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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.

MHSAA TV Kickoff Returns Highlights

August 22, 2017

By John Johnson
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties

Weekly statewide football highlights return to cable viewers across Michigan in 2017, with the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the State Champs! Sports Network teaming up to launch “MHSAA Extra Point” beginning this week.

The half hour program will feature highlights from more than a dozen games each week, including clips from games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members. Lorne Plant and Daniella Bruce from the State Champs! Sports Network will host the show, which will air multiple times each weekend on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 and be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

Here is the projected list of games to be featured on this week’s first edition of MHSAA Extra Point:

  • Belleville vs. Brighton at Ann Arbor
  • DeWitt at Grand Rapids Christian
  • Walled Lake Western vs. West Bloomfield at Detroit
  • Davison vs. Southfield A&T at Detroit
  • Rockford vs. Saline at Ann Arbor
  • Rapid River vs. Powers North Central
  • Lowell vs. Warren De La Salle at Detroit
  • Detroit U-D Jesuit at Birmingham Brother Rice
  • Ishpeming vs. Iron Mountain
  • Byron at Montrose
  • Lake Orion at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley
  • Bay City Western at Traverse City Central
  • Bay City John Glenn at Freeland

The MHSAA also will have a presence on State Champs! Network programming throughout each weekend with the “MHSAA Minute” making its debut on this Sunday’s (Aug. 26) edition of the weekly State Champs! High School Sports Show on FOX Sports Detroit at 9 a.m., with multiple replays on FOX Sports Detroit and Comcast Channel 900 throughout the week. The program also will be archived on the State Champs YouTube Channel. Consult your local listings for additional playback times.

This week’s MHSAA Minute is the first of a three-part series on football rules changes for 2017; the first edition talks about blind side blocks. The MHSAA also will have content on the State Champs Scoreboard! High School Football Radio Show on Friday nights during the football and basketball seasons, originating on WXYT-FM (97.1) in Detroit and being carried on more than 10 radio stations across the state.

The MHSAA.tv Website starts the 2017 football season in a big way this week, with the NFHS Network streaming 14 games over three days from the Vehicle City Gridiron Classic at Flint’s Atwood Stadium on Thursday (Aug. 24), the West Michigan Sports Commission Gridiron Classic at Grand Valley State University on Saturday (Aug. 26), and all three days of the Prep Kickoff Classic at Wayne State University, running Thursday through Saturday. The first two days of coverage at the PKC will be produced by the NFHS Network; Saturday’s games will be a live stream produced by Comcast to air on a delayed basis on Channel 900.

Topping off the weekend’s streaming activity will be a number of games produced by MHSAA School Broadcast Program members – including the first gridiron and volleyball events in Michigan to be streamed with a new product from the NFHS Network.

In its ninth 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.

A number of new schools are joining the program using an automated production solution – Pixellot – which was first installed in Michigan earlier this year at Otisville Lakeville. Most Pixellot schools will install their first unit in the gymnasium, but several schools – Novi, Freeland, Plainwell, Norway and Ovid-Elsie – also are installing a second unit at multi-purpose fields to cover sports like football, soccer and lacrosse. The Pixellot system requires only that a schedule be entered online to cover an event, making things like a basketball double or tripleheader easy to stream without staffing worries. 

Freeland will use Pixellot to live stream a volleyball match with Bay City Western on Thursday at 1 p.m., followed by a football game against Bay City John Glenn at 7 p.m. Other Pixellot schools are Calumet, Fremont, Harrison, Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest and Otisville Lakeville.

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.

Here’s this week’s MHSAA.tv schedule of video streams being produced by SBP members:

Tuesday, Aug. 22

Wednesday  Aug. 23

Thursday, Aug. 24

Friday, Aug. 25

Saturday, Aug. 26

Tuesday, Aug. 29

Wednesday, Aug. 30

NFHS Network subscriptions begin at $9.95 per 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 will also be selling Season and 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.