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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.

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.