GameCast – Livestream like a Pro
1989: “If you build it they will come.” (From the movie Field of Dreams)
2021: “If you stream it, they will watch.”
And indeed they watched. 1,400 hours total in just under 6 weeks.
Background
In March of 2021, I was approached by the Board of Directors of the Mill Valley Little League and asked to help develop a system to live stream the upcoming season’s games. Very much like the rest of the 180,000 Little League Organizations around the US, the ongoing pandemic severely restricted audience attendance. The league felt compelled to offer a live stream alternative.
Development
I subsequently began designing and testing this first-of-a-kind baseball live stream camera platform, together with members of the hardware and software team of GoPro.
Fastmetrics, a Bay Area-based internet service provider came on board as a sponsor and donated the wireless hardware, installation and internet service. The system consists of a custom-designed baseball-proof housing for the GoPro Hero9 camera, a wireless mesh network across two fields and a distribution platform that allows live streaming on multiple platforms such as Twitch, Facebook, YouTube and many more.
Deployment/Results:
Live deployment during April – June Little League 2021 Season in Mill Valley, CA. Check out these amazing analytics from the two fixed-installed cameras.
- Livestreamed 60+ games from two fields
- 150+ Hours streamed
- 4,200+ Live Views
- 1,300 Unique Viewers
- 1,400 Total hours watched (Live and on-demand)