TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE is a long-time corporate partner of COSIDA and the official provider of teleconference services for our organization and their technology supports every CoSIDA educational session/webcast over the past two years.
TRZ provides colleges and universities with audio broadcasts and has been streaming live video of collegiate sporting events since the early 1990’s.
TEAMLINE has recently added the ability for teams to feature the live video of their events on iPhone and Android phones.
Now, TRZ Sports has an innovative program to assist CoSIDA members in broadcasting their games online and has partnered with Division III Williams College as the first school to use these unique services. The most prolific NCAA DIII athletic program, Williams College has earned 12 consecutive NACDA/Learfield Sports Directors' Cup championships.
With their on-court and on-field success, Williams wants to ensure that their loyal fans, alumni and campus supporters follow the Ephs' competitions as much as possible.
TRZ Sports has rolled out a webcast/audio agreement with Williams College which can greatly benefit athletic communicators, help subsidize budget concerns, enhance broadcast quality with the end goal of greater viewership/listenership.
How unique is this relationship with Williams’ athletic department? TRZ Sports is paying Williams College a per-game stipend to help pay for staffing every game held on Williams’ campus.
Williams College is in the first year of its new deal with TEAMLINE that not only features new broadcast rates, but also is augmented by TEAMLINE loaning their athletic department three laptops, two video cameras, and two tripods to help Williams broadcast its games.
How important is the TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE relationship with Williams? At one time only Division I University of Tennessee had more fans listening to their broadcasts on TEAMLINE than did the Ephs.
“The results of this collaboration between TRZ Sports and Williams has been off the charts,” noted Tom Zawistowski, TRZ Sports CEO. “Together, we developed this hybrid plan where TRZ helps defer the equipment and production costs in exchange for Williams providing the wireless infrastructure to service nearly all of their sports. This fit perfectly with TRZ's mission of treating all sports equally, and all colleges equally. We believe this model will work with other athletic departments that have been attempting to do more streaming video but just did not have the resources to get the job done.”
TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE’s innovative webcast/audio program with Williams College is available to other interested universities and colleges. Read why this program could hold tremendous benefits for your organization.
“We see this as a big part of the future for CoSIDA members who are always challenged to bring more multi-media into the mix in everything they do and to enhance the broadcast experience for their viewers,” Zawistowski concluded. “By providing financial assistance for equipment and production cost to those SID's, it opens up broadcast channels and opportunities that previously were not possible.”
See more on this innovative program, below, from the perspective of Dick Quinn, Williams College Sports Information Director.
For more information, contact:
Tom Zawistowki
TRZ Sports CEO and Founder
tomz@trzcom.com
Mike Wilt
Director of Marketing
mikew@trz.cc
TRZ Sports Main Telephone: 1.800.846.4630
Customer Service: 1.866.253.2006
At Williams College, working with TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE has enhanced our fan outreach and significantly improved our video and audio game day broadcasts
By Dick Quinn, Williams College Sports Information Director
SEE WILLIAMS COLLEGE'S TEAMLINE PAGE
In 1996 when I was still a part-time SID working 20 hours a week to cover 30 varsity teams, I attended the CoSIDA Convention in Boston. I went at the request of CoSIDA so the SIDs at the schools winning the Directors’ Cup could be acknowledged. While at CoSIDA I met Tom Zawistowski, CEO of TRZ Sports/ TEAMLINE who introduced me to the features of TEAMLINE audio.
When I learned that with just a phone Williams athletic contests could be delivered to the phones of our fans and our student station at very little cost I got excited. I had a lot of talented kids working for me that I knew could handle this.
In the beginning at soccer games we were rolling out 900-foot spools of telephone wire to get the phone to the middle of the field. Thank goodness cell phones were right around the corner, because our power source was a long way from the middle of the field. At one point we used cell phones attached to a car charger connected to an extension cord.
For the cost of a work-study student’s reasonable rate we could get the game delivered live to those who purchased the game from TEAMLINE. The first year we did all home men’s and women’s soccer games, football games, men’s and women’s basketball games and it was a big hit with our fans.
We are currently in the first year of or new deal with TEAMLINE that not only features the new rates, but also is augmented by TEAMLINE loaning us three laptops, two video cameras, and two tripods to help us air our games.
Our long-term relationship with TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE has always been outstanding and the popularity of our game broadcasts continues to grow due to the innovations that TEAMLINE has rolled out. I know TEAMLINE is in a great position to support many SID’s and college athletic departments with their digital communications and fan outreach.
Eventually we expanded to add field hockey, volleyball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s swimming, baseball and softball games. At one time only Division I University of Tennessee had more folks listening to their broadcasts on TEAMLINE than did the Ephs.
One memorable moment came in 1999 when one of my students had a job interview in New York City and said he was going to the men’s basketball game at Connecticut College afterwards and he wanted to know if I wanted him to do the game on TEAMLINE. I called Zawistowski and five minutes later I was calling Connecticut College and arranging for them to open a coach’s office so we could run phone line into the gym.
One of our most dedicated listeners was “Nana,” whose grandson was an All-American for us, Matt Hunt. When I called Matt Hunt’s father, Dick, to tell him we added the game at the last minute he told me that Nana would not be able to listen as it was her birthday and her friends were taking her out for the evening.
Monday morning I got a phone call informing that Nana had gotten the best birthday present ever! Her friends knowing of her devotion to her grandson had the game on a speaker phone and wouldn’t you know it Nana’s favorite Eph tipped in the winning hoop as time expired!
Originally we earned a percentage of the cost of each call to TEAMLINE and we were able to cover our expenses.
When video came along the fee for coverage was going up when my budget for webcasting was going down.
I called TEAMLINE (Director of Marketing) Mike Wilt and informed him that I did not think that we could continue without some help from them. Mike devised a way for TEAMLINE to subsidize some of our costs in exchange for TRZ keeping all of the fees collected from viewers during the games. This allowed me to cover all the costs of each game and pay TEAMLINE to provide our games for free during NESCAC and NCAA Tournaments, which are not allowed to be pay-to-view events.
The subsidy comes out to more than what we were making on the percentage and guarantees we can do all of our games and we do a lot of games! In 2009-10 we aired 155 live events in 15 sports.
We are currently in the first year of or new deal with TEAMLINE that not only features the new rates, but also is augmented by TEAMLINE loaning us three laptops, two video cameras, and two tripods to help us air our games.
On a fall Saturday it is not unusual for us to air men’s or women’s soccer beginning at 11:00 a.m. (with the other soccer game beginning at 1:00 p.m.), field hockey at noon, and football which kicks off at 1:30 p.m., all live and all on their own broadcast stream.
TEAMLINE was also instrumental in allowing us to air our 2010 “Biggest Little Game in America” football contest from Amherst College (not a TEAMLINE client) on “tape delay” for the first time.
Connecting to hardwire in the Amherst press box with our TEAMLINE equipment the New England Sports Network (NESN) was able to send the game directly to TEAMLINE in Ohio where it was taped for a 3 p.m. airing. Live airing on TEAMLINE was prohibited due to NESN’s agreement with DirecTV. This meant for the first time Williams and Amherst students and alums overseas could watch the game on the same day and not just read about it.
I know that there are other services that offer games for less than TEAMLINE does, but I’m a loyalist – TEAMLINE was there for Williams in the beginning and they have worked with us every step of the way. We’ve had our problems in delivering the games to them, but they understand that we are student driven and we have worked hard on improving our delivery paths and techniques.
A few years back when I could afford to do the games for free on one day the Ephs hosted rival Amherst College in men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s basketball – same building, same times, same intense atmosphere – separated by one eight-foot wide hallway. About 850 watched the swim meet and 890 watched the hoops games.
For each of our games, our Sports Information staff does all the setup and trouble shooting and supplies the talent for all of the games - which is getting close to impossible! There is a big market for these games and although we are handling all facets of the broadcasts ourselves using only our staff and no other on-campus help, we understand the VALUE that we are delivering to alumni, fans, parents, administrators, etc. Our student-athletes deserve to be seen so with the help of TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE, our sports information office will continue to carry the load.
Here are more statistics from this year which demonstrate the importance of our TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE partnership: While 195 folks paid to watch the Eph men’s basketball team’s final regular season game versus Amherst, shortly thereafter when Williams hosted the NESCAC Men’s Basketball semifinals and final 2,626 folks tuned in for the three games that were aired for free. That averages out to 875 a game.
On March 12th when the Ephs hosted archrival Amherst in men’s hoops for the right to advance to the national semifinals taking place in Salem, VA, a total of 2,284 tuned in to watch the free webcast. Our gym only holds 1,561 so it was of crucial importance to offer the game to all of those folks who could not get in or were too far away to attend.
Our long-term relationship with TRZ Sports/TEAMLINE has always been outstanding and the popularity of our game broadcasts continues to grow due to the innovations that TEAMLINE has rolled out. I know TEAMLINE is in a great position to support many SID’s and college athletic departments with their digital communications and fan outreach.