BulldogTV provides live access to H-D-CAL events amid spectator limitations

With spectators limited at Hampton-Dumont-CAL High School events, the students behind Bulldog TV relish the chance to bring live action to the community’s living rooms.

Last year, H-D un-veiled Bulldog TV, a streaming service operated by high school students and instructor Matt Lokenvitz. The channel was designed to provide both live and archived video feeds for athletic events, fine arts performances and more. Stu-dents provide camera work, production and commentary for events.

Little did Loken-vitz know when the program began that 2020 would make Bulldog TV a necessity for community members who cannot at-tend sporting events and other activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A mandate passed down by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds limited audiences at events to two spectators per athlete.

“We all know how our world changes rapidly, especially with technology. Now with this pandemic, we have seen how important our digital media is. For our winter events we have seen regulations that are limiting our fans,” he said. “Without having a digital plat-form to be able to provide a high-quality production, a lot of our fans may feel disconnected from our school or sports teams.”

Student Tommy Birdsell said he enjoys the unique opportunity to be one of the people responsible for bringing live television to viewers who cannot attend events. While he joined the program to further his enjoyment in production, he said he now has the chance to use his talents as a public service.

“Because of the circumstances we can have people watch the games now that couldn't before. It is also something I like doing and if it helps other people that makes me feel great about it,” he said.

Lokenvitz said the timing of the program’s rollout was fortuitous, as it gave himself and students a year to fine-tune the production process before the pandemic hit. With skills and procedures sharpened, students were ready to bring broadcasts to a suddenly expanded audience.

“When we started last year, I could see most of our students were overwhelmed with all of the different equipment pieces they were going to have to learn how to use. That is going to be expected when you purchase $40,000+ worth of video and audio equipment,” he said. “This year they seem very comfortable with the course and we are able to start diving deeper into what our system can do.”

Since students were familiar with the process, Lokenvitz added that they’ve also been able to work on new features in order to enhance the viewing experience.

“We are starting to experiment with instant replay, different overlays, video conferencing, and much more,” he said.

Lokenvitz said that online viewership increased only slightly for the home football and volleyball games, as no spectator limits were in place for the fall sports season. However, he anticipates an increase as basketball and wrestling season begins now that the majority of the usual crowd has been asked to stay home.

“We can track our viewership statistics, but it would not show us much of a difference yet,” he said. “Football did not limit numbers here at Hampton, but we still saw a slight increase in viewers. After the winter sports season is when we will really be able to see a difference because of the lack of access to events.”

Lokenvitz said he’s been pleased with the students’ abilities so far, especially since the hybrid model of learning has limited the amount of practice and coordination opportunities during the school day. He said the students have shown a willingness to adapt to an undesirable situation.

“One change for me has been moving to the hybrid model at the high school. Not being able to have all the students in class every day to learn the equipment and set up/take down for events has added a level of stress for all of us,” he said. “As the year has gone on we have been able to adapt and grow during this pan-demic to be able to still provide this great service to our community members.”

Zayden Erdman said that the students understand the importance of the service they’re providing, which is why they do whatever needs to be done.

“I do feel responsible for my role as a commentator. During the basketball season, my voice is what they hear and what I say matters,” he said. “So I try to give them the best experience possible and make it as easy to watch as it is to listen.”

To view streams and the schedule of events, visit Bull-dogTV.live.