LIVE STREAM

Sycamore Athletics Debuts

Live Video Streams

Middle School Tech Team members operate the digital streaming system at a Sycamore volleyball match. While the challenges of 2020 were many, one outcome was pushing people who were looking to stay connected—either one-to-one or to a group—to learn a bit of new technology. Learning Zoom, getting comfortable with Facetime, and figuring out how to take advantage of opportunities to view live events without actually physically attending in person took some practice, both as a user a a content producer. Livestreaming has been around a long time, though the early days were full of low-resolution videos, dating back more than 20 years to the days of modems. It was a tough thing to both execute as a broadcaster and watch as a viewer. Streaming was still clunky and glitch-filled in the early post dial-up, pre high-speed internet connection days. As the infrastructure, equipment, iPhones, and web-based opportunities steadily improved, livestreaming became more prevalent. It was easier to find and has become a viable option, from high schools all the way to professional sports teams.

Sycamore has been dabbling in the streaming space for about ten years, bouncing between applications like Facebook Live, Livestream, and YouTube Live, with music, arts, and various live events. Fast forward to 2021, and it became a tipping point year. The audience has become skilled and savvy at finding what they want to watch, and technology now exists to allow quality live video streams, through phones, video cameras, and online setups. For Sycamore, sports has been the next step. According to the research of 99 Firms, a business streaming and web company, sporting events account for 86% of all livestreamed content. In the 2021-22 school year, Sycamore began livestreaming via YouTube Live. Volleyball was the first sport tested, starting with a let’s-make-it-happen, basic-yet-effective, announcerless, twocamera streaming setup. The brains and crew behind the project is the Sycamore Technology team, led by Patrick Cauley. He recruited a team to get the project off the ground, with an eye towards moving the setup and lessons learned to add more streaming offerings, allowing alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends of Sycamore to see live events, and not just athletics. “Lucky for us, the challenges have been mostly technical,” Cauley says about the foray into regular streaming. “How do we handle batteries running out of juice? Do we have enough cables to plug everything in? How do we use the hardware and the software to get the best outcome?” With a long table in the northeast corner of the gym, Cauley and crew setup an ATEM Blackmagic encoder hooked to two cameras, one on a tripod in the same corner as the crew, and one in the balcony overlooking the basket on the south side of the gym. This afforded a view of the scoreboard and clock and allowed viewers to see both ends of the floor without having to physically move cameras during play. It was excellent for volleyball, and with some tweaks, the plan is to continue into basketball season. That’s the setup for sports in the gym. Cauley says it has shown them that they can translate this technology to any place within Sycamore. “We learned that it is very possible to livestream just about any event in the building,” he says. “We just need time to set up and think through what needs to be captured and where to set up the cameras to get the best picture.” A piece of the success has been the involvement of the students on the Tech Team, a group of Middle School students who have taken an elective class taught by Cauley and Bowen. The students get invaluable experience through the program. “The Tech Team has been very involved in every aspect of the process from planning, to set up, to actually livestreaming the event to tear down. They do it all,” Cauley says. “We are considering adding more cameras to capture more of what is going on and looking to stream to more platforms, not just YouTube.” Since 2019, the livestreaming industry has grown by 99% according to research by Hubspot, an online marketing and streaming consultant. In April 2019, the total number of hours watched on the major streaming platforms was 1,971 billion. One year later, in April 2020, this had increased to 3,934 billion hours. In 2020, 232 million people watched streaming across all devices in the U.S. These statistics were from the pre-pandemic days, so those numbers are probably low. As the 2021 calendar year ends, and the most recent months’ statistics are released, the expectation is another significant jump nationwide in livestreaming viewing. With that in mind, Cauley sees the opportunity to ride that wave and supply more content to Sycamore friends and families. He knows it is a team effort and that is one of the things about the project that pleases him the most. “I have been very proud of the Tech Team,” Cauley says. “They have willingly stepped up and sacrificed their time after school to work these games. The biggest goal is to keep up our momentum. We want to do more and more live streaming and make sure that students are a part of the future of streaming these events.” •

VIEW ARCHIVED BROADCASTS AND MORE VIDEOS ON SYCAMORE SCHOOL’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL AT

YOUTUBE.COM/

SYCAMORESCHOOL.