the gym a little bit early, and pop down to the court and ask each coach what they think of the upcoming game.

Commercials

The mandated commercials from the conferences to activate their sponsors have elevated the quality of all broadcasts. I really enjoy the wealth of professional videos promoting the OUA currently. While this gives users a break (see above on multiple camera angles) it also gives the broadcaster a short break. While taking a break, I would love for broadcasters to do a couple of things.

1. Integrate social media in to the broadcast and utilize this time to respond to anything that comes out of those watching the broadcast? Yes do it professionally, but interacting with your viewers is a great way to keep engagement.
2. Live stats are now being used with the live scoresheet and they are updated in real time. Check in, give the viewers a real update on how the players are playing by using stats.

These two things can be done on a phone or on a separate laptop and require very little investment from schools.

Let me know if I’ve missed anything that you love or hate with a live stream.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I break down my rankings for Live Streams in USports.