The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page - November 25, 2008
NEW SEASON BRINGS NEW FEATURE
Fans in attendance at Princeton Arena may not be aware of it, but when the Valley First Princeton Posse started the 2008/09 season, they added a new feature to their home games internet webcasts.
The KIJHL website, located at www.kijhl.com is where the webcasts can be located and if you miss a live one, you can always access an archived game from this season. The webcast equipment includes a handycam camera mounted on a tripod, a mixing board, a laptop computer and two headsets with microphones.
"It sounds pretty simple, but with technology the way it is these days, that's all we need to get the show online," says Posse internet play-by-play announcer George Elliott.
"I'm actually quite impressed with the clarity and detail the small camera can produce."
Admitting that this season has so far been filled with trial and error with dropped signals, varying microphone levels and incorrectly identified players, Elliott says the 'work in progress' is coming along just fine.
"Posse Assistant Coach Kevin Robillard deserves much of the credit for getting the webcasts online. He's usually got the equipment set up and ready to go by the time I arrive and he handles the camera work and provides valuable insight during games, so I really appreciate his presence during the webcasts," Elliott adds.
A normal hockey night starts an hour before the game when Elliott arrives at Princeton Arena.
"I do some homework the afternoon of a game where I'll get the visiting team line up from the internet, and pull out a few stats from both teams, lay the information out on 'cheat sheets' and then I'll compare the names and numbers during the pre-game warm-up. That's usually where I'll discover if I've missed anyone so I'll add them to the list and I'm pretty much ready for the opening face-off."
Elliott says the webcasts have made him look at the local team in a different light.
"I see the webcasts as an excellent opportunity for us to promote Princeton in a way that isn't already being done and I see how many volunteers give so many of their weekends to the community by doing something at the arena during game night. Without them it would be difficult to host a home game."
Elliott also sees the webcast as filling a slightly different role for the team.
"At first I thought we were doing this as a league requirement, then after I started getting e-mails from family members watching the webcasts from all over BC, Alaska and into the United States it became apparent that we were providing a pretty important link for families separated due to hockey. When one parent wrote to say Princeton was over a thousand kilometres away and that they never missed a game their son had played at home and how grateful they were to be able to see their boy play and to be able to see the game in the comfort of their own home - that really put it into a different perspective for me."
As for the mechanics of play-by-play announcing, Elliott says it's been fun.
"I had never done a play-by-play broadcast of any kind in my radio career so I was pretty excited about the challenge, and although I got off to a shaky start, it's actually been a lot easier than I thought it would be."
He's also made other observations about the game.
"Even a not so good hockey game looks differently from the webcast booth as we are up high and can see things developing on ice that maybe can't be as easy to spot from the stands. I've also noticed there's a lot of chatter on ice you can't hear in the stands."
And the number one difference?
"Doing the play-by-play makes the average hockey game go by far faster than sitting in the stands watching it."
