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Watch XC, Football, Soccer Online

November 2, 2016

By John Johnson
MHSAA Communications Director

A pair of top-10 showdowns on the gridiron, four championship games on the soccer pitch, and the return of the Finish Line Cam at cross country will provide MHSAA Championships followers with plenty of live content online this weekend.

The weekend begins with four games in the MHSAA Football Playoffs – powered by the Michigan Army National Guard – on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com and FOX Sports GO! on Friday (Nov. 4) at 7 p.m.:

  • Allendale at Grand Rapids Catholic Central
  • Grand Rapids West Catholic at Portland
  • Sand Creek at Hudson
  • Mendon at Climax-Scotts

Portland was the top-ranked team in the final Associated Press Division 5 poll, while Grand Rapids West Catholic was sixth. The last three meetings between these two teams were in the playoffs:  West Catholic won the most recent, in 2013, 27-14 in a Pre-District game after the Raiders had downed the Falcons 12-9 in the 2012 Division 5 Final; and West Catholic won a 2010 District Final game, 38-13. 

Hudson finished sixth in the Division 7 rankings, while Sand Creek was 10th. The last two meetings in this series were also in playoff settings, with Hudson winning both – 42-0 in a 2004 District Final and 29-6 in a 2003 Semifinal.

Grand Rapids Catholic Central was fifth in the final Division 4 rankings and defeated Allendale in Week 2, 35-20. Climax-Scotts is the second-ranked team in Division 8 and has played Mendon in the Pre-District or District Final in each of the past five seasons, with the Panthers winning last year’s Pre-District game, 8-6, after Mendon won the previous four meetings. The two schools were rivals in the old St. Joseph Valley League for many years.

All PrepZone games will be archived on MHSAA.tv.

Saturday’s Boys Soccer Finals will be Live on MHSAA.tv with games at Noon and 3 p.m. The games will be played at Rochester Hills Stoney Creek and Comstock Park High Schools, with matchups at each site to be announced after the Semifinals on Wednesday (Nov. 3). All games also will have live streaming audio at MHSAANetwork.com.

One Soccer Semifinal game will be Live on MHSAA.tv on Wednesday – a Division 3 matchup at Cedar Springs between Grand Rapids Catholic Central and Charlevoix, at 6 p.m.

MHSAA.tv also will offer a free live video stream Saturday of the finish line at the Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway. The stream will include audio commentary from announcers around the course throughout each race. The morning session with the boys and girls races in Division 3 and 4 begins at 10 a.m., and the afternoon session with races in Divisions 1 and 2 starts at 1:30 p.m. Live timing of each race will be available on the Cross Country page of the MHSAA Website.

A subscription to watch live on MHSAA.tv is $9.95 and allows access to the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:

  • Nov. 5 – Boys Soccer Finals
  • Nov. 5 – Selected Football Playoff District Finals
  • Nov. 12 – Selected Football Playoff Regional Finals
  • Nov. 17-19 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
  • Nov. 19 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
  • Nov. 19 – Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games)

Live coverage of three Football District Finals and a pair of Girls Volleyball District games produced by SBP schools takes place this week as well on MHSAA.tv:

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 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.

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 include playoff football games with Clarkston Everest at Waterford Our Lady and Traverse City Central vs. Traverse City West, and a Division 2 Boys Soccer Regional Final between East Lansing and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. 

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.