MHSAA TV Returns to the Mats

March 2, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

Most of the MHSAA Championship action on MHSAA.tv in the coming week can be found on the mat, with nearly 300 hours of live streaming video in Girls Competitive Cheer and Individual Wrestling, plus Student Broadcast Program-produced coverage of Basketball Districts.

Live streaming this week begins at 2 p.m. on Thursday (March 3) from The Palace of Auburn Hills at the Individual Wrestling Finals.  A dedicated camera will be on each of 12 mats on the floor, and include full graphics to indicate the participants on each match, plus full in-progress scoring information via Trackwrestling.

Here’s the complete wrestling coverage schedule:

·  Thursday – First Round – 2 p.m.

·  Friday – Rounds 2-3-4 – 8:30 a.m. - Round 2 at 8:30 a.m. is the first Consolation round. Round 3 at about 10:30 a.m. is the second round in the Championship bracket. Round 4 at about 1:30 p.m. is the second round in the Consolation bracket.

·  Friday – Semifinal Round – 7 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 – Final Round & Awards Presentations – 4:45 p.m.

Girls Competitive Cheer coverage begins Friday (March 4) from The DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids. Here’s the complete schedule

·  Friday – Division 1 – 6 p.m. (East Kentwood, Grandville, Hudsonville, Lake Orion, Livonia Stevenson, Rochester, Southgate Anderson, Sterling Heights Stevenson, Troy Athens)

·  Saturday – Division 2 – 10 a.m. (Allen Park, Dearborn Divine Child, DeWitt, Gibraltar Carlson, Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills, Muskegon Mona Shores, Richland Gull Lake, Trenton)

·  Saturday - Division 4 – 2 p.m.  (Breckenridge, Farwell, Houghton Lake, Hudson, Merrill, Michigan Center, Pewamo-Westphalia, Sanford Meridian)

·  Saturday - Division 3 – 6 p.m. (Comstock Park, Escanaba, Lake Odessa Lakewood, Monroe Jefferson, Paw Paw, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep, Ovid-Elsie, Richmond)

The continued Wrestling and full Cheer coverage is part of six straight weekends of live MHSAA Championship coverage on MHSAA.tv. Online viewers can catch every weekend of action for one low cost of $14.95. 

A Month Pass on MHSAA.tv for $14.95 will give a viewer access to events over a 30-day period from the time it is purchased.  Over the next three weekends of live Winter championship coverage, the following events will be featured: 

  • Girls Basketball Districts – March 2-4
  • Boys Basketball Districts – March 7-9-11
  • Girls Basketball Regionals – March 8-10
  • Ice Hockey Semifinals & Finals – March 10-12
  • Girls Gymnastics Finals – March 11-12
  • Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving Finals – March 12
  • Boys Basketball Regionals – March 14-16
  • Girls Basketball Quarterfinals – March 15
  • Girls Basketball Semifinals – March 17-18
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 22
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 24-25 

A Day Pass is available for $9.95.  All events become available for free, on-demand viewing approximately 72 hours following their completion.

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.

Upcoming MHSAA Tournament coverage by SBP members includes a Girls Basketball District at Mt. Pleasant which could have a rubber match in its Final on Friday between Saginaw Heritage and Midland Dow, two top five teams in Class A which split their regular-season meetings.  At Laingsburg, the three teams that tied for the regular-season title in the Central Michigan Athletic Conference are in the Semifinals, with Bath and Laingsburg squaring off, and Pewamo-Westphalia on the other side of the bracket.

Here’s the schedule of events School Broadcast Program members plan to cover this week for broadcast on MHSAA.tv  (As of March 1): 

March 2

  • Class C Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Laingsburg

·         Saranac v. Pewamo-Westphalia – 5:30 p.m. - LIVE

·         Laingsburg v. Bath – 7 p.m. - LIVE

  • Class A Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Mt. Pleasant

·         Saginaw Heritage v. Bay City Western – 5:30 p.m. - LIVE

·         Midland v. Midland Dow winner – 7:30 p.m. - LIVE

  • Class D Girls Basketball District at Rogers City

·         Onaway at Rogers City – 6 p.m. – LIVE

  • Class A Girls Basketball District Semifinals at Lake Orion

·         Waterford Mott at Lake Orion – 7 p.m. – LIVE

  • Division 3 Ice Hockey Regional at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood

·         Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood v. Madison Heights Bishop Foley – 7:45 p.m. – LIVE

March 3

  • Tawas Area at Alpena – JV Boys Basketball – 5:30 p.m. – LIVDE
  • Whittemore-Prescott at Rogers City – JV Boys Basketball – 6 p.m. - On-Demand
  • OAA Crossover at Lake Orion – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – LIVE
  • Lansing Waverly at East Lansing – Boys Basketball – 7 p.m. – On-Demand
  • Escanaba at Calumet – Boys Basketball – 7:20 p.m. – LIVE
  • Whittemore-Prescott at Rogers City – Boys Basketball – 7:30 p.m. - LIVE 

 

March 4

  • Class A Girls Basketball Finals at Mt. Pleasant – 6:30 p.m. - LIVE
  • Class C Girls Basketball District Finals at Laingsburg – 7 p.m. - LIVE

 

March 5 

  • Division 3 Ice Hockey Regional at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood

·         Teams TBA – 3:15 p.m. – LIVE

 

March 7

  • Class A Boys Basketball District First Round at East Lansing

·         East Lansing v. Lansing Waverly – 5 p.m. - LIVE

·         Haslett v. Grand Ledge – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE 

March 8

  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mason - 6 & 7:30 p.m. - LIVE
  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Hudsonville - 6 & 8 p.m.  - LIVE

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

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.