Steaming video captures Nationals action

Live Streaming Video Captivates Audience

There is the Tennis Channel. And then there is the Platform Tennis Channel. For anyone that didn’t have the pleasure of playing or watching the Nationals from Long Island this year, the next best thing was watching it on the home computer.

Ken Packert, a physics teacher and a member of Huntington Country Club, joined the 2012 APTA Nationals Committee to handle all video projects. Fortunately for the Committee and the paddle community at large, he was uniquely qualified to handle the first live streaming ever shown on the APTA website.

To make sure Nationals would run smoothly, the group planned a test run at the Long Island Invitational in December of 2011. By Nationals, he knew what equipment he needed (simple webcams) and which wires to string up.

He also got the best seat in the house. A tiny balcony above the deck at the paddle hut became home base. And possibly because of this great viewing platform, he was able to recruit a few volunteers and a few players at Nationals to work as spotters. With Live Streaming, Packert or one of his helpers had to be available as long as the cameras were running, which was usually from 8 a.m. to as late as 9:30 p.m. [enlarge image to read full article]