Dave Harcrow, Academic Technology Coordinator performs a variety of job functions at King's School in Edmonds Washington. One of the things he was tasked to do was find a way to broadcast the high school football games online.

Josh Engelhart, a Senior at King's, is a student tech on ASB in charge of campus events and activities including sporting events, assemblies, and anything A/V.  He is a wiz kid who figures out things quickly and learns on the fly.  Before they got the VR-5, Engelhart would use his laptop and an external video card device for web streaming events.  It proved not to be successful because the laptop didn’t have enough power for streaming.  He then resorted to a desktop computer with enough horsepower, but it was limited in many ways because it only supported one camera and very difficult to take with them on away games.

Application
When Harcrow read about the VR-5 and shared the information with Engelhart they both decided that they should give it a try. Harcrow said, “King's School wanted a way for families and alumni to be able to watch games online wherever they were. We are pleased to report that the VR-5 has been a great success so far."

Harcrow mentioned that the viewership started out pretty light and their first broadcast was about 40 or 50 users. Livestream is their streaming service and Harcrow says,  “It is really nice because it shows you instantly how many people are watching your broadcast.” Their biggest struggle so far has been getting the word out to our community about the broadcasts.  Harcrow mentioned, “When we communicate to our community that we are doing a game we have had up to 600 viewers at one time.  We are thrilled and amazed at the response.”

During the broadcasts King's School connects their live broadcast feed to their Facebook page allowing viewers to give shout-outs and interact with the broadcast crew.  During one of the recent broadcasts an alumni was on a plane traveling from Seattle to Denver and couldn’t make the game so he paid for Internet access on the plane and was able to watch the game live.  Making their broadcast interactive with their Facebook Page is one way they have attracted viewership and the community.

The System
The VR-5 has two video cameras connected to it.  One camera on the field and one camera above the stadium for a “crow’s nest” shot.  They connect two wireless microphone’s for the broadcast crew and then use the streaming laptop’s second output monitor to do a green screen scoreboard. For the Internet connection, King's School uses a 3G/4G Clearwire wireless WiMax mobile hotspot that uses cell phone towers to transmit the broadcast.   This allows their broadcasts to be as mobile as possible especially for away games

Engelhart describes the setup, “Since we got the VR-5 it has made things so much easier.  All we need to do is carry the VR-5, Laptop, 2 Wireless Microphones, Cameras, and WiMax mobile hotspot and we can broadcast anywhere with decent celluar service.”  The setup before the VR-5 took about two hours and now they can setup in about 30 minutes.

Since there is not an official program at the school for producing and broadcasting games, Englehart is the main operator and producer along with Harcrow’s advise and help.  Englehart has been enjoying using the VR-5 and values the size and functionality in such a small compact device.  He comments, “My favorite feature of the VR-5 is the view all of the shots live at once in the preview monitor and then select the shot that you want to take live.”

Now that King's School has seen some success, Engelhart and Harcrow are recruiting and training new students to take over next year.

System Integration