WCHA Video Streaming

[hattrick16]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

Ferris State's production has 4 camera angles, instant replays, graphics, score/time bug, etc. The local Buffalo Wild Wings and Cranker's Brewery shows these games by connecting a laptop to a machine that blasts the game onto their various projection screens/TV's:

http://www.ferrisstatebulldogs.com/sports/mice/2013-14/videos/UAF_Highlight

Awesome! Home and away games?

Any idea where we might catch video for the Mariucci Classic games? Will it be on Fox Sports North?

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

Ferris State's production has 4 camera angles, instant replays, graphics, score/time bug, etc. The local Buffalo Wild Wings and Cranker's Brewery shows these games by connecting a laptop to a machine that blasts the game onto their various projection screens/TV's:

Is that legal under AmericaONE and the WCHA's distribution policies/terms of service? That's generally not the case for other sports. You pay one price for NFL Sunday Ticket / NHL Center Ice at home, and you pay a much higher one if you're an establishment that's using the entertainment as a selling point to their customers.

Don't get me wrong, I want these events to happen. I just don't want to 1) **** off AmericaONE (assuming that they care) 2) give Fox Sports or whoever else the heebie-jeebies. I admit that I haven't read the TOS and will probably be asked to answer my own question.

GFM

[ETA: You can't even find the TOS on their site. I have a support ticket in to them about it. That the TOS isn't publicly viewable frankly bothers the heck out of me.]

 

[DominicHennig]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

Is that legal under AmericaONE and the WCHA's distribution policies/terms of service? That's generally not the case for other sports. You pay one price for NFL Sunday Ticket / NHL Center Ice at home, and you pay a much higher one if you're an establishment that's using the entertainment as a selling point to their customers.

Don't get me wrong, I want these events to happen. I just don't want to 1) **** off AmericaONE (assuming that they care) 2) give Fox Sports or whoever else the heebie-jeebies. I admit that I haven't read the TOS and will probably be asked to answer my own question.

GFM

[ETA: You can't even find the TOS on their site. I have a support ticket in to them about it. That the TOS isn't publicly viewable frankly bothers the heck out of me.]

America One charges restaurants/bars $100 per game to stream, so we tend not to use their service ever. Big Ten Network To Go or BTN2GO encourages bars to use their stream free of charge...if you already have a membership. I strongly believe that the conference could have made a better decision with a universal streaming partner. America One has not changed since my dealings with them in 2004. Ferris State uses/used to utilize Stretch Internet before the WCHA mandated all teams use the same provider and they are an awesome company. Customer support, appearance, accessibility, mobile use, etc: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ferris.portal

 

[DominicHennig]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

Awesome! Home and away games?

Any idea where we might catch video for the Mariucci Classic games? Will it be on Fox Sports North?

Pretty sure Michigan and Minnesota do not provide video streams to their events. Fox Sports North picked up the Colgate/Minnesota Friday game but I have been told FSN passed on the Saturday game. If it is #2 Minnesota vs. #3 Ferris State, they may have wanted to pick that game up. Fan's can listen to the game live here: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ferris.portal

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

America One charges restaurants/bars $100 per game to stream, so we tend not to use their service ever. Big Ten Network To Go or BTN2GO encourages bars to use their stream free of charge...if you already have a membership. I strongly believe that the conference could have made a better decision with a universal streaming partner. America One has not changed since my dealings with them in 2004. Ferris State uses/used to utilize Stretch Internet before the WCHA mandated all teams use the same provider and they are an awesome company. Customer support, appearance, accessibility, mobile use, etc: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ferris.portal

Thanks for the info! $100/gm for a bar seems reasonable to me.

I'm curious as to what the WCHA will get after 13-14. I do have a concern that they'll stay with AmericaONE out of convenience, and I really don't think that it's the right way to go. I don't know what the provisions are for their mobile devices, but Octoshape is very CPU intensive, draining battery life out of my laptop at 4x the normal rate. I can make it one period on batter, which I learned well the first time I decided to stream in my living room to my TV while having the laptop in, well, my lap. Other streaming media doesn't do this. I'm fairly certain that I know why they do this — it minimizes bandwidth use by compressing the stream more and relying on the client to do more of the decoding — but I don't think that it's anywhere in the class of what a larger provider would do.

GFM

 

[malainse]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

They really really need a roku channel. It is an absolute no brainer.

 

[gfmorris]

Re: WCHA Video Streaming

They really really need a roku channel. It is an absolute no brainer.

There's a big reason that they won't: they've clearly shown an interest in farming out distribution to a third party (Fox and now A1). Those folks won't serve a Roku channel, and the WCHA probably isn't in the business deeply enough to cover the cost of developing the channel and handling the payment and authentication. By outsourcing distribution to a third party, they lower the costs of distribution, as the infrastructure cost is spread over other partners. Now the WCHA may see things differently now than they did a year ago given that the amount of subscriptions far exceeded McLeod's expectations. Is the revenue up to the price point where it makes sense to handle a Roku channel? I doubt it, and even if it was, what percentage of those customers have a Roku?

I just don't see it unless they want to start giving it away, at which point they'd be looking for any channel to do so. I don't see them giving it away now that they've seen that there is a revenue stream.

GFM