The Audio-Visual Department is now streaming free broadcasts of volleyball, football, and basketball home games. Additionally, they have added a slow motion aspect and a third camera.
Although the AV department already streams live broadcasts of campus lectures like CCAs and has offered a paid streaming service for sporting events, this is the first year that the sports broadcasts are free and improved quality. Brad Monastiere, sports information director, said that the college has committed to improving its video equipment, and this is one of the results.
Sam Brown, video content editor, said the improved quality is a result of the AV department’s fiber project.
“There’s a recently completed fiber optic project, which is a fiber optic cable that runs from different points on campus, including the sports complex. It allows us to bring all the video feeds back to a control room in the studio,” Brown said. The fiber optic cable allows the video feed to stream to the internet much more easily.
“The current system is new. In the past the slow motion replays were all standard definition, but now it’s hi-def, and it’s actually the same system that ESPN and a lot of professional sports use, which is also something that not very many colleges have,” Brown said.
Parents of Charger athletes will especially benefit from this new service.
“On our volleyball team alone, we have players from Washington, California, and Virginia, among other states. This service allows them – free of charge – to watch the games live,” Monastiere said in an email.
Kyra Rodi, a volleyball player from California, is among those players whose parents are most excited about the change.
“Both my parents and I are really excited to have free, live-broadcasting of our games. It’s great to be able to share with family and friends how hard our team works, even when they can’t be at our games in person,” Rodi said.
Brown said alumni are also excited about this.
The first broadcast occurred at the volleyball game against Findlay on September 23rd. The first football broadcasts will occur at the homecoming game against Grand Valley on Saturday. Brown said that students will be able to watch the game from the TVs in the union, as well as from their computers.
“It has the potential to draw more people to a game if they happen to see it online. If [students] can see that a game’s going on right now and something exciting is happening, they might want to make the quick walk down to the stadium,” Brown said. “I think it will increase our student body’s connection and appreciation for our sports.”
In addition to enhancing student involvement in the athletic department, this also provides the opportunity to sell advertisements. Brown said there will be local and national ads.
The AV department will also be able to make highlight videos of the games.
Sophomore Nathanael Meadowcroft, student worker in the AV department and technical director for Chargers volleyball games, is looking forward to using the new equipment.
“With three cameras and slow motion, it was a little more difficult, but it’s actually kind of nice,” Meadowcroft said about his first experience directing. “Hopefully we’ll end up having graphics too, so I’ll have a scoreboard and stats, and I can build my way up to that,”
Brown said that eventually the program may also expand to baseball or indoor track events.
All videos can be found on the Hillsdale Chargers website.
