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Football Selection Show Goes Global

October 13, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director 

The watch party of the MHSAA Selection Show on FOX Sports Detroit will go global for the first time Oct. 25, as the 60-minute program announcing the qualifiers and pairings for the MHSAA Football Playoffs also will be streamed online on the FoxSportsDetroit.com website.

Mobile viewing also will be available of the program on FOX Sports GO, which is a free download for Android and iOS devices. The Selection Sunday Show will air live on FOX Sports Detroit at 7 p.m. Oct. 25.

One of the newest members of the MHSAA's School Broadcast Program will debut content Wednesday – live coverage of the Detroit Catholic High School League Boys Soccer Finals. In the first game at 5 p.m., Dearborn Divine Child faces the No. 7 team in the Division 2 coaches poll, Orchard Lake St. Mary's, in the CB title match. The AB championship has Birmingham Brother Rice against Detroit Catholic Central, which is ranked No. 7 in Division 1, at 7 p.m.

The CHSL also will stream its annual football championships Oct. 24 and its girls volleyball finals Oct. 26.

More than two dozen athletic events produced by students involved in the School Broadcast Program are scheduled for the coming week on MHSAA.tv.

In its seventh year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. 

The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.  

All sporting events – Live or On-Demand – are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online. They become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program events planned this week at MHSAA.tv. On-Demand listings may be available as soon as one hour following an event’s completion.  (List as of Oct. 13):

Tuesday – Oct. 13

Wednesday – Oct. 14

Thursday – Oct. 15

Friday – Oct. 16

Tuesday – Oct. 20

Weekly highlights from games produced by participants in the MHSAA's School Broadcast Program are back for another school year on MHSAA.TV. This week's highlights are from football games East Kentwood at Rockford and Bloomfield Hills at Lake Orion and a boys soccer semifinal match in the Capital Area Activities Conference Cup between Williamston at East Lansing. Watch this week's highlights below.  

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

Launching at Midnight every Friday throughout the season is MHSAA Football Friday Overtime on FOX Sports Detroit. Mickey York and Rob Rubick host the weekly 30-minute highlights show.  The show will re-air most Saturday and Sunday mornings – and will be archived on the FOX Detroit Website. This week, FFOT will re-air at 6, 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. Saturday; and 7 a.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit. 

The following games are scheduled to be highlighted this week on Football Friday Overtime:

  • Mayville at Detroit Cesar Chavez
  • Southfield at Oak Park 
  • Detroit Catholic Central vs. Warren DeLaSalle at Wayne State University 
  • New Haven at Clawson 
  • St. Clair Shores South Lake at Madison Heights Madison    
  • Plus – SBP Coverage of East Grand Rapids at Lowell and Ironwood at Calumet.

Otisville-LakeVille First SBP Using Pixellot

January 31, 2017

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director 

A challenge to schools wanting to stream live video of their athletic events to their communities is being able to adequately staff those productions.

“We had signed up for the School Broadcast Program over a year ago and we were really excited to get our games out to the community, and when it came to it, we just couldn’t get the manpower to run the equipment,” said Drew Johnson, the athletic director at Otisville-LakeVille High School in Genesee County. “That first day, we had everything lined up, we were ready to go, and two of our three kids missed school that day for being sick. It was just a hassle.

“So when we heard about Pixellot, it was a quick and easy decision.”

Just three weeks ago, LakeVille became the first school in Michigan and one of the first in the country to install a Pixellot unit in its gymnasium, automating the process of streaming live video on MHSAA.tv and the NFHS Network.

Pixellot is a unit equipped with four High Definition cameras that cover the length of the playing surface and then focus in on the ball and player movement to deliver the action.  The unit communicates with the scoreboard to insert a time and score graphic on the screen. Ambient audio is picked up by the device, but the play-by-play of an in-person announce team can also be patched in.

All that has to be done from a school’s perspective is type in the event schedule, and promote the fact that the games are available on MHSAA.tv. Pixellot does the rest. The unit can also be set up to isolate a camera on a fixed location, which allows for activities like wrestling to also be streamed.

“We’re going to do everything that takes place in our gym,” Johnson said. “We’re also excited about being able to record our practices as well.”

Johnson added that the school will look into installing additional Pixellot units at its middle school auditorium for musical events and LakeVille’s outdoor athletic fields in the future. 

In its eighth year, the School Broadcast Program gives members an opportunity to showcase excellence in their schools by creating video programming of athletic and non-athletic events, with students gaining skills in announcing, camera operation, directing/producing and graphics. 

The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions.  

All sporting events – Live or On-Demand – are available on a subscription basis only for their first 72 hours online. They become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

Here’s the schedule of events School Broadcast Program members plan to stream over the next week for broadcast at MHSAA.tv. 

Tuesday, Jan. 31

Wednesday, Feb. 1

Thursday, Feb. 2

Friday, Feb. 3

Saturday, Feb. 4

Monday, Feb. 6

Tuesday, Feb. 7

Be sure to check the Upcoming Events page at MHSAA.tv for schedule additions every day.

The NFHS Network has announced new pricing for 2016-17, eliminating the Day Pass and lowering the cost of a Month Pass to $9.95. Subscribers will have access to all live video and streaming statistics across the country. All content becomes available for free, on-demand viewing 72 hours after being shown live. Some schools also will be selling Annual Passes at a discounted rate. A portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program.

A complete list of participating schools can be found on the School Broadcast Program page of the MHSAA website.

Fans also can access scores of games in-progress on the NFHS Network website via ScoreStream. Click on the Scores button in the upper right corner.

A weekly staple on the MHSAA.tv website and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube is back for another year with highlights of selected games last week produced by members of the Association’s School Broadcast Program.

This week’s highlights package consists of clips from last week’s Bark River-Harris at Powers North Central boys basketball game in which the Jets set a state record for consecutive boys hoops victories, an ice hockey game pitting Detroit Catholic Central at Brighton in a battle of two of the top teams in the state and a demonstration of Pixellot in action during a boys basketball game with Millington at Otisville-LakeVille. 

Schools interested in becoming a part of the School Broadcast Program should contact John Johnson at the MHSAA Office.

PHOTOS: (Top) A laptop shows the variety of angles for the Pixellot and the calibration of its four cameras. (Middle) This Pixellot hangs at midcourt at Otisville-LakeVille High School.