The Austrian Hockey Federation has recently launched a unique new live streaming system that pushes hockey highlights of all top league games to households across the world for minimal costs.
Not only are that the best bits of each match pushed out almost live, they can also be easily shared by fans and hockey teams, hugely increasing the exposure of the sport.
In a country that has 4,000 hockey players, Austria is really taking to heart the principles behind the FIH Hockey Revolution. Increased coverage is raising the professionalism of hockey within the country, it's creating an image of hockey that is both exciting and powerful and it's increasing hockey’s popularity and reach, both in Austria and beyond.
Austria is certainly a nation that is going places in the hockey world. Despite the relatively small number of players, Austria’s men’s team is currently ranked at 22 in the FIH World Rankings having recently competed in the Hockey World League Semi-Final in Buenos Aires.
Fabian Ringler serves on the Board of the Austrian Hockey Federation and is responsible for strategy, development and marketing. “I think we have a unique solution to dramatically increase hockey video coverage around the world,” he said, explaining that the national hockey federation is working closely with the Austrian clubs to fulfil this aim.
Working with Austrian technology company ViprTec, all the notable action from league games – goals, shots on goal, saves, penalty corners and ‘special’ moments in the game are pushed out as a live stream.
Ringler explains that this is done by separating highlights from the remainder of the action automatically and without the time-consuming need to filter and cut footage. As he says: “Highlights only, but pushed out in real time.”
This, says Ringler, is not a live-stream as we currently know it, but a new take on the idea. Clubs in the system are equipped with a camera and the necessary hardware and software. This system then automatically filters highlights according to set standards – goals, saves, shots – and then feeds their own club channel with content every week.
Ringler says this is “lean content”, combining the benefits of live-stream with the benefits of a highlight summary – the cost is in the production of one piece of content, where normally there would be two.
“The camera is super simple to operate, offers HD quality streams and allows clubs and federations to self-produce highlight content at a moderate cost and create new channels of marketing and viral reach at the same time,” he says.
Through the Hockey Highlight Live system, hockey fans pre-select favourite leagues, venues or highlight category (e.g goals) and get short clips pushed to a mobile device. All highlights can be shared directly via social media channels or embedded into websites.
“We asked ourselves, how can we deliver only thrilling, relevant stuff to our audience with a minimum of effort?” explained Ringler. “Like millions of people playing sport at an amateur level, we suffer limited resources, interest and media presence. This is a game-changing solution.”
For more information on the Austrian Hockey Federation, click here for their website.
To find out more information about this digital service, visit Fabian Ringler's blob here.
