Live Streaming Sports w/ William Warfield of Prep Spin

In the post show, we had so much to cover in regards to the live streaming of sports with William Warfield of PrepSpin. We dig into the custom PC builds PrepSpin creates to run vMix with multiple cameras, live streaming, recording and much more. We also review the "Long Range" Ubiquiti wireless access points which are the "LR" versions from Ubiquiti. William explains how to use the Ubiquiti routers to provide wireless PTZ camera controls and setup multiple wireless access points as repeaters for large stadium deployments. 

Center Field Wireless Camera

Some of the interesting details from William concern the Fiber cabling often available at center field stadiums used for score boards. At the Lexington Legends stadium they had a couple extra fiber cable runs, William was able to use a Fiber to HD-SDI converter for the PTZ camera. He was also able to use the Ubiquiti routers, as long as there is line of sight, to control the PTZ cameras throughout the ball park. The wireless point-to-point and access points from Ubiquiti come highly recommended for video production with vMix. 

Using a PTZ Camera to Follow Sports Action

William was explaining how they use a PTZ joystick to follow sports action live. As you can see the preset with the joystick are key for live video production in sports because it allows the camera operator to quickly switch between multiple positions. In many cases, PrepSpin has been able to eliminate multiple camera operators with remotely controller PTZ cameras. For high action sporting events PrepSpin still employs a real camera man at center court/ center field. In high school sports, PrepSpin works with a lot of student interns who can help out operating the joystick controllers for the PTZ cameras. For the more important live video productions in sporting events, almost every camera has a dedicated staff member. But as PTZ cameras get more advanced and IP camera controls make deployments easier, PrepSpin is using the technology to reduce the amount of camera operators needed for each live sporting event. 

Football Stadium Live Streaming

Warfield also explains how they work with high school sporting stadiums to live stream Football games. In many cases, there is a fiber line run to an external location where they can send a program feed back to the arena and for live streaming and recording. In these cases, William will work with the video production team or school interns to provide camera switching. Depending on the requirements Warfield will use either vMix on a live streaming computer or a blackmagic switcher to provide the camera operations/switching. 

Live Streaming Basketball Games

Warfield shows us some amazing pictures from live streaming BIG basketball games. We look into some of the challenges for live streaming sporting events in large areas. Warfield tells us about running long lengths of Fiber Optics to remote locations for video cameras. We talk about power requirements for live streaming setup and Warfield reminds us to "bring your own" power extension cables. Another tip for large Arenas is the use of communication headsets. Warfield recommends ClearCom wireless communications for live video production in larger sporting arenas. Another great tip concerns bandwidth. You may want to check into the available Ethernet cabling location and whether the Stadium charges for bandwidth access. Also, always ask for a dedicated network because you do not want wireless devices from the fans in the stadium on the same network as your live stream. 

We also talk about CDNs for sports streaming (Content Delivery Networks). Most of the time the promoter of the event handles the TV Station contracts and the free live streaming platforms such as Facebook and YouTube become a fall back option. Therefore many of the high school sporting events are hosted to the school Facebook or YouTube pages and the larger college level sporting events can be shown on television networks such as ESPN. 

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