broadcastsport Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 IHSAASports.org, which has been granted the right to control who can stream video at all State Finals events, is considering streaming video of the Saturday Quarter-final and Semi-final matches from Conseco without commentary except what they pickup from the PA Announcer. Didn't that work out great last year? Since they have other committments on Friday night (probably involving something round that goes in a round hole); www.broadcastsport.net will be allowed to provided the wrestling community with LIVE VIDEO of all 112 matches on Friday night. We plan on having 4 separate camera feeds with Wrestling people describing all the action. Since IHSAASports.org doesn't want to pay people to cover the morning and afternoon matches, they could be forced to allow us to continue our LIVE VIDEO coverage on Saturday. So prevent anyone else from providing decent coverage of wrestling, they set up a camera aimed at each mat and the only audio is what the PA announcers says. So you don't know who is wrestling at any given time or which wrestler is on which side of the scoreboard. If you can sort out which match the PA announcer is talking about you might be able to tell who won the match, once it is over. It was suggested to them by the IHSAA Radio/TV Network producer that they allow www.broadcastsport.net to broadcast those rounds if we would allow them to also include our broadcast feeds on the IHSAASports.org website. We are willing to do so, and also suggested that they might want to utilize our Hall-of-Fame Coaches to provide commentary for their finals broadcats as well. I guess the announcers are chosen by a basketball guru, so that would be up to him to decide. HOWEVER, for some reason, IHSAASports thinks that the PA feed with their mat coverage during the quarters and semi rounds, which directs viewers to whatever mat they would like to view, is sufficient for wrestling. Our response to them was that they would NEVER even consider such a thing for a BASKETBALL game. Wrestling folks are already coming in with a hatred of basketball and with a huge chip on their shoulders. We could understand not providing commentary if there wasn?t any available, but IHSAASports.org will just alienate wrestling folks by treating them like second-class citizens. Especially when they realize that the only reason for doing a half-hearted job is to keep someone else from doing it right. So if you want to see decent coverage for your favorite wrestlers, you need to act quickly!!! They are supposedly going to discuss the matter on Tuesday, so the wrestling community needs to make their voice heard now!!! You can send your opinions to Heath Shanahan at IHSAASports.org at this address:Hshanahan@indy.emmis.com Whatever happens, we plan on providing LIVE VIDEO coverage of the Fort Wayne and Merrillville Semi-States as well as 2 different sectionals and regionals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyGonzo Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Thank you!!! I'll get right on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XCard Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 My e-mail has been sent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdupnorth3 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I sent mine as soon as I read the initial post!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyGonzo Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Just got mine out as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCWrestlefan Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 I bet their inbox is gonna be full!! I sent mine as soon as I finished reading... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
md85 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Sent mine, although I think it sounded like it was done by a none too bright 3 year old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamDad Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twmaurer Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 I let my thoughts be known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrestlingFan Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 *bump* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCWrestlefan Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Well, did our emails do any good?? Please let us know what happened with this.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadcastsport Posted January 22, 2010 Author Share Posted January 22, 2010 They certainly weren't very happy with us for asking this community to send e-mails to Heath. But at least you got your point across, and we are continuing discussions with IHSAASports.org. Thanks very much for your help and I'll keep you posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCWrestlefan Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 No Sir, Thank you much for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadcastsport Posted January 27, 2010 Author Share Posted January 27, 2010 Since IHSAASports.org has other committments on Friday night, we will be allowed to provide Live Video only of all 4 mats of wrestling. So all 224 of the State's finest will have 1 chance to strut their stuff for the world to see!!!! IHSAASports.org has suggested for the Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals & Consolations on Saturday, that we provide 4 set of broadcast crews from www.broadcastsport.net to provide commentary and they would provide the video, 1 camera per mat to go with our commentary. Imagine what great coverage with guys like Al Smith and Henry Wilk, with video besides. Sounds terrific so far! But here is the kicker, www.broadcastsport.net would not be allowed to include the video broadcast on our website. We could only provide a link to their site, and they would include our logo on their page. So you folks would have to keep one website open to send e-mails to us and to monitor the updated brackets, to see which broadcast crew would be doing your favorite wrestler. Then another website to actually watch the video. Addiitonally, since they don't plan on connecting to the internet with a large enough pipeline, not only would there be a lot of buffering, but every time that you leave their page, the video freezes. You then have to refresh the page to get it to restart. We have a lot of experience with using Verizon Air Cards within the Conseco Fieldhouse, because we can't afford to purchase a T-1 line for just Friday night. Remember the Verizon system has to share all 4 video feeds plus every other wireless device within the building. If you remember our broadcasts last year, there was some buffering. We were hoping to join together with IHSAASports.org to be able to provide the best possible coverage of the Individual Wrestling State Finals. Since they have a large internet feed in the basement for their broadcast of the Finals, we would like to utilize it on Friday night and Saturday during the day, when it isn't going to be used. We know it is possible to extend it up the floor level because we bought one 4 years ago, before the folks at the Emerald Palace start monkeying around with our ability to stream video of wrestling. It's been a constant fight to produce our broadcasts at Conseco. First the IHSAA limits the number of passes that we can apply for, so we have to include people to help us who have access to passes from other sources. Then we can't get in to set up our equipment until the rest of the official mob gets in. And we must mount our cameras in such a location that we are blocked by coaches and other wrestlers. That's why we thought that if we could join together to help the IHSAA promote high school wrestling, we would be able to locate our equipment where we could actually see the mats and have enough people allowed in to do the job right. You will notice that I have been using the past tense of verbs so far, because it is obvious that the folks at IHSAASports.org do not want to play ball, or maybe we should say, take the mat. It is almost a deal-breaker for us to not be allowed to included the video on our site. However if the IHSAA would be willing to exempt us from the rights fees that we have to pay just for the privilege of broadcasting the rest of the wrestling tourney, we might be inclined to swallow our pride for the greater good of wrestling at large. Unfortunately, IHSAASports.org expects us to provide 8 commentators, with wrestling experience, for approx. 8 hours of hard, but enjoyable, work; plus travel and hotel expenses to come out of each of our pockets. But we could then avoid paying the $150 rights fee for broadcasting the State Finals! Wow $150 reward for providing over $2000 dollars of benefit to them. When we tried to negotiate with them to allow us to show the broadcasts on both their and our sites, we were told that that wasn't open for discussion. We told Heath, the guy who you sent you e-mails to, that our only recourse would be to lay out the facts to our loyal wrestling audience. He said his bosses really didn't care what wrestling people thought. That shows since they only bothered lining up 1 sponsor, and that is paid for by tax dollars. So it looks like Silent Movies are truly good enough. After all you're just wrestlers! I don't really know who those bosses are, since we were denied the opportunity to drive down and meet with them early on in this discussion. So, I'm not going to give you an e-mail address to flood this time. The only name that I keep hearing pop up, within the Emmis Communication company, making decisions is Bob Lovell of Indiana Sports Talk. I don't know if it would do any good to contact the folks at the IHSAA or not. We will do our utmost to provide great video of each and every match on Friday night and audio-only all-day Saturday. We plan on bringing Live Video of 2 different Sectionals, Team Regionals, Individual Regionals and 2 Semi-States, before then. And because IHSAASports.org is busy broadcasting swimming during Team State Finals, we are supposed to be allowed to once again broadcast Live Video only from those on Feb. 28th as well. Thanks for all you that you have done to try to help us get this done! Still hoping, but starting to lose faith... The staff of www.broadcastsport.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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