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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.

4 Sports Streamed This Week on MHSAA TV

March 8, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

There’s lot of MHSAA Tournament action with live streaming video on the MHSAA.tv website this week, including Finals in Girls Gymnastics, Ice Hockey and Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming & Diving.

The streams will include a number of Basketball Tournament games from Boys District and Girls Regional play produced by participants in the MHSAA’s School Broadcast Program.

The championship live streaming begins Thursday at 5 p.m. with the first of two Division 2 Semifinal games in the Ice Hockey Tournament.  Division 3 and 1 Semifinals follow on Friday (March 11), with the Finals on Saturday (March 12).

Here’s the complete Ice Hockey coverage schedule:

• Thursday – Division 2 Semifinals
Utica Eisenhower/Detroit U-D Jesuit Quarterfinal winner v. Saginaw Swan Valley/Detroit Catholic Central winner – 5 p.m.
East Kentwood/Brighton Quarterfinal winner v. Rockford/Grandville winner – 7:30 p.m.

• Friday – Division 3 Semifinals
Detroit Country Day/Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood Quarterfinal winner v. Hancock/Sault Ste. Marie winner – 11 a.m.
Grand Rapids Catholic Central/Saginaw Heritage Quarterfinal winner v. Gibraltar Carlson/Chelsea winner – 1:30 p.m.

• Friday – Division 1 Semifinals
Hartland/Birmingham Brother Rice Quarterfinal winner v. Livonia Stevenson/Trenton winner – 5 p.m.
Marquette/Ada Forest Hills Eastern Quarterfinal winner v. Romeo/New Baltimore Anchor Bay winner – 7:30 p.m.

• Saturday – Finals
10 a.m. – Division 2
2 p.m. – Division 3
6 p.m. – Division 1

Girls Gymnastics coverage begins at 2 p.m. Friday with Team Finals competition at Rockford High School and will be followed Saturday with the Individual Finals at Noon. This event will be produced by the School Broadcast Program at Rockford High School. There will be a dedicated camera on each apparatus (Bars, Balance Beam, Floor Exercise, Vault), with an announcer providing information on each channel regarding who is competing in each event at a given time. 

Lower Peninsula Boys Swimming and Diving coverage begins at noon Saturday at three locations, with the consolation and championship heat in each swimming event, plus the final round of the diving. 

The continued Gymnastics, Hockey and Swimming 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 $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 two weeks of live winter championship coverage, the following events will be featured: 

  • Boys Basketball Regionals – March 14-16
  • Girls Basketball Quarterfinals – March 15
  • Girls Basketball Semifinals – March 17-18
  • Boys Basketball Quarterfinals – March 22
  • Boys Basketball Semifinals – March 24-25

A Day Pass is available for $9.95. All events will be available for free on-demand viewing by Wednesday the week following their initial live airing. 

The MHSAA Championship Radio Network begins three straight weekends of winter tournament coverage this weekend at the Ice Hockey Semifinals and Finals. The audio stream is available at MHSAANetwork.com. Over the following two weekends, the MHSAA Championship Radio Network also will carry the Semifinals and Finals of the Girls and Boys Basketball Tournaments for distribution on an over-the-air network of radio stations, and on the internet.

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.

This week’s coverage of MHSAA Basketball includes a Class A Boys Basketball District featuring the No. 3 team – East Lansing High School, a Class A Girls Basketball Regional at Mason, a Class A Girls Basketball Regional at Hudsonville and a Class C Girls Basketball Regional at Marquette where two 2015 champions – Calumet (No. 3 – 2015 Class C champion) and St. Ignace (No. 6 – 2015 Class D champion), could square off in the Final.

Here’s the schedule of School Broadcast Program members planning to cover varsity competition this week for broadcast on MHSAA.tv  (As of March 7):

March 8

• Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mason
Battle Creek Lakeview v. East Lansing – 6 p.m.
Jackson Northwest v. Kalamazoo Central – 7:30 p.m.

• Class A Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Hudsonville
Hudsonville v. Greenville – 6 p.m. – LIVE
Muskegon Mona Shores v. Grand Rapids Christian – 8 p.m. – LIVE

• Class C Girls Basketball Regional Semifinals at Marquette
Negaunee v. Calumet – 6 p.m. – LIVE
Iron Mountain v. St. Ignace – 8 p.m. – LIVE

March 9
• Class A Boys Basketball District Semifinal at East Lansing
Lansing Eastern v. Haslett-Grand Ledge winner – 5 p.m. - LIVE
DeWitt v. East Lansing-Lansing Waverly winner – 7:30 p.m. – LIVE

March 10

  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Final at Mason
  • Class A Girls Basketball Regional Final at Hudsonville
  • Class C Girls Basketball Regional Final at Marquette

March 11

  • Class A Boys Basketball District Final at East Lansing

March 14

  • Class C Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Flint Hamady - 6 & 7:30 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Negaunee - 6 & 8 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Semifinals at Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart - 6 & 7:45 p.m. 

March 15

  • Class A Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Fenton – 7 p.m.
  • Class A Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Fowlerville – 7 p.m. 
  • Class D Girls Basketball Quarterfinals at Negaunee – 7 p.m. (Dependent on match-up) 

March 16

  • Class C Boys Basketball Regional Final at Flint Hamady – 7 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Final at Negaunee – 7 p.m.
  • Class D Boys Basketball Regional Final at Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart – 7 p.m.

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