The Western Academy of Beijing’s (WAB) student broadcasting team has regularly provided the school’s live content streaming of campus events. But in early February, the team, known as the Tiger Sports Network (TSN) took their streaming talents into the jet stream to South Korea to cover the Super 12 APAC Boys Basketball Tournament, which was hosted at Taejon Christian International School (TCIS) in Daejeon, South Korea.
The TSN team, comprised of students Nick Arbenz, Ken Bostwick, Brin Huyett, Johnson Ma, Antonin Sebban, Kenneth Tagscherer, teachers Greg MacIsaac, Ray Willis, and Terry Fan, the IT technician, journeyed to TCIS to broadcast the tournament. In doing so, they helped make WAB the first international school in Asia, and the second school worldwide, to have a traveling broadcast team. The TSN team delivered content from the tournament to people on five continents via 27,000 Internet streams.
After the event, Paul Rader, the athletic director and APAC coordinator at TCIS, thanked TSN, saying that “WAB’s service at the tournament elevated the status and quality of the event significantly.” He praised the students, noting that “it is clear from interacting with them that their number-one priority is education and learning.” Regarding the team and the teachers, he said, “it was amazing to see their willingness to incorporate and work with TCIS students when there was opportunity.”
TSN was born after the large outdoor video scoreboard was placed on WAB’s sports field and the school was inspired to “make our entire campus the studio,” says MacIsaac, a teacher and head of video at WAB. From there, the school acquired a Tricaster broadcasting unit, trained staff, and then installed cameras on field poles and in gyms and theaters so that multiple cameras could capture footage for one broadcast. A generous donation from Nokia helped grow TSN, and MacIsaac now oversees student and staff training, after which, he explains, “students are certified as cameramen, Tricaster operators, directors, and slow-motion operators.”
Photo courtesy of WAB
