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The World Wingsuit League Jumps into Action backed by Red Bull China

October 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

While the news of a new sports league often seems like old news being just an imitation of an existing sports league, the World Wingsuit League, that leaps into being tomorrow in China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park seems assured of not being another knock off pro league.

The league is kicking off with the Tianmen Mountain Grand Prix Wingsuit Race where contestants will start the race by jumping off a 900-foot cliff, which you have to say is very different than how most sporting events begin.


The event is brought to us, not surprisingly, by Red Bull China, and will feature 16 athletes dressed in wingsuit who will not just leap off of a cliff but then complete a three quarter mile long obstacle course while flying. While maybe not quite the Red Bull Stratos experiment this looks like a real thrilling and exciting event.

They will fly around a course marker platform on the ground below that is roughly the size of a tennis court seconds after jumping, then swoop down the mountain and under the tramway cable finish line before opening their parachutes and landing at the mountain’s foot.

Just doing the jump once seems like an award winning feat and that is really just the start. There will be two rounds of two runs each with the first being an elimination round with all 16 wingsuit pilots, then a finals round with the top eight. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the top finishers. In addition, the Grand Prix champion will earn $20,000, 2nd place will win $10,000 and 3rd place will take home $5,000 while the fastest time gets a trophy.

From the images posted at its Facebook page it looks like in the practice runs the athletes are diving into a fog bank. I am pretty sure that there is no way you could get me to do that. So far the fastest round in the qualifying rounds was by James Boole and his time was 23.83 seconds

I think this looks like a great event and one that I would be very happy to watch but unfortunately it looks like it will only be broadcast live in China. The WWL said that it is working hard to get a live streaming video of the events that will take place on the 13-14 of this month, but so far no news. You can follow the league on its Facebook page. It also has a YouTube channel but it does not say if that will have live video.

Filed Under: Facebook, Live Sports Video Consumption, Red Bull, World Wingsuit League, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Ryder Cup

September 28, 2012 by 2 Comments

It’s really too bad that the Ryder Cup, the biennial golf competition between the U.S. and Europe, takes place in the fall — because that means a lot of fun and interesting golf is going to get lost in the tornado of football this weekend. Fortunately, thanks to the PGA and Turner Sports there’s a boatload of Ryder action taking place online, so get your browsers fired up for Friday morning foursomes. And then some fourballs. What?

Oh yeah, the Ryder Cup’s first two days have something we never see during the regular tour year — team competitions! If you need a how-is-it-scored primer, the BBC has a great one explaining the scoring — but basically foursomes are alternate-shot competitions (meaning each of the two players trades shots) while fourballs are more familiar team play, with everyone playing their own ball and the team with the player with the lowest score wins the hole. Each hole is worth a point, and the team with the higher score at the end wins an overall match point. If the match is tied each team gets a half-point. Singles on Sunday need no explanation. Mano a mano, also match play so it only matters how many holes you win, not your total score.

And after the inflated importance of the FedEx Cup — yes there was some good golf by the big names and congrats to Brandt Snedeker for bagging the big check — there is nothing truer than playing for your country or your continent, no prize money on the line just pressure and pride. This year the Cup is being contested in my home town, Chicago, at the monster known as Medinah. I remember playing there once, just out of high school, thought I had some game, and put something like a 120 on the scorecard. The pros, of course, will be shooting pars and birdies but the scores matter less than the head to head, between the great Euro players led by Rory McIlroy and the U.S. team, led by Tiger Woods.

With live coverage online, on TV and on an app, you have no excuse for not watching some great golf, even if you are also watching football. The great thing about Ryder coverage is that it’s also unlike tournament coverage — there is usually always some tension going on, and the TV folks are usually in a Red Zone-type mode, switching to where the pressure is most high. A great way to end the real golf season. Just wish we didn’t have to be distracted by the return of real refs and all that.

REMEMBER: ESPN for TV Friday, NBC on Saturday and Sunday.

THE 2012 RYDER CUP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Friday, Sept, 28 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 29 — NBC, 9 a.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 30 — NBC, 12 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

ONLINE / MOBILE APPS
Ryder Cup Live will be online basically the whole tourney, starting at 8:20 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m. on Sunday, and going until competition is over each day. The live video is free (no cable contract required), and mobile viewers can download the iPhone app, the iPad app, or go to the Ryder Cup Mobile Site if you have an Android device.

ESPN3 is also carrying the ESPN broadcast live on Friday.

FACEBOOK PAGE
The PGA Facebook page is the Facebook home of the Ryder Cup.

SOCIAL MEDIA
The Ryder Cup has something called the 13th Man page, similar to the Social Caddy we saw at the PGA. Lots of Twitter streams, a USA vs. Europe Twitter competition, an Instagram feed… worth a bookmark.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on Medinah Country Club course.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Europe is the defending champ, if you remember. I remember bad raincoats.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, ESPN, Facebook, Golf, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBC Sports, Ryder Cup Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The World Baseball Classic starts this Week

September 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

While Major League Baseball has not yet reached the wild card round of play, the World Baseball Classic is preparing for its first round of qualifiers with games being played in Jupiter Florida and Regensburg, Germany.

For teams that are going to

rely on filling out their rosters with current MLB players, well you are just going to have to wait apparently, something that could harm the chances of some of the teams involved.

The first qualifier, the one held in Jupiter, will feature teams from France, Israel, South Africa and Spain while the second one in Regensburg will have the teams from Canada, Czech Republic, Germany and Great Britain.

The next two sets of qualifiers are slated for play in November. One will take place in Panama City, Panama and will feature Brazil, Columbia, Nicaragua and Panama while the other will take place in Taipei, Taiwan and will include Taipei, New Zealand, Philippines and Thailand.

The Jupiter qualifiers run from Sept. 19-23 while the Regensburg qualifiers run from Sept. 20-24. The Panama City qualifiers run from Nov. 15-19 while the Taipei City qualifier runs from Nov. 15-18. All of the game will be broadcast for free online.

In addition, the final game of each pool will be aired in the United States and Puerto Rico on MLB Network. MLB Network will air the final qualifier game from Jupiter on tape delay at 8 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 23rd and the final game of the Regensburg qualifier live on Monday, September 24th at 1 p.m. ET

The winner of each qualifier is then entered into the 2013 World Baseball Classic tournament that will begin next year in March. The qualifier rounds, which include the four teams that did not win any games in the 2009 WBC, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Panama and South Africa, are a six-game modified double-elimination format.

The winners of these rounds join the 12 nations that received automatic invites based on their last WBC performance. The countries are – Australia, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United States and Venezuela.

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Filed Under: Baseball, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, World Baseball Classic Tagged With:

New College Sports Program Launches on Hulu

September 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Total College Sports

If you get most of your sports information from the Internet and not from broadcast television then this is good news for you, digital sports media developer Perform and the Chicago White Sox’s Silver Chalice have launched another Total College Sports program.

The latest effort is called TCS 5th Quarter and it will consist of an initial run of 18 episodes, with a new one premiering every Saturday night from now until Jan. 12. Each episode will be 22 minutes long and will be distributed via Hulu and Hulu Plus service, ad-free.

The program is part of a growing number of offerings from Total College Sports, which includes both original programming and game highlights from a variety of college sports conferences including The ACC, Pac-12, SEC and the Big Ten.

This is really good news for fans of using second screens, either using their tablets or their smartphones they can watch the programming there as well as online and via a channel on ePlayer, Perform’s sports VOD broadcast platform that is distributed to over 350 media properties in the U.S.

Total College Sports was founded last year and is still finding its way in some respects. It currently carries NCAA football and basketball, so it falls a bit short of total sports. However it does carry a good set of highlights and has a team in place to provide analysis and news as well as the highlights.

Filed Under: Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Total College Sports Tagged With: , ,

University of Oregon embraces Social Media with Quack Cave

August 30, 2012 by

Oregon's Quack Cave

The PAC-12 Network’s introduction yesterday of its Pac-12 Now for iPad is just the latest conference effort to expand its brand to a wider market but some of the individual schools are also making a push to create a stronger bond with their fans and alumni.

One school at the forefront of this effort is the University of Oregon which has been aggressive in the past with programs such as its GoDucks.com web site and other initiatives but now has gone another step with its Quack Cave.

Touted as the first social media hub in college sports and modeled after an effort by the NHL’s New Jersey Devils the school has outfitted a room that would be the envy of any technophile, filled with flat screens connected to iPads.

While the site is not just sports specific it looks like it will be sports centric. The Quack Cave will be charged with representing the school on a wide variety of social medias including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.

The schools previous efforts at digital outreach have been very successful, with approximately 500,000 Facebook and Twitter followers, but the current effort could make that number seem small potatoes. Housed in a former storage unit near the school’s Autzen Stadium

The school is still in the process of setting up the effort and the site www.QuackCave.com was not active as of this writing but I expect that a big push is underway in order to get it up and running by this weekend when the football season opens for much of the nation. Fans can also follow at @QuackCave on Twitter.

I think this is a great idea, not just for Oregon, but any school. It seems that it will have a much more immediate and personal impact than the conference efforts, which will have to be more balanced (hopefully). If your school is doing something similar drop me a line at gquick@mobilesportsreport.com

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Filed Under: Apple, Facebook, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, Pac-12, Pinterest, Sports Social Media, Sports Social Media Data, Twitter, University of Oregon Tagged With: , , ,

Pac-12-Networks, Ooyala release Pac-12 Now for iPad

August 29, 2012 by

Pac-12 Now for iPad opens up multi-screen viewing

The Pac-12 via its Pac-12 Networks continues to move to enhance its presence in the digital world and with partner Ooyala has now delivered an iPad app that will enable fans to watch both live and video on demand games (VOD).

The app, Pac-12 Now for iPad, is one of the first efforts from the recently formed Pac-12 Networks, an organization that is designed to bring both broadcast and streaming sports and entertainment to fans, in conjunction with its partner Ooyala. Pac-12 Now for iPad is available in the iTunes Store and on Pac-12.com.

Ooyala developed what it calls a graphic interactive program guide (IPG) that enables users to customize the app to meet their individual preferences. It allows a user to prioritize both sports and teams during setup and has a chat feature so that fans can share comments and thoughts when viewing live action via Facebook and Twitter feeds that are enabled next to the video feed so that you do not have to switch to a different app while viewing.

Going forward the IPG will also feature the ability to alert users to events that are currently live and inform them on issues such as games that are tied, close or near the final moments as well as provide social feedback via a social graph that you can ac

cess.

The two plan on continuing to expand the technology so that users with PCs, tablets and smartphones will be able to watch games when not in front of a television or to use it as a second screen, watching two events at the same time. Android is the next platformed targeted and it should be out soon.

The goal is to broadcast 850 live and VOD sporting events over the year as well analysis and commentary, statistics, press conferences, documentaries and other content. By connecting it directly to social media such as Facebook and Twitter it enables a degree of participation for fans that a simple broadcast would not allow.

Aside from the IPG Ooyala also provided what it calls a Stat Server. The Stat Server automatically imports sports stats and timecode data from third parties and tags that with live and VOD content. This enables users to search by stats or event tags and allows the information to be displayed at the proper time when an event is being viewed, regardless if it is live or VOD. The authentication is designed to make it easy to view content across multiple connected devices.

It is very interesting to look at all of the ways in which colleges are reaching out to fans and getting both sports and academic advancements out to alumni and fans. Recently the ACC added YouTube to its digital network. The Big Ten Network has already expanded out to digital devices and recently added Android support.

This is just great for fans, not just mobile ones but also fans of multiple teams or sports-they can now watch a game on a mobile device while also catching a different one on the TV or a computer, enabling them to easily stay abreast with events in areas that interest them.

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Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Big Ten Network, Comcast, iOS, iPad, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Ooyala, Pac-12, Smartphone, Social Media, Tablets Tagged With: ,
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