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MHSAA TV Marches On The Mats

February 27, 2018

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties   

Another big weekend of MHSAA Championships take place on Friday and Saturday (March 2-3) on MHSAA.tv, as March Magic marches onto the Individual Wrestling and Girls Competitive Cheer mats.

Live Finals streaming this week begins at noon Friday from Ford Field in Detroit at the Individual Wrestling Finals. Manned cameras will be on each of 20 mats on the floor, and broadcasts will include full graphics to indicate the participants in each match, plus full in-progress scoring information via Trackwrestling.

The Girls Competitive Cheer Finals at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids begin Friday evening with Division 1, followed by the other three divisions Saturday.

Here’s the complete wrestling coverage schedule:

  • Friday – Rounds 1-2-3-4 – Noon
  • Friday – Semifinal Round – 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday – Rounds 6-7-8 – 8:30 a.m. - Round 6 at 8:30 a.m. is the third Consolation round. Round 7 at about 9:45 a.m. is the fourth Consolation Round. Round 8 at about 11 a.m. is the final round in the Consolation bracket.
  • Saturday – Finals – 3 p.m.
  • Saturday – Awards – 6 p.m. (TENTATIVE - Time approximate following conclusion of wrestling)

You can get to all of the wrestling action on a single landing page on the NFHS Network – Click Here.

Here’s the complete cheer coverage schedule:

  • Friday – Division 1 – 6 p.m. (East Kentwood, Grand Blanc, Grandville, Lake Orion, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Rochester Hills Stoney Creek, Sterling Heights Stevenson)
  • Saturday – Division 2 – 10 a.m. (Allen Park, Dearborn Divine Child, DeWitt, Gibraltar Carlson, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, Muskegon Mona Shores, Muskegon Reeths-Puffer,
    Southgate Anderson)
  • Saturday - Division 4 – 2 p.m.  (Addison, Adrian Madison, Farwell, Houghton Lake, Hudson, Merrill, Pewamo-Westphalia, Sanford Meridian)
  • Saturday - Division 3 – 6 p.m. (Charlotte, Comstock Park, Escanaba, Flat Rock, Lake Odessa Lakewood, Monroe Jefferson, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Richmond)

The continued Wrestling and full Cheer coverage is part of six straight weekends of live MHSAA Championship coverage on MHSAA.tv, and online viewers can catch every weekend of action for one low cost of $9.95. Over the next three weeks of live Winter championship coverage, the following events will be featured: 

  • March 8-10 – Ice Hockey Semifinals & Finals
  • March 13 – Girls Basketball Quarterfinals
  • March 15-16 – Girls Basketball Semifinals
  • March 20 – Boys Basketball Quarterfinals
  • March 22-23 – Boys Basketball Semifinals

In addition to all of the tournament action, regular-season coverage of contests by participants in the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program will bring more than 45 contests into homes over the coming week – including a number of District contests in Girls Basketball.

Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:

Tuesday, Feb. 27

Wednesday, Feb. 28

Thursday, March 1

Friday, March 2

Monday, March 5

Be sure to check “Upcoming Events” on the MHSAA.tv home page daily for last-minute additions.

In its ninth 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. Pixellot – The NFHS Network’s automated streaming solution – is used by schools wishing to live stream games, but lacking the ability to staff the events. The program also gives schools the opportunity to raise money through advertising and viewing subscriptions. 

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

Highlights of games produced in the past week by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members

feature a girls basketball game, Powers North Central at Norway, and a boys basketball game, Fowlerville at Lansing Catholic.

Highlights can be found each week on the MHSAA.tv website, the home page of the MHSAA Website, and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube.

Pixellot Productions On Rise

September 19, 2018

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

A year ago, Pixellot – the automated production solution for schools wishing to stream live video of their athletic events on the NFHS Network and MHSAA.tv – was in use at six schools across Michigan.

With the new school year underway, nearly two dozen schools are actively streaming events using Pixellot, with half of those schools streaming indoor and outdoor events. Several schools have more than two Pixellot units in place.

“Schools are finding that Pixellot provides a great opportunity to get a lot of their games out to their fans in a way they could never achieve,” said Mark Uyl, executive director of the MHSAA.  “We have some schools which are using a mix of their traditional, student-staffed, School Broadcast Program efforts along with Pixellot to be able to add subvarsity coverage; and schools going exclusively with Pixellot with installations at multiple venues.”

Pixellot units use from two to four High Definition cameras that cover the length of the playing surface and then focus 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 commentary of the public address announcer or the radio style play-by-play of an in-person announcing team also can 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 also can be set up to isolate a camera on a fixed location, which allows for activities like cheer and wrestling to be streamed.

Schools actively engaged in Pixellot productions now include: Ann Arbor Greenhills, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Brighton, Calumet, Dollar Bay, Frankenmuth, Freeland, Fremont, Grand Blanc, Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, Harrison, Howell, Kalamazoo Christian, Macomb Lutheran North, Manchester, Norway, Novi, Otisville-LakeVille, Ovid-Elsie, Plainwell, Saginaw Heritage, Saline, Stevensville Lakeshore, Warren DeLaSalle and Williamston. Schools using indoor and outdoor units include Cranbrook Kingswood, Frankenmuth, Freeland, Grand Blanc, Howell, Manchester, Norway, Novi, Ovid-Elsie, Plainwell, Saginaw Heritage, Saline and Stevensville Lakeshore. Additional schools will have their Pixellot units coming online soon.

More than 70 percent of the programming taking place this week on MHSAA.tv will be Pixellot productions, featuring a football game Friday evening with two of the top-ranked Division 1 teams facing off for the top spot in the Saginaw Valley League’s Red division. Grand Blanc hosts Davison at 7 p.m. Both teams are 4-0 overall and 2-0 in league play, tied with Lapeer for first place.

Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by School Broadcast Program members and the NFHS Network:

Tuesday - Sept. 18

Wednesday - Sept. 19 

Thursday - Sept. 20

Friday - Sept. 21

Saturday - Sept. 22

Monday - Sept. 24

Tuesday - Sept. 25

All sporting events – live or delayed - 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.

NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 a month. 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. School Broadcast Program participants also will be selling Season and Annual Passes at a discounted rate. A portion of every subscription sold by a school goes to benefit its program. 

Highlights of games broadcast during the past week by MHSAA School Broadcast Program contributors feature a pair of close football contests – Marquette’s 36-35 overtime win over Escanaba and Howell topping Novi, 21-17 – and a volleyball match with Lake Orion defeating Oxford, 3-0.

Highlights can be found each week on the MHSAA.tv website, the home page of the MHSAA Website, and the MHSAASports Channel on YouTube.

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