CSBN Expands, Enhances Programming for New Year
Greenie soccer games join selection of live broadcasts
The Christ School Broadcast Network was ahead of its time.
YouTube, and streaming in general, were nowhere close to where they are now in terms of influence and reach when CSBN was started up in 2012. Keeping pace is a must, and CSBN will be doing just that for the 2018-19 school year.
The YouTube channel, largely powered by students, is not only carrying more Greenie athletic games than ever before – soccer is being added for the first time, starting with Friday's 5:30 p.m. home game against West Forsyth. There have also been technical improvements that will increase the quality of the programming.
CSBN has shown live basketball, football and lacrosse games in the past. It is also the home for archived video of special events at Christ School such as graduation, Lessons & Carols, as well as department and faculty profiles from the Communications Department. A new school commercial from United Kingdom company Affixxius Films, commissioned by the Greenies last spring, will be shared on CSBN in early-September.
Digital Media Specialist and Christ School alumnus Ross Weathersbee '10 is directing CSBN for the fifth year.
"The 2018-19 school year is going to be big for Christ School Broadcast Network," Weathersbee said. "Varsity Soccer home games will be broadcast this fall for the first time ever, in addition to our Varsity Football home games. We also have the Asheville School football game at home this year, which the crew and I are really excited about. We plan on really showing out for that broadcast. It will also be stunning to see the shiny, new Close-Krieger Athletic Center in the background of our shots!"
We've also made some worthwhile technical improvements, my favorite of which is our completely-automated live scoreboard; the CSBN scoreboard you see on YouTube mirrors exactly whatever the real scoreboard at Christ School reads. No more guessing how much time is left in each quarter—you'll know it to the tenth of a second. We've also increased our broadcast quality to 1080p (HD) at 60 frames per second, so blurry shots are no more. Just be sure you watch at the highest available quality by clicking on the gear symbol in your YouTube player!"
The CSBN crew includes Zack Grella '19 and James Lopez '19 (first assistant directors), Andy Su '19 and Clarke MacDonald '21 (second assistant directors), Charles Howden '22 and Robert Dong '21 (camera operators), George Janvier '19 (lead statistician and lead color commentator), William Dodenhoff '19, Marcus Berger '19, and Associate Athletic Director Bobby Long (play-by-play commentators).
Viewers are encouraged to subscribe to CSBN. For more information or comments, contact Weathersbee at rweathersbee@christschool.org.
