John “Jake” Jacobsen and Thomas “T.J.” Super have been working hard to bring Cook County High School and community events to the Internet. Jacobsen (left) is the school’s technology coordinator while Super, a teacher at the school, assists Jacobsen in the summers. The two switch roles during the basketball season when Jacobsen becomes Super’s assistant on the girls’ basketball team.
Maybe you are out of time, or tired, or feeling sick but would really like to see the girls’ basketball game. In the past, you would miss it or listen to it on the radio.
But not anymore—many of the Cook County High School (CCHS) games, concerts, even graduation can be watched on the Internet. All it takes is a computer and the web address and voila! You’re there.
It’s called live streaming and the technology is fairly new, said Technology Coordinator John (Jake) Jacobsen.
“There aren’t many schools, if any, in the state that are doing this,” said Jacobsen.
And it’s not just for sporting events.
“This winter we are planning to live stream the high school Christmas band concert, January school board meeting, some boys’ and girls’ basketball games and maybe county board meetings and downhill skiing if the right computer connections are available at Lutsen Mountains,” said Jacobsen.
The first event live streamed for the school was the 2011 high school graduation. Since then the school has broadcast three football games, several volleyball games and a Veterans Day concert. And of course, boys’ and girls’ basketball games.
Both Jacobsen and Thomas (T.J.) Super came up with the idea to bring live streaming to CCHS. The two work together in the summer, where T.J. is Jake’s technology assistant, and work together in the winter, where Jake is T.J.’s assistant coach for the girls’ varsity basketball team.
But while the idea was intriguing, there was a little issue of acquiring the necessary equipment which included a new computer, microphones, a converter box and several other technical items that added up to about $10,000, which is more spare change then either Jacobsen or Super had in their pockets. So they applied to the county to get some of the $80,000 MERC grant the county received to help promote broadband.
Because live streaming fits perfectly into the emerging broadband portfolio, the grant was awarded and the program has been in place and growing ever since.
Partnering with the school is Boreal Access, the local Internet provider, which hosts the site and allows many people to watch an event at once, and the county, which awarded the grant to the school.
Because it costs about $400 a month for Boreal Access to host the site, money will have to be found to keep that partnership going. And whether that is in the form of grants, gifts, or ads sold remain to be seen. “In the future we will need to find a way to finance the site to keep it up and running,” said Jacobsen.
In the meantime both of the gymnasiums have been set up so events hosted there can be shown via the Internet. The ideas for future events are endless, noted Super, who said his parents watch CCHS basketball at their home. “They live 350 miles from here,” he said.
“We are still trying to define what the program is,” said Jacobsen, adding, “It is constantly evolving and will continue to evolve as we learn more about the capabilities of live streaming.”
So far one of the sporting events attracted 56 viewers, and Jacobsen said that usually events are watched by about 40 people, but he hopes that number grows as more events in the community are filmed and broadcast live.
Jacobsen recalled that Holly Nelson recorded events throughout the county to be broadcast on PAC-13, the local cable access channel, before he died in 2009, leaving a hole in the community. “We can’t be Holly Nelson, but this can be a way to fill in the gap he left,” Jacobsen said,
Some of the basketball road games have been live streamed back to Cook County, but that can only be accomplished if the gymnasium is set up for an Ethernet connection, and not all gyms are equipped with this technology, said Jacobsen.
Two young men, Seth Falk and Patrick Knight have been helping out quite a bit with this project, said Jacobsen.
“It’s really nice to see their enthusiasm and their dedication,” Jacobsen said.
All it takes to catch these events is to have a computer and access to Boreal Access, WTIP radio or the CCHS web site.
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