Hard Times Sacramento Streaming
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POV POOL is the new "Go To" for me and likely many AZB'ers. Daniel is a pleasure to watch even if it is nothing more than him getting his shiny head handed to him by the Ghost in 10-ball.(hehhehe) I look forward to POV PooL turning out more and more Stream and PPV events. Always love the Action Saturday at Hard Times.
Thanks for the dedication Daniel,
Lesh
Thanks for the dedication Daniel,
Lesh
There has been discussion of possibly charging next time, but improving the stream and having commentary on the feature matches.... or just having the stream free, no commentary, and someone monitoring the chat to answer questions. Which would you rather? Can't have both. Comes down to what the people want... $10 fee (or whatever) and improved quality, or free with similar quality (but someone keeping a closer eye on the stream)
Personally, I like the free option. And I was there for the whole tournament in the front. IDK.
Personally, I like the free option. And I was there for the whole tournament in the front. IDK.
Well, I certainly wouldn't pay for a webcam feed, something they have up 24/7 for free the rest of the year. Just on principle.
They typically don't stream all day, every day. It's usually only on during the weekend tournaments and big events. I wouldn't be shocked if the stream were turned off again pretty soon.
That being said... nobody is going to throw a ton of money into upgrading their equipment/getting commentators/hiring a streamer like POV pool if there's no $$ coming in from it. Doesn't make good sense. They get income from the people in the room, not the people watching on the stream (by and large). They offered the free stream so people could enjoy the game. That's it.
I'm thinking that people should just enjoy the fact that they got to watch some world class pool, glitchy or not, without getting off the couch or spending a dime.
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I prefer the raw feed with out the commentators myself. In fact I usually mute the sound if there is commentary and turn off the chat too!
I agree. Some of the commentators are incredibly annoying and I find myself wishing they'd shut the hell up. Either talk about the match we're watching or don't talk.
It was free?? Damn Nigerian's got me again.....:angry:
I thought the quality was very poor and because you could barely recognize players that are stars that you have seen many times. I am only acknowledging the obvious that POVPOOL streaming started out way better and has improved over time with mutilple cameras and increased production value.. There are a lot of things you can get for free. I could watch TV with rabbit ears but I prefer to have cable and a sharp image.
One thing is for sure with content that bad you never will secure any revenue source like a corporate sponsor. I would like guys like Mika, Alex, Efren, Dennis,Oscar,SVB,Carlo etc.to have an opportunity to earn a lot more money. The only way that can happen is you have to sell some product. The product should be beer it is the perfect fit for the game and is a huge industry. Pool players in general are not going to reach for a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir and sample Brie cheese after a spirited set of Nine Ball. After the game its Miller time baby and in the past pool did have Miller light on board.
If you can't sell anything then you can't make any money. With no money there will be no new players in the game. Without new players, the game will atrophy in the US. Pool must reach event status or perish in this United States of America. The crowd at tournaments keeps looking older and older. As Milton Friedman said so eloquently there is no free lunch in this world. POVPOOL is a gonzo go for it product and it is getting better and better. Biado vrs. Hatch was a fantastic event. Just a hunch but I think Dennis might have knocked back a few Budweisers after that match. He does not look like a Chardonnay drinkin Brie eater but I might be wrong. Cole Dickson was like a gunfighter with a cue in one hand and a Brew in the other. Pool is a bar room game and we need to get these brewers on board and get them workin for pool. Pool is an American game and we need to have an American brewer step up and support this game.
One thing is for sure with content that bad you never will secure any revenue source like a corporate sponsor. I would like guys like Mika, Alex, Efren, Dennis,Oscar,SVB,Carlo etc.to have an opportunity to earn a lot more money. The only way that can happen is you have to sell some product. The product should be beer it is the perfect fit for the game and is a huge industry. Pool players in general are not going to reach for a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir and sample Brie cheese after a spirited set of Nine Ball. After the game its Miller time baby and in the past pool did have Miller light on board.
If you can't sell anything then you can't make any money. With no money there will be no new players in the game. Without new players, the game will atrophy in the US. Pool must reach event status or perish in this United States of America. The crowd at tournaments keeps looking older and older. As Milton Friedman said so eloquently there is no free lunch in this world. POVPOOL is a gonzo go for it product and it is getting better and better. Biado vrs. Hatch was a fantastic event. Just a hunch but I think Dennis might have knocked back a few Budweisers after that match. He does not look like a Chardonnay drinkin Brie eater but I might be wrong. Cole Dickson was like a gunfighter with a cue in one hand and a Brew in the other. Pool is a bar room game and we need to get these brewers on board and get them workin for pool. Pool is an American game and we need to have an American brewer step up and support this game.
For 'free' or not for free... That is the question!
- not William Shakespeare
Here's my take -
I've spent 3 years trying to make a quality show of pool. I'm still not happy, but maybe that's just me, always seeing room for improvement. If you ask me, I think my show sucked until about a year ago..LOL.
Something's changed, I guess. I think I've learned to take more care in the product, probably because I've spent a boatload to improve it production-wise. So, the commentary tends to be more consistent and less annoying - and we highlight and pay more respect to our sponsors without being pushy or overbearing.
Another thing too, is that it's actually taken about 3 years to find people that I can put on the stream without sounding too annoying. Alot of it has to do with controlling the commentary and being a good interviewer. I've worked hard on that and still do.
Now, i can do these streams free or PPV. At this point, it really doesn't matter to me as long as we achieve several goals.
- The talent gets much deserved exposure
- The people putting in work are getting compensated
- The show can watched 5 years from now without asking, "What's this?"
With HT Sacramento's live stream - I'm afraid the only exposure those players get is LIVE exposure, with people in the chat room and posters on facebook, reminding us of who we are watching. If you were to put the finals of that event on YouTube, it would not get much play in the long term. One thing that has been crucial to my stream is the scoreboard. I finally took it upon myself to utilize a scoreboard that is ALWAYS on the screen now. Not everybody watches matches all the way through like you think they do. They like to multi-task or come back to it, keep it running in the background and come back to quickly check the score sometimes. There was no scoreboard on this last stream.
As far as the commentary / no commentary option... No solution for you yet. i have been thinking about multi-streaming on JustinTV and Ustream and/or YouTube, simultaneously (which is entirely possible) and offering the separate audio options on each different channel - But alas there are issues like bandwidth to deal with too.
Don't think that your trusty streamer is not thinking long and hard about all these issues. I will say, though - If I showed up to HT SAC with a mixer and a couple of mics and told them that I would be happy to lend them this gear for commentary, I'm sure they would have said yes. So this 'no commentary' option you speak of was not really an option for them, than it was the lack of resources to provide it. Albeit a nice, accidental experiment in show presentation, gives the viewer something to compare everything to.
I appreciate those who advocate that POV Pool is getting better and raising the bar, but I can't take full responsibility. I feel like as a final product, POV Pool merely touches the tip of the iceberg of what a real pool show can be. I think the free streams like HT Sac are fine, ONLY because there is a lot of other product out there promoting the same players (like POV, Inside Pool, Accu-Stats, Big Truck, TAR, Kevin Kidd, TVMike, NAPA Stream).
One thing that sticks out in my mind though...
- Justin Bergman was so happy to have won that tournament, he posted on Facebook, about how great this was - A milestone for his 'career' as a pool player.
Can you only imagine how he would have felt 5 years from now, as a world champion player if this event included good, professional commentary and came with a live interview afterwards?
Just food for thought. I have a habit of quieting threads, so sorry about stream of consciousness.
- Keep Loving Pool!
- not William Shakespeare
Here's my take -
I've spent 3 years trying to make a quality show of pool. I'm still not happy, but maybe that's just me, always seeing room for improvement. If you ask me, I think my show sucked until about a year ago..LOL.
Something's changed, I guess. I think I've learned to take more care in the product, probably because I've spent a boatload to improve it production-wise. So, the commentary tends to be more consistent and less annoying - and we highlight and pay more respect to our sponsors without being pushy or overbearing.
Another thing too, is that it's actually taken about 3 years to find people that I can put on the stream without sounding too annoying. Alot of it has to do with controlling the commentary and being a good interviewer. I've worked hard on that and still do.
Now, i can do these streams free or PPV. At this point, it really doesn't matter to me as long as we achieve several goals.
- The talent gets much deserved exposure
- The people putting in work are getting compensated
- The show can watched 5 years from now without asking, "What's this?"
With HT Sacramento's live stream - I'm afraid the only exposure those players get is LIVE exposure, with people in the chat room and posters on facebook, reminding us of who we are watching. If you were to put the finals of that event on YouTube, it would not get much play in the long term. One thing that has been crucial to my stream is the scoreboard. I finally took it upon myself to utilize a scoreboard that is ALWAYS on the screen now. Not everybody watches matches all the way through like you think they do. They like to multi-task or come back to it, keep it running in the background and come back to quickly check the score sometimes. There was no scoreboard on this last stream.
As far as the commentary / no commentary option... No solution for you yet. i have been thinking about multi-streaming on JustinTV and Ustream and/or YouTube, simultaneously (which is entirely possible) and offering the separate audio options on each different channel - But alas there are issues like bandwidth to deal with too.
Don't think that your trusty streamer is not thinking long and hard about all these issues. I will say, though - If I showed up to HT SAC with a mixer and a couple of mics and told them that I would be happy to lend them this gear for commentary, I'm sure they would have said yes. So this 'no commentary' option you speak of was not really an option for them, than it was the lack of resources to provide it. Albeit a nice, accidental experiment in show presentation, gives the viewer something to compare everything to.
I appreciate those who advocate that POV Pool is getting better and raising the bar, but I can't take full responsibility. I feel like as a final product, POV Pool merely touches the tip of the iceberg of what a real pool show can be. I think the free streams like HT Sac are fine, ONLY because there is a lot of other product out there promoting the same players (like POV, Inside Pool, Accu-Stats, Big Truck, TAR, Kevin Kidd, TVMike, NAPA Stream).
One thing that sticks out in my mind though...
- Justin Bergman was so happy to have won that tournament, he posted on Facebook, about how great this was - A milestone for his 'career' as a pool player.
Can you only imagine how he would have felt 5 years from now, as a world champion player if this event included good, professional commentary and came with a live interview afterwards?
Just food for thought. I have a habit of quieting threads, so sorry about stream of consciousness.
- Keep Loving Pool!