UND & WDAZ/Forum Agree to Two-Year Extension

[star2city]

http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/news/r...RELEASE_ID=5007

GRAND FORKS, N.D.

[FargoBison]

NDSU's first year out of the NCC consisted of poor schedules in football and basketball. If UND goes into 2008 bargaining with the same type schedule, UND runs the risk of stations scoffing at their football and basketball schedules.

What if UND really will be in a conference in 2008-9? Since some conferences have their own broadcast agreements, (i.e. BigSkyTV, Altitude network) that may interfere with a new school's existing contracts, is UND actively positioning itself so that all its media contracts beginning in 2008-9 properly mesh with an existing conference's media contracts?

NDSU's first year football schedule was actually pretty good, it had a good mix of I-AA teams and lower division teams. So I doubt UND would see a drop off at all if it was given a similar schedule in year one, there would actually probably be a rise in interest. Also UND won't be in a conference until they have at the most one year of probation left, 2010-2011 would most likely be the soonest UND finds a conference home besides the Great West. Conferences don't want to drag schools through transition unless they have to.

[star2city]

NDSU's first year football schedule was actually pretty good, it had a good mix of I-AA teams and lower division teams. So I doubt UND would see a drop off at all if it was given a similar schedule in year one, there would actually probably be a rise in interest.

Fargobison:

Correct me if I'm wrong: didn't NDSU's last media contract extend over five years? If so, NDSU chose not to open up negotiations while entering the transition years. And isn't NDSU's current contract running for two years, one that will be as an independent and one year that in all likelihood will be as a member of the MidCon? The MidCon membership should have made NDSU's contract more attractive than an independent schedule in basketball. Apparently, even this spring, NDSU was not anticipating a MidCon bid in 2007-8 but one in 2008-9.

Also UND won't be in a conference until they have at the most one year of probation left, 2010-2011 would most likely be the soonest UND finds a conference home besides the Great West. Conferences don't want to drag schools through transition unless they have to.

The next two-three months will determine if UND enters DI without a conference.

[bincitysioux]

According to this, the Sioux football coaches show will be hosted by Dan Hammer on WDAZ?

Dale Lennon on WDAZ

It is on page 5.

Fighting Sioux

head coach Dale Lennon will once again

make weekly appearances on local television.

Each Sunday Lennon will appear on

Sioux Sports Weekly with Dan Hammer, a

30-minute show that will air at 10:35 p.m.

on WDAZ (Ch. 8 in Grand Forks) immediately

following the local news.

Anybody else heard anything about this? Why the change? I can't see Hammer being on both the payroll of Clear Channel and Forum Communications. Was he hired by the University? When is the last time someone other than Pat Sweeney was the regular host of the football highlight show?

[The Sicatoka]

In that late-fall timeframe Sweeney is stretched very thin given football and hockey. This has to help out Pat Sweeney.

Given that Hammer is the Sioux Football radio voice, and is a former TV guy, he's the logical choice.

The cross-over from Hammer on Clear Channel radio to Forum Comm television is rather interesting however. I wonder if UND doesn't have "selection rights" for hosts for those shows. That'd be a possible answer.

[CoteauRinkRat]

According to this, the Sioux football coaches show will be hosted by Dan Hammer on WDAZ?

Dale Lennon on WDAZ

It is on page 5.

Anybody else heard anything about this? Why the change? I can't see Hammer being on both the payroll of Clear Channel and Forum Communications. Was he hired by the University? When is the last time someone other than Pat Sweeney was the regular host of the football highlight show?

There was an article about this in the sunday edition of the Herald. Yes, Hammer will be hosting the program.

[bincitysioux]

I listened to the University of South Dakota game on the internet tonight. They crushed NAIA Quincy 59-0. What impressed me most during the broadcast was the quality of the audio broadcast. I had it on the computer for 4 hours straight. And there was not one interuption. No "re-buffering" every 5 minutes or anything like there normally is with the Sioux audio webcast. And this feed was free, just as is the UND audio webcast (so there is no excuse for the problems we have on fightingsioux.com).

So I have two questions. Would those of you that live afar and can't get the games on the radio or attend them, be willing to pay a small fee, say $10 or $12 per year, to have access to a decent audio feed?

I sure would, I attend most football games but it is like pulling teeth trying to listen over the web to hockey and basketball.

Second, for those of you that have experienced the wonderful world of Dataflix , would you be willing to pay more than the Dataflix fee for a reliable video webcast service? I would.

I think offering such a media package would generate at least a little bit of revenue for the University, and if it was offered by a company that had a reliable product, that could do alot to keep alumni more in touch with university, hence making them perhaps more apt to give back to the university.

If there are any Bison fans reading this that have the "Go Bison All-Access" subscription, I'd appreciate if you'd let us know what you think of the "All-Access" package, how it works, what you get, (I think they get video of all home games regardless of sport), and how much it costs. Most importantly, are the webcasts worth a hoot, quality-wise?

[Hammersmith]

If there are any Bison fans reading this that have the "Go Bison All-Access" subscription, I'd appreciate if you'd let us know what you think of the "All-Access" package, how it works, what you get, (I think they get video of all home games regardless of sport), and how much it costs. Most importantly, are the webcasts worth a hoot, quality-wise?

I watched tonight's Bison game on the webcast. It wasn't perfect, but it has merit. Prices are $7.95/month, $39.95/6 mo., and $69.95/year. We get all home football games plus sometimes we get away games if they also have webcasts and use the same provider(don't hold me to that last part, I might be wrong). We also get all other sports except x-country, golf and track. Last year there were 43 games and 80 total events webcasted. What's really nice is they're all archived, so I could watch last years Bison/Bunnies football game right now if I wanted. Also, the number of games webcast this year should be higher than last year.

As for quality, I haven't looked through the archive, so I can't tell you how things were last year - only tonight. Pre-web production values seemed to be very high. Immediate instant replays, name/number overlays and camera work were all very good. Sound was a problem. They tried to mix the ambient noise(crowd/players) with the student radio station doing play-by-play. The synch was fine, but the levels were way off. Often, I could barely hear the announcers over the crowd noise. That will need to be fixed and I'm sure I'm not the only one who sent a note to the provider. Halftime was really embarassing, since they had music and commercials running over the marching band audio. Jumbled mess. Video quality was acceptable if not spectacular. I set up my computer to output to my TV, so I got a living-room experience. The video looked very good until I went full-screen, then the artifacting became very apparent. I would like them to try a higher bit-rate, but maybe they can't do that. One last thing was the aspect ratio. Most TV's are 4:3 vs. something like widescreen which is 16:9. This feed seemed to be 1:1 or square. I wonder if it's because they're using the feed meant for the Fargodome's videoscreens which are nearly square. The end result is black bars all around the picture much like the letterbox bars on widescreen movies on TV. Annoying, but not a deal-breaker.

The biggest problem for me was the lack of synch between the video webcast, radio, and other audio webcasts. I like WDAY 970 for play-by-play, but the over-the-air broadcast was off by about 30sec. I tried the WDAY audio webcast next, and it was off by about 10sec. Better, but not good enough. I ended up surfing the messageboards and web while listening to the WDAY audio feed. When something big happened, I quickly brought the video feed window up to catch the action. Kind of like an instant instant-replay. Nice, but I don't know if it's worth the money that way.

Live-Stats are very cool.

I think the current bit-rate is about 330k. If they could up the bit-rate to at least 500k, or even 1000k, it would be a huge improvement. Also, striking a deal with ForumComm for the WDAY audio would be great. Better yet, give us a choice. Overall, I know there have been improvements from last year and if they fix some of the basic mistakes, it should be a great service. It is somewhat bleeding-edge technology and I'm happy NDSU is embracing it as much as it has. I highly recommend the concept.

One last bit of dissertation. If you have the capability, turn your computer into a media center pc. I cannot tell you how cool it is to sit in your living-room, watching a webcast, chatting on a messageboard, watching live-stats, and surfing the web for news and info all at the same time and without leaving your armchair. In fact, I'm typing this from my chair using a wireless keyboard, mouse, and my TV. It may be geek, but it rocks.

To sum up:

If you want this, you(UND) must:

1. Have good production facilities. (Alerus/Ralph?)

2. Build or hire a robust streaming service at 500k or higher

3. Work with radio stations to get the audio most fans want (ClearChannel?)

4. Synch and balance the feeds constantly - don't set and forget

5. Archive the games, press conferences, etc.

6. Live-Stats are cool

7. Start small (football/basketball), then expand to most sports

8. Offer different bit-rates - audio only for dial-up, 250k, 500k & 1000k for those who can handle it

If done correctly, this could blow FSSN out of the water and reach far, far more people.

Sorry for the post length and I hope this helps.

[Hammersmith]

Re-reading what I just wrote made me think of something. Almost all arena videoscreens seem to be square. As I mentioned above, that causes a problem when you pipe that feed out to computer monitors and televisions. Since we can't change everyone's display device and producing two different aspect ratio feeds simultaneously in real-time can be very difficult, wouldn't it make sense to build our arena videoscreens in a 4:3 ratio? That would streamline the whole process. Of course, all of our screens are new at both campuses so the advice might be a little late. Oh well.

[UND Fan]

Bincity - I would gladly pay!

Hammersmith - Thanks for the detailed overview of SU's webcast program.

[NDSU grad]

When I lived in Iowa, the audio was free and absolutely terrible. Sounds very similar to what UND is experiencing right now. They then went to the fee-based system and it would maybe buffer once or twice per game. Absolutely worth the money. Last year I watched the SDSU and Southern Illinois game on the webcast and I thought it was worth the money. Video quality wasn't great, but much better than Montana's was in 2003. I've never watched anything on dataflix so I really can't make any comparisons to that.

[The Sicatoka]

... wouldn't it make sense to build our arena videoscreens in a 4:3 ratio?

Given that the world is trying to shift to HDTV formats, the move is away from 4:3 toward 16:9.

[southpaw]

Sad but true.

why is this sad? the move to hdtv, while a huge burden on pretty much everyone, will be the best thing that could ever happen to tv. the main difference between the 16:9 and 4:3 is that the screen extends further to the sides. you get more peripheral video than you would through standard tv. yes, the monitors have to be bigger because of the way they measure screen size (diagonal) which is the main reason why you're going to see a lot more 40 inch tvs and way way fewer 19 inch tvs. living in the 80's isn't the way to go when we've got some of the best technology.

[CoteauRinkRat]

I know we have discussed this before, but people have been complaining about the quality of the audio feeds especially for years now and nothing gets changed. Has anyone at UND ever acknowledged the problem? Do they pass the blame off to the media outlets?

I really don't understand how this can continue to be a problem year after year, and nothing gets done about it.

I live in Grand Forks but know plenty of people who would be happy to pay for a decent service. These people have given up listening to football games and basketball games over the web, because it is a joke.

[Hammersmith]

Given that the world is trying to shift to HDTV formats, the move is away from 4:3 toward 16:9.

Agreed that we're moving from 4:3 to 16:9, but wouldn't that make awkward arena videoscreens? I thought 4:3 would be a good compromise. Also, the desktop world is a long, long way from widescreen saturation, which is where most will still be watching webcasts.