Recently I have received a lot of questions about how we produce sports webcasting and if it is practical for an institution to produce their own sports webcasts "in-house". The answer to the last question is a definite "Yes"! Most athletic directors realize that within the next couple of years they will be required to webcast athletic events if their athletic program is to remain competitive in recruiting, promotion and hosting bids. I have been webcasting college athletics for fifteen years and have tried all sorts of models, equipment, tools and technology. The benefits of webcasting athletic events are numerous. The benefits show up at both the institutional level and the athletic department level. A few of these include the following:

• Alumni Outreach
• Institutional publicity and promotion
• Athletic Department publicity and promotion
• Recruitment (both athletic and academic)
• Retention
• Providing service to parents and relatives of athletes
• Providing service to traveling boosters and local business executives
• Providing real-time team-based learning experiences for students producing the webcasts
• More...

Webcasting consists of three parts:

1. Broadcast production (audio, video, graphics, etc)
2. Creating the Internet video stream and sending the webcast back to your campus website
3. Distributing the webcast to viewers through the campus website.

The following graphic illustrates these three parts:

Webcast production can be roughly categorized into three models:

1. Audio only webcasts
2. One-camera video webcasts
3. Multi-camera full production video webcast

A summary for each of these models follows below. Audio-only webcasts are the simplest and are easy to deploy from almost anywhere. This model provides the ability to travel with athletic teams and broadcast road games using a minimum of equipment and personnel. Using headsets, a laptop produces the webcast and sends the broadcast back to your campus website. The graphic shows how two headsets are connected to the laptop. The laptop produces the broadcast stream that is sent back via the Internet to your campus website. The laptop needs at an Internet connection. This is not usually a problem as any of the following methods work fine:

• A direct wired network connection
• A wireless Internet connection
• A phone line used to connect to the Internet through a dial-up

Unlike the audio-only model above, video webcasts require a solid high-speed Internet connection. This model is similar to the audio-only model with the addition of a camera. Most camcorders will work directly with most laptops using the built-in firewire port. There are also other ways of connecting a camera to a laptop or desktop computer. The network bandwidth that is required to send the video broadcast back to the campus website is modest and easily supported on most any college campus. Either a traditional wired network connection or a wireless connection can provide the required Internet connection.

The multi-camera model is quite similar to the 1-camera webcasting model. The main difference has to do with the production side of the webcast. The technology side is virtually identical to the 1-camera model. This model uses a video production box to switch between multiple cameras and provide on-screen scoreboard and graphics. The video production itself can be as elaborate as desired.

Webcasting requires people. The number of people required to produce a webcast depends on how comprehensive the production is. But regardless of the number of people required, most institutions can easily organize a model that draws on the academic side of the house, providing real-time experiences for students in a team environment -- exactly the types of experiences that employers keep wanting from graduates. Using a combination of graduate students and students enrolled in academic courses (communications, broadcast production, multi-media, computer science, Information technology, etc), quality athletic webcast productions can be distributed to your alumni, parents, relatives, potential recruits and fans. We have great success producing sports webcasts using a mix of high school students, college students and corporate partnerships. There are a number of models and options to staff athletic webcasts that are quite feasible for most institutions. Organized and utilized effectively, webcasting athletic events can provide a whole list of benefits for both the athletic department and the institution. In addition, there are numerous revenue-generating models and opportunities associated with webcasting athletic events. Webcasting technology is ready for prime time today providing very good quality and generous benefits for the institutions that utilize the technology creatively. If you are interested in more details, feel free to contact me at the following email: .