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Prep Zone Returns for Football Playoffs

October 28, 2015

By John Johnson
MHSAA communications director

For the fifth straight season, FOX Sports Detroit will provide live streaming video coverage of four games from each of the first four rounds of the MHSAA Football Playoffs – presented by the Michigan Army National Guard – on the PrepZone on FoxSportsDetroit.com.

Pre-District games on the PrepZone this Friday (Oct. 30) are:

  • Clarkston at Romeo
  • Farmington Hills Harrison at Birmingham Groves
  • Mason at St. Johns
  • Flint Powers Catholic at Goodrich

All PrepZone games will be live at 7 p.m. Fridays the first three weekends of tournament play, and the Semifinal games Nov. 21 starting at 1 p.m. will be part of a package with MHSAA.tv where all 16 games will be live on the Internet.

Fans can watch PrepZone games on their computer or handheld devices and follow these instructions:

On Your Desktop/Laptop Computer

  • Go to FOXSportsGo.com
  • Click on the “All Chs” menu at the bottom left of the page
  • Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”

On Your Handheld Device

  • Download the free FOX Sports Go app from your store
  • Click on the “All Channels” menu at the top of the app
  • Select “FOX Sports Go Extras”

All PrepZone games will be archived on MHSAA.tv.

A number of Football Playoff games will be covered by MHSAA members participating in the School Broadcast Program this week, including three Saturday (Oct. 31) games which will be available live on a subscription basis.  SBP produced games being shown live this week at 1 p.m. Saturday are:

  • Gaylord at Mt. Pleasant
  • Crystal Falls Forest Park at Lake Linden-Hubbell

A Day Pass to watch live on MHSAA.tv is $9.95.  A Month Pass is $14.95, and would also allow access to the full schedule of MHSAA Tournaments during the month of November:

  • Nov. 4 – Selected Boys Soccer Semifinals
  • Nov. 7 – Boys Soccer Finals
  • Nov. 7 – Selected Football Playoff District Finals
  • Nov. 14 – Selected Football Playoff Regional Finals
  • Nov. 19-20 – Girls Volleyball Semifinals & Finals
  • Nov. 21 – Lower Peninsula Girls Swimming & Diving Finals
  • Nov. 21 – Football Playoff Semifinals (12 games)

Other Football Playoff games available on an On Demand basis being produced by SBP schools this week are:

In its seventh 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.

Launching at Midnight every Friday throughout the season is MHSAA Football Friday Overtime on FOX Sports Detroit.  Mickey York and Rob Rubick host the weekly 30-minute highlights show.  The show will re-air most Saturday and Sunday mornings – and will be archived on the FOX Detroit Website.  This week, FFOT will re-air at 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. Sunday on FOX Sports Detroit. 

The following games are scheduled to be highlighted this week on Football Friday Overtime:

  • Detroit Denby at Detroit Collegiate Prep
  • Marysville at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
  • Bay City John Glenn at Orchard Lake St. Mary's
  • Riverview at Allen Park
  • Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett at Riverview Gabriel Richard
  • PLUS – Highlights from this week’s PrepZone games.

This week's School Broadcast Program highlights (see below) include football games with Otsego at Plainwell and Hudsonville at Rockford and a volleyball match, Bay City John Glenn at Pinconning.     

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.