The Deerfield Community School District approved the renewal of its agreement with the local cable access channel, with the addition of live streaming services for some district events, during its July 18 meeting.
The Village of Deerfield also recently approved the agreement.
The contract renews the current agreement for another five years. The agreement, while cost neutral between WDEE and the district, does include a $2,000 fee for the district for the additional live streaming service, according to district superintendent Michelle Jensen.
“Live streaming is a fairly new technology offering in school districts as a result of the pandemic and all of us finding creative ways to allow families to watch school events when spectators were limited or families didn’t feel safe sitting with large groups,” Jensen wrote in email. “It has been a service that extended families have appreciated. We feel the $2000 cost of offering this is very reasonable.”
For each following year, there will be a 4% increase to account for increased staffing costs. In exchange, WDEE will live stream a minimum of 45 events during the school year. Broken down by event, the cost is $44 per event, and would be less should they live stream more events.
The district houses the WDEE studio in its high school at no cost, which allows students to use the studio space for classes in media production.
“The school continues to partner with the Village/WDEE to provide them with a secure location within our high school building to run the WDEE studio, and we appreciate their willingness to offer live streaming for many of our school events which is a much appreciated service to our community and extended family such as grandparents who are not able to attend the events in person but enjoy watching the sporting events, music concerts and other special events that take place throughout the year,” Jensen wrote in an email.
Last March, DCSD’s Athletic Director Matt Polzin emphasized the value of live streaming events to the school board.
“I don’t think the streaming is going away. I think this is going to be one positive of the pandemic,” Polzin said. “People can sit at home and watch games.”
Other solutions were floated, such as NFHS. While less expensive for the district, it requires viewers to pay a monthly subscription fee to watch games. Two other options, Justagame Live and Hudl, would require the district to pay an annual fee to livestream to viewers for free.
Polzin said Justagame would cost the district $750 to purchase a camera and an additional $2,000 a year to stream. Hudl charges a yearly fee of $3,000 per camera, which districts borrow and return after their contracts end, Polzin said.
Justagame uses a wide-angle stationary camera, and streams to the service’s website. Hudl uses a mobile camera that moves with action and streams to Youtube. The district could also continue using Facebook Live, which Polzin said is free and easy to find for most viewers but isn’t always the highest quality stream.
Ultimately, updating the current agreement with WDEE proved most beneficial to the district.
Lauren was born and raised in Burlington, Wis. before attending UW-Madison and earning her bachelor's degree in journalism and a certificate in photography. Now, she covers the Cambridge, Deerfield, McFarland and Monona Grove School Districts.
