Pro Event Webcast watch party?

[Horton]

The new software can do "watch party" for events. I am still trying to wrap my head around it but basically, the live event would stream here and we would have a live chat on the same page similar to what YouTube already does except it would be just Ballers. At the end of the watch party, the comments automatically become a forum thread. I am unsure how interesting or not that would be.

Does anyone think this is compelling? 

NOTE Since starting this thread I have totally changed for i think this tech will be used

[Ski2000]

I think this could be wildly entertaining. 
Might end up needing a moderator if/ when someone gets off on a safesport or such talk. 

[Horton]

@Ski2000

that would be me

[Ski2000]

Seems like the real-time chatter can get carried away if there’s controversy. People hit send in the, passion of the moment, type of thing. 
I do enjoy commenting on what’s happening, but I don’t do the popular” socials” because of trashy comments and the constant desire to dunk on people. 
I would hate to see a de-evolution here from that sort of comments. 

[swbca]

Could try it.   The number of Ballers consistently watching in real time might be limited.  Even many of those who want to see all of certain events, are stopping, starting, fast forwarding etc to fit into their own schedules.   I think to only downside might be low real-time participation.  I would be interested to see how it goes.:)  

[dbaconaz]

I think it would be great!!

 

[aupatking]

I’m in. Moomba is tough, just keeping up with the time difference but I’m always trying to watch them live. 

[Horton]

@aupatking Typically Moomba & Masters do not allow anyone to embed the stream. So I guess we could have a live chat during the finals but the video would not be embedded in the same window. 

[Horton]

We might just need to set up a test party.

[ETskier]

Mr Obvious here. I think prelims are unnecessary,  but slalom finals would be great. Up to you if you want to include trick and jump.

[Horton]

I can do 2 events per month. Up to 6 hours each. So three are limits.

[swbca]

When Bos hits "play" can party goers hit pause for their personal viewing or does it run from start to finish for all ?

[ghutch]

I foresee banishments coming.....

 

[DvarianDan Johnson]

Prefer to watch live on YouTube- stable feed- and can participate in/ see ALL the comments . No clear value prop to considering watching here IMO. 

[Horton]

@DvarianDan Johnson feed would be live & stable 

[aupatking]

4 hours ago, Horton said:

We might just need to set up a test party.

Let me know when you want to run a test. I’ll jump on

[Drago]

8 hours ago, Ski2000 said:

Seems like the real-time chatter can get carried away if there’s controversy. People hit send in the, passion of the moment, type of thing. 
I do enjoy commenting on what’s happening, but I don’t do the popular” socials” because of trashy comments and the constant desire to dunk on people. 
I would hate to see a de-evolution here from that sort of comments. 

I think you and @ghutch have the wrong crowd . Horton is talking about a waterski tournament, not a presidential debate

[ghutch]

@Drago I get it. Just being funny but..... put all these ballers together on a live forum for the first and it could get entertaining.

[BGrow76]

I think it is unnecessary for most events since TWBC already allows viewers to comment on their live YouTube stream. If there are events (Moomba, Masters, other) that are lived streamed without a place to comment then it would be a good idea.

[Drago]

1 hour ago, ghutch said:

@Drago I get it. Just being funny but..... put all these ballers together on a live forum for the first and it could get entertaining.

👍Just sayin'. 
Tbc, I’m a No thanks on the idea. I’m just not into looking at my phone when the sun is shining

[Horton]

I am not sure watch parties will become a thing or not but the tool set is interesting enough that I want to try it. It would be silly to not take a long look and see if there is value. 

Moomba seems like a good place to test the functionality even though everyone will have to stream the video in a second browser. If it does not add value then you can just log off.

Until we have tested it and see how it works I can not offer it to the industry but one of the things it is designed for is product launches. It would go something like this.... 

• Everyone gets an email with a time zone-corrected reminder of the event and links
• Ski company does a live stream video product launch
• or elite coach or athlete interviews
• Everyone can ask questions by text in real time
• At the end all the questions are automatically converted into a thread

As for Pro Tournaments 

The ski event is live in Europe or Asia and the announcing is mostly in a foreign language. 

• Everyone gets an email with a time zone-corrected reminder of the event and links
• Everyone watches live in a second browser 
• English-speaking announcer gives commentary by embedded livestream video 
• Everyone can ask questions by text in real time
• At the end all the questions are automatically converted into a thread

Or it is a TWBC event

• Everyone gets an email with a time zone-corrected reminder of the event and links
• Everyone watches TWBC live embedded here & listens to the sublime tones of Tony Lightfoot
• We bullshit freely about the skiing in real time - I think this would be fun
• At the end all the questions are automatically converted into a thread or maybe we agree to delete after?
• This could be a 

Notes

Any of the above use cases could be public or for a closed group. I am not sure why we would do a private small group pro ski event watch part but we could.

I think the email with timezone-corrected reminders is easy but need to test it. With events like Moomba I imagine you can sign up for reminders OR I can send them to everyone in the database. This is something else on my to-do list to better understand.

[Horton]

Or instead of doing this around tournaments, what if it was an elite skier or coach interview session?

[DonT]

Horton -  you have probably already thought of this:

I don't pretend to understand the financial model of TWBC, but if we take (granted a small number of viewers) away from the TWBC YouTube feed, does that negatively impact TWBC's financial model, and consequently driving an adverse effect to the viability of their continued broadcasts?  

[Horton]

@DonT Two things

1) the more I think about the tool the more I think watch parties would be the wrong use. I am now leaning toward skier and coach interviews. Yes, this is a total pivot from when I started this thread. 

2) If we did this as a watch party I think it would augment TWBC viewership. They care about total eyeballs not where the viewing happens. There is zero chance I would do anything to degrade the efforts at TWBC.

[Slalom.Steve]

If someone is passionate enough to watch ski tournaments but isn't a member on Ball of Spray, I would be confused. Or am I overselling the prominence of BOS?

What I mean by that: I would think the huge majority of people who would be people watching and commenting on a ski tournament on YouTube are also Ball of Spray members, so doing a live chat "similar to what YouTube already does except it would be just Ballers" seems like a useless duplication? Viewership is small enough, just keep it on YouTube rather than splitting it into another, even smaller group of viewers lol.

Edited February 6 by Slalom.Steve

[Horton]

@Slalom.Steve

 no, I disagree. The YouTube commenters are not necessarily exactly all the same people as the forum commenters would be. When I look at the YouTube comments, I think I see a different demographic than I see as a forum commenter.

it's kind of a moot point because since I started this thread I've had a change of heart on what how the collaborative meeting web tool should be used.

[ScottScott]

Youtube veiws does make a difference to anyone posting videos on youtube. There are sposorships etc that come through that medium. I can't say how much they are taking advantage of those, but viewer-ship on their channel can very well help them. (I also don't know how this effects that, just pointing that out as a potential.)

[mike_mapple]

14 hours ago, Slalom.Steve said:

If someone is passionate enough to watch ski tournaments but isn't a member on Ball of Spray, I would be confused. Or am I overselling the prominence of BOS?

What I mean by that: I would think the huge majority of people who would be people watching and commenting on a ski tournament on YouTube are also Ball of Spray members, so doing a live chat "similar to what YouTube already does except it would be just Ballers" seems like a useless duplication? Viewership is small enough, just keep it on YouTube rather than splitting it into another, even smaller group of viewers lol.

You would be amazed the amount of skiers that have never heard of the site. 

[DvarianDan Johnson]

Or am I overselling the prominence of BOS? @Slalom.Steve Yes  - very much overselling the prominence 

[tru-jack]

@Slalom.Steve as other's have mentioned, there are a lot of skiers that haven't heard of BOS.  I don't think anyone in our club is aware of it...  I would guess most fall into the category that @Drago mentioned:  i don't want to look at my phone or computer when the sun is shining... me included.  being in Canada, I'm a big hockey fan, but unfortunately the playoffs, where it basically gets interesting, are too late into the spring / summer when the suns shines and the days are longer, so no tv, computer or phone...

[Kelvin]

10 hours ago, ScottScott said:

Youtube veiws does make a difference to anyone posting videos on youtube. There are sposorships etc that come through that medium. I can't say how much they are taking advantage of those, but viewer-ship on their channel can very well help them. (I also don't know how this effects that, just pointing that out as a potential.)

Any embedding of the Youtube stream on another website such as BOS is still views for Youtube and everything is cool.  Now, what isn't cool would be someone capturing the YT stream and restreaming in on their own thru FB, YT or any other CDN.