Last weekend, members of the student-run RPI TV club headed down to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City to exclusively cover the ECAC hockey championship, streaming HD video through pay-per-view provider America One. They were the only broadcasters filming the event, which included four games between Colgate University, Cornell University, Harvard University, and Union College over the span of two days.
After RPI TV’s coverage of the Big Red Freakout! with Time Warner, ECAC Commisioner Steve Hagwell approached them. “Naturally, we were pretty excited about that,” said the club’s president, Ben Vreeland ’13. They coordinated with Hagwell over the next few weeks to work out the details, such as transportation.
On March 16, Productions Manager Andrew Brezovsky ’15, Facilities and Equipment Manager Matt Peteris ’15, Business Manager Caleb Hoffman ’15, and Vreeland, along with four or five other club members, made the trip.
“Honestly, I think given the sheer amount of stuff we were doing, so little went wrong, it surprised me,” said Vreeland. “There are always hiccups, but we’ve had a lot worse happen at our own Field House.”
There was a lot of positive feedback, he said, even from non-RPI students. “It was an interesting experience for us, shooting a team we had no real stake in. At RPI, we’re objective, but we’re still RPI students … it was different shooting for teams where we didn’t know all the players’ names.”
In addition, for one of the first times, America One had an HD stream available. “They actually overnighted a computer that could handle the streaming to Boardwalk Hall especially for the event,” said Vreeland. In addition, DVDs of the games will be available for sale.
RPI TV meets every Tuesday at 9 pm in Union 3602—Vreeland invites interested students to stop by. Any questions about the event or the club can be sent to rpitv@union.rpi.edu.