Reflections on Nationals experience

Still recovering from one of the most fun weeks of my life.  70+ hours of live curling programming.  About 200,000 live views online.  Meeting the one and only Tuck.  How do I sum up the week?  "Holy Buckets!"


There are so many people to thank.  First and foremost, the USCA, who had other options for webstreaming but picked us.  Brian and I put in a lot of work to try to live up to what we felt would be their expectations.  Gotta thank Tuck, Brady Clark, John Benton, Peter Stolt, Christine Jensen, Sandra McMakin, Emilia Joucys and all of the guest commentators.  Gotta thank the athletes for wearing the mics.  Gotta thank the icemen who put up with our slower than expected set-up.

We learned a lot from our experience.  First, there is a US curling audience.  We averaged about 20,000 views a day, most of them unique.  The compliments we've received for being a part of this were both unexpected and overwhelming.  We just love curling and it was cool to be able to showcase the game we love.

Second, we have room to improve.  We actually have a way to do instant replay :)   We just hadn't tested it yet.  We can add more cameras.  We just need a place to put them.  How about a pre or post game show?  All of this is possible.  

Finally, we know we need help to grow.  We're thinking about a kickstarter campaign.  The concept we are tossing around is a portable broadcast kit, so that what we do can be shared with others for individual events.  Let us know what you think.  

Again thanks for watching and sharing in the fun.