Today we are reviewing a case study from the S.A.R broadcast club who is having a profound impact on the school’s sports teams. The broadcast club now live streams as many sporting events as they can using a PTZOptics NDI camera located in their main gymnasium. The camera allows the broadcast club remotely control the pan, tilt and zoom locations using a PTZOptics IP joystick. Using the NewTek NDI, the club is able to manage everything remotely, and the Athletics Department could not be happier. I had the chance to interview Joseph DaCorta who is the Athletics Director at the S.A.R high school, who shared with me some insights about how both coaches and students are using the live streamed video recordings of their games. DaCorta asked me to sit down with Valerie Gryzlo who is the S.A.R high school’s head coach for multiple sports teams to learn more about how coaches are reviewing the recorded video footage to improve athlete performance and gain a competitive edge against their competitors in the league. Let’s take a look at how the broadcast club is helping their athletics department provide enhanced training opportunities for the athletes and gain a competitive advantage by reviewing past recordings to analyze their opponents before big games when a recording is available.

I had the chance to interview Joseph DaCorta who is the Athletics Director at the S.A.R high school, who shared with me some insights about how both coaches and students are using the live streamed video recordings of their games. “There are plenty of times that a coach will take the teams into a classroom settings to through up live footage from the games, rewind it back and say hey guys check out the type of defense that they are playing… any particular sporting event that our teams are playing, the can recall video from the live stream and dissect the film and really use it to our advantage” DaCorta told me.

I asked DaCorta if any of his student-athletes are proactively using the of the recorded videos to help secure scholarships with college scouts who may not be able to make it out to view student games. DaCorta told me “Absolutely, one of my Baseball guys actually asked for help from the broadcast club to create a highlight reel. It’s a great way to send out a quick video to a college scout and say hey coach, I’ve been accepted, I’m looking to become a part of the team… and that’s the first thing coaches are going to look at. Let’s be honest, depending on where these students are applying to go to school nationwide, it can be very tough for these scouts to come out and take a look at a students game.”

DaCorta asked me to sit down with Valerie Gryzlo who is the S.A.R high school’s head coach for multiple sports teams to learn more about how coaches are reviewing the recorded video footage to improve athlete performance and gain a competitive edge against their competitors in the league. Gryzlo told me “I usually send the footage to my girls via email, and break it down… I explain what I need them to watch out of the footage. And it really helps me, to help them understand what is going on during the game.” Most importantly Gryzlo told me that “The video footage really helps the athletes visualize everything throughout the game from my standpoint.” Gryzlo also reflected back on her own experiences as an athlete “When I used to play we never had footage of our cameras. We would have to take footage manually, in order to show us what we needed to improve upon. But game mode and game experience are so much more helpful for the kids. Because a lot of these kids are now visual learners and they need to see it… and see themselves to put it all together. It’s almost like having another assistant coach.”

Almost all of the sports teams at S.A.R are reviewing past recordings to analyze their opponents before big games when a recording is available. Gryzlo told me “For Basketball we are looking at the way the defense is run, and watching to see if a player goes a certain way with the direction of their dribbling… for Softball, we break it down to review the way that certain pitchers are consistently throwing… In the batter’s box, the footage may affect where I ask my players to stand when they are up at bat… depending on how the opponent’s team is set up in the outfield… If I know that their defense is hugging the right, I am going to tell my players to move their body positioning into a direction where they hit it to the left side… the video footage really helps when we are strategizing about playing other teams.”

More on live streaming sports

• Hear about the latest trends in High School Sports streaming from the 2019 NAB Show here.
• Read about the imporance of high bitrates for live streaming sports here
• See how this schools athletics department is using the live streamed video recordings to be more competitive and work on athlete skill improvement here.
• See the PTZOptics Sports Case Study Portfolio here.
• Special review of custom PC computer builds for live streaming sports here.
• Wireless live streaming sports setup review with PrepSpin here.
• Using PTZOptics cameras outdoors, popular for live streaming sports here.