15 STREAMPUNK Whitney High School
TOUCHDOWN The sports programme broadcasts live events. Weekly football games are the staple of the live streaming programme. “We have so much equipment, we have to start setting up for an evening football game at about 3:30. You have to go out to the press box and set up four computers, one for graphics, one for instant replay, one for Wirecast and one for the directors. And that’s not including our five cameras.” The school is in the process of building its own production trailer. When the gear is installed the vehicle will allow greater speed and mobility and enable the programme to expand its range of live coverage. The football coverage oers instant replays via a computer which is capturing the stream via the display out from Wirecast. “We capture the clip and put it on a timeline; through a shared Google Doc we can let the anchors know on their monitor when it’s ready to show. Another student producer will be scrolling through Twitter, monitoring other football games happening at the same time, and they will feed the anchors the live scores of games that other local teams are playing.”
hitney High School in Rocklin, California has won multiple awards for its student television station, but school’s success isn’t based on tech, it’s hard work and disciplined workflows. The Whitney High School broadcast programme was started by Ben Barnholdt, who in 2007 moved to the Sacramento area from Nevada, where he had been a videographer for NBC stations in Reno and Las Vegas. The programme has 84 students and consists of seven classes – four introductory media classes and three advanced level classes. After the intro classes, which survey film production, non- fiction broadcasting and production basics, students have the opportunity to move on to study broadcast journalism, sports broadcast or film production. These three advanced classes collaborate in producing a 15-minute daily show which streams out to the school and the local community. With the exception of a few faculty announcements, the content is written, produced and anchored by students. The Whitney student channel, called WCTV19, streams to a number of online and social media destinations via ESE Networks, a Georgia-based service that has become a go-to destination for high school and educational streaming. Students are encouraged to jump into the programme as soon as they get to Whitney. The intensity of the programme models the competitiveness students will face in the real industry. “It’s best to start the class with all freshmen,” explains Barnholdt. “It gives you a way to teach everyone the process right away, and you learn a lot about their work ethic too. But every student has to reapply each year. You have to earn your way in. It’s very competitive.” The programme has grown steadily since its inception a decade ago. “From where we started back, there’s been a huge amount of growth,” says Barnholdt. “We started on video tape and we would have to use a FireWire to import footage. We were playing a lot of stu o VHS tapes or we would record to DVDs. Now we’re 100% Blackmagic Design equipment, plus Telestream’s Wirecast for streaming.”
Using Wirecast’s Titler Live, the football live stream also features high-quality scoreboards, running clock and down markers. The live football coverage is streamed out via Facebook Live and through ESE Networks, using Wirecasts ability to send to multiple outlets. ESE has provided streaming services for the school since 2013 and hosts most of the video content and live streaming. TEAMWORK At Whitney High School, the emphasis is on practical experience. There are some theory classes, education about visual grammar and the basics of film theory, but the vast majority of the classroom
IF YOU DO THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT, THEN YOU DON’ T HAVE TO SPEND AS MUCH TIME FINE TUNING IT LATER
PLAYING TO WIN Students are encouraged to fully immerse themselves in the intense programme and, echoing the competitiveness of the industry, must reapply for the course each year
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