If the pandemic taught anything, it's that creating memories with loved ones while you can is important. It also taught that it's just as important to think of creative ways to be present in spirit where one can't be in person.
That is why more schools across the country – including Mount Vernon High School – are finding ways to make sure that parents, grandparents and other loved ones who are homebound or otherwise can't physically be at their students' games and other events still have the opportunity to observe.
Robert Rothberg is president of the NFHS Network, the company that will start streaming MVHS sporting events in the fall. He told Mount Vernon News that there is one notable difference between high school and collegiate athletic events: College games are fewer and draw larger, less passionate crowds, while high school games are more frequent with spectators that are fewer in number but more passionate about the team and the players.
"These are small, targeted audiences that are extremely passionate and care about their kids, their grandkids, their nieces and nephews, or even just the kid who lives down the street," Rothberg said.
Units were installed in MVHS for game streaming in May. They were ready for broadcasting as of early June and will broadcast all sports at all levels from freshmen to varsity starting in the fall of 2021.
Schools can use the streaming service free of charge outside of initial instillation fees through the network's consumer subscription model, according to Rothberg.
The NFHS Network began streaming sporting events in 2010 to connect those audiences that can't attend in person, be it because of weather, travel, barriers like cost of attendance or disabilities, or being homebound thanks to a global public health crisis.
The process at the time, however, was limited and primitive. After all, it was a time when the Blackberry phone reigned king. And even when the network and the school managed to collaborate to get enough bandwidth for the streaming, the obstacles of equipment and manpower for the equipment often came into play.
To combat this, NFHS Network partnered with an Israeli company that provides full automated production of the game streaming process. Through a combination of specialized software, artificial intelligence and a minimal amount of manpower, as long as the school inputs the dates and times of a game and has a camera affixed at the field or court, the software will automatically kick on and stream the event.
The equipment, Rothberg said, is simple enough, just a standard computer tower and monitor and a basic camera. It's the programming behind the automation that's the real genius. The program was tested by about 60 pilot schools back in 2017, and now the network is expecting 10,000 schools to be using the software in the 2021-22 year totaling over one million games broadcasted this school year.
"All a consumer has to do is go to nfhsnetwork.com and we make it very easy for you to look up your school. Every school has a landing page," Rothberg said. "We're multi platform, so that's straight web, mobile devices, we have mobile apps, are on Apple devices and Google, and we now have expanded into smart TV, so we're on Apple TV and Roku."
NFHS Network has been in partnership with the Ohio High School Athletic Association since 2013. The network currently offers streaming service in 141 Ohio schools.
"We would love to create the environment where, on any given day or night, anybody could log on the NFHS network and watch any high school sports that's going on in the state of Ohio, as well as around the rest of the country," Rothberg said.
