LiveU Provides Portable Transmission for 2016 USA Wakeboard Collegiate Nationals
Story Highlights
LiveU delivered reliable, high-quality live video streams and gave online viewers a front row seat to the USA Wakeboard Collegiate Nationals; an action-packed, three-day event.
How do you live stream a sporting event hosted in a rural part of the country? For organizers of the 2016 USA Wakeboard Collegiate Nationals, live streaming the event and covering all the action was key. But this was problematic since the competition was planned in Orange Beach, Alabama, a rural location on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
“We couldn’t get a dedicated internet connection onsite at our event to transmit our production. Then I learned of LiveU’s capabilities. With the LiveU portable transmission unit, we didn’t have to worry about bandwidth or a wired connection to cover the event,” says Bobby Sutherland, Owner of Get Funky Media who handled all of the production services for the live webcast.
The production equipment included three cameras: a wireless handheld camera on the boat, a hard wired camera on the shore and a third camera on the deck overlooking the water. They used a Blackmagic Hyperdeck for replays, along with a Blackmagic ATEM 4K switcher and LiveU portable backpack for transmission. The LiveU pack allowed the event production team to transmit the program feed to LiveU’s cloud-based server. The team then used Switchboard Live, a LiveU partner software platform, to distribute the feed to AllianceWake.com for viewers to enjoy.
“The whole production of the live stream was dependent on LiveU,” notes Sutherland. “Everything tied into the backpack via the 4K switcher.”
“I got so many great responses from the webcast. Every time I sat back and watched it, I was like ‘This is like ESPN. This is so good,’” says Nick McDonald, Event Organizer.
“We’ve live streamed our events in the past, but never to this level. The quality and HD stream made it great for spectators who could not be on site to enjoy all of the excitement. We look forward to producing more broadcasts using LiveU technology in the future.”
