On Sept. 9, Bonita Vista Television (BVTV) introduced live play-by-play commentary during the first home football game of the year. The implementation of a live play-by-play commentary allows BVTV’s anchors to narrate what is occurring as the game goes on. Camera Director and junior Sebastian Hunt expands on this new addition.
“We decided to step up our game in the live stream community. Last year, it was mainly just live-streaming, and no one was talking about it. But this year, we decided to step it up and get two main anchors [seniors Wyatt Schneidau and Gabriel Hunt] that we will be having on all of our live streams, and they will be talking about what is going on,” Hunt said.
BVTV Producer and junior Emilliano Moreno-Fierro, is a part of the team that helps run both the main broadcast as well as the sports livestreams. Moreno-Fierro comments on the new addition, and how its implementation is the “right step” to improving.
“It is a good addition. It is the right step to improving on the broadcast, taking it to another level. I think that the fact we have these opportunities is a good step for the school,” Moreno-Fierro said.
Every year BVTV has a list of advancements or additions to the broadcast they want to achieve within a school year. This year, it was the development of the live commentary over their live streams. According to BVTV advisor and Multimedia teacher Hugo Martinez, this was a major goal for BVTV this year.
“Each year we have an emphasis on specific goals that we want to accomplish, but from research in our industry, play-by-play is a key element of what we teach, we base our curriculum on live production,” Martinez said.
To fully introduce the play-by-play commentary, Martinez explains that BVTV had to introduce new equipment to fully capture the game and connect all visuals and audio. Including some pieces that had to be custom-made.
“Developing that type of program takes development. We first started with getting the equipment. Our [live streaming cart] is unique, it is completely custom. We have two [live streaming units and] they are completely custom,” Martinez said.
As with everything, trial and error are often needed to achieve what one desires. In the media industry, problems can range from auditory and visual issues to entire broadcasts not going live or scripts that go wrong. In the case of BVTV, these issues were mainly auditory.
“The problem we ran into was that we had the audio on the computer, but when we viewed the live stream, it was not going through the two microphones that were used by the anchors, and we could not figure it out. After 30 minutes of tinkering, we found the kink that was causing the problem, and we fixed it up,” Hunt said.
The anchors, who rotate among various students, spend their time in the Media booth during games, in which they watch the field and announce current events whether it is a good play from one of the teams to a mistake on the field that occurs. Martinez explains the process of student-run commentary.
“The sports director has somebody doing the play-by-play, and they have the list of numbers. What we do is commentate [the game] […] [the announcer] would be calling out the student and their number. The students repeat that information or let it go within the live stream, and they come in and add on,” Martinez said.
As livestreams are generally viewed from home, the commentary is crucial to understanding current events, especially for sports, analysis of players and plays. Martinez expands on the reason why live commentary was crucial for the broadcast.
“We do that because we want to promote engagement for the whole live stream. When you are watching it on TV or on your cell phone, which is the majority of the audience. We need to keep it engaging, respectful, but at the same time fun,” Martinez said.
Although most of the new live commentary is focused on multiple sporting events at BVH, students hardly listen to professional commentators from different sports leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL) or the National Basketball Association (NBA). Martinez explains why this is not a common occurrence, and how students developed these skills.
“You have to understand that we are covering many sports. There are so many sports that they are not experts on, but have the ability to go in and interview people,” Martinez said. “They develop these skills during their intro multimedia year, which is before BVTV and or virtual production and International Baccalaureate (IB) Film. Effort is a journey, and they learn from listening to other people as a reference.”
Previously, BVTV has covered other events, including non-sports related ones, where they have also implemented a live commentary over the livestream, despite the fact that it was not as developed as it was now. This included events such as Esports and the college expo last year. Hunt explains how this helped their development.
“The main ones we did were the Esports [tournament], then the [football] scrimmage. We did the college Expo at Montgomery High School, and the home game was the first big game that we streamed [with commentary] […] Throughout all those different events we learned stuff that was useful and helped us with the other broadcasts,” Hunt said.
This was a joint effort between all the students in BVTV, as according to Martinez, they are performing well with the technology and experience they have with them. Martinez further explains how the program developed through the students’ efforts.
“I do not want to take [credit]. It was not me. I have been adding my expertise and the things that I have learned and developed, but I was very fortunate to have foundations ready by Mr. [AP Art and Design and Filipino teacher Ed] Lim. Something to consider is that […] [the students] try their best with the technology and knowledge at hand,” Martinez said.
