School Live-Streams Sports Using Security Cameras
Jackson Local School District in Ohio is using Axis cameras along with a partner’s streaming app to live-stream sporting events and concerts in a subscription-based platform.
Jackson Local School District (JLSD) has found a unique way to use Axis technology, one that provides benefits beyond security and safety. The idea was born out of the pandemic’s distancing requirements, but since then it has been developed into a full video streaming solution that in part pays for itself. Jackson Local High School (JLHS) in Massillon, Ohio live-streams varsity sporting events, concerts/choir performances, and other community events using their Axis cameras. In addition to video, the solution presents scores and audio play-by-play of games in an efficient, subscription-based model.
While most schools across the country were shut down in spring 2020, Keith Obermeier, technology specialist at Jackson Local School District, was busy considering how he might enable more people to see football, soccer, volleyball and baseball/softball games once these games started up again in the new school year. He investigated using technology to overcome the distancing guidelines that restricted the number of people who could be seated in the school’s stadium to watch games.
We’ve used Axis products for years. The quality was there, and I was familiar with the integrated platform to use partner applications directly on the camera like CamStreamer.
“We thought it would be best to be able to provide a video streaming service for people who could not be in attendance at those live events during COVID-19. Keith was instrumental in figuring out how to connect these pieces and provide the service,” explains Todd Porter, director of communications at Jackson Local School District.
Besides seating space, another issue was people who could not physically attend due to health concerns, preferring to stay home and watch the games remotely, Obermeier says.
“We’ve used Axis products for years in our security platform. The quality was there, and I was familiar with the integrated platform to use partner applications directly on the camera like CamStreamer. Because I’ve had experience with live-streaming directly from Axis cameras for my church, it was easy for us to find a path using the Axis cameras as our sources for live-streaming sporting events when we came back that fall,” Obermeier explains.
Different cameras for different games
Initially Obermeier and his team built the live-streaming solution for watching high school varsity home football games and soccer games. For these games, they employed the AXIS P56 PTZ Series (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras, “which allowed an operator direct control to follow the ball through throughout the game,” he says.
Later in the year when the spring sports season began, JLSD installed AXIS P32 Dome Series cameras for viewing baseball and softball games. Installed right behind home plate, the camera’s field-of-view covers foul line to foul line, left field to right field. “As a fixed-frame camera it gives you a view of the sport that’s very much like a video game — like the old ColecoVision view where you’re looking behind the plate directly into the baseball diamond,” he describes. The advantage of this set-up is that the school doesn’t need anyone on game day to operate the camera.
For live-streaming choir concerts that take place in the auditorium, the high school uses the AXIS P56 PTZ Network Camera again, without the need for a camera operator.
To facilitate live-streaming, the school chose to use the in-camera app from CamStreamer which they were able to use because of the open nature of the AXIS Camera Application Platform (ACAP). Once an event such as a concert is scheduled on the camera’s web page, the camera then operates automatically by schedule — no one needs to be there to turn the video streaming on or off. In this application, CamStreamer transfers video directly from the camera to YouTube or Facebook.
“It was a good solution for sports in that first year and it continues to be a good solution for us in the auditorium,” he says. However, in order to continue offering the service following the pandemic Obermeier felt that he needed to find a subscription-based video streaming model.
Evolving to a subscription-based service
For sporting events today, JLHS uses a service called BoxCast, which allows them to organize their live-streaming schedule and then make it available to viewers for a charge. It also gives the school some integration capabilities, such as overlaying game scores on the broadcast. To decode the camera output as well as to connect to the school’s scoreboard, a decoder is used.
On football game days, the AXIS P56 PTZ Network Camera captures all the action, while AXIS Companion video management software runs on a laptop. Connected to the laptop is an Xbox Elite controller. Through the software, a person controls the camera’s pan-tilt-zoom with the Xbox joystick.
Obermeier explains that while AXIS Companion could be used to control the camera’s movement by using a mouse to point at locations and zoom in, the Xbox controller is more familiar to the young men the school usually hires to help with games and it provides a very smooth and quick response. The joystick is used to orient the aim of the camera and the trigger buttons are used for zooming in and out. Only one person per game is needed for this task.
“You have the feeling while you are operating the camera like you’re playing a video game like Madden NFL. We find that to be a very dynamic, rich environment for us to follow the action,” he describes.
From that point, the camera’s output is automatically fed into the streaming equipment, and scores are overlaid on the video through an integration with the school’s scoreboard.
One final piece of the experience is the audio. During the first year of broadcasting football games, the school used an Axis I/O Audio Module to stream the audio from its public address-system mixer directly into the CamStreamer feed to match the video. “That was an important part of our football stream, because we did not have the announcers there with us,” Obermeier says. This method is still used today for events taking place in the auditorium.
Now, however, announcers from local radio stations are in attendance to cover the football games so the mixer feed from the announcer is tied into the new streaming platform. This provides viewers with play-by-play and analysis of the game. “You’re essentially watching the livestream football with the radio broadcast over the top of it. It provides a very dynamic viewing experience as opposed to watching something without sound,” Obermeier says.
For some sports that require automated tracking of the action, such as basketball, JLHS uses a sports-specific camera with built-in motion detection designed to follow the ball.
The solution at JLHS uses three pieces of Axis hardware integrated in different ways to accomplish the live streaming of home games. However, the school district also uses other cameras and equipment, such as a Milestone XProtect DVR, in a security role. Sports streaming does not hinder the ability for the cameras to be used for security purposes; they continue to record whether or not a game is being played and some have a home position that the camera is returned to after a game.
“Without the initial partnership and collaboration with Axis, this video streaming would never have evolved into what it currently is,” Porter emphasizes.
Subscriptions managed by the streaming platform
Although the live-streaming platform enables the school to charge viewers by game or by season, the subscriptions don’t quite cover all of the platform fees, Porter explains. The school has local business sponsors that provide support as well.
Viewers can purchase an all-sports, all-season pass for $100 or a season-by-sport pass which varies in price based on the number of games being broadcast. Events streamed from the auditorium are free-of-charge. The live-streaming platform handles the electronic purchases, so the school doesn’t need to be involved in any credit card transactions.
I think by offering these streaming services to our community, it has only enhanced the collaboration between the district and our community members.
A Range of Benefits for the Community & Athletes
As Jackson Local School District’s live-streaming solution has evolved over the last few years, Obermeier has seen other schools turn to similar solutions. These solutions promote positive community relations by making games accessible to family members such as grandparents and other fans who aren’t local or who can’t attend in person.
Additionally, student-athletes are getting more exposure because the service is being used by college recruiters. “We have a couple of baseball players who are being recruited by major college programs who cannot be in attendance every time a player pitches. So, they are asking for the video of those games to be sent to them,” Porter explains.
Most importantly, the live-streaming solution has allowed Jackson Local School District to strengthen its relationship with the community it serves by being open to its needs. “I think by offering these streaming services, it has only enhanced the collaboration between the district and our community members,” Porter says.
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