DDD launches live webcast of KHS b'ball games

A screen shot view of the Daily Dunklin Democrat's LIVE Kennett Indians Sports Network at www.dddnews.com. Photo illustration

A new era of technology makes its debut Tuesday night, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m., with the live webcast of the Kennett High School Indians' basketball game against the Gosnell Pirates. The Daily Dunklin Democrat is collaborating with school officials to do a streaming video live from the gymnasium of the junior varsity and varsity basketball games.

The newspaper did a test of its webcast capabilities at a junior varsity girls' game last month. That test, conducted with the help of staff from the Southeast Missourian newspaper in Cape Girardeau was deemed a success to the point the local newspaper decided to launch its own webcasts. The Southeast Missourian is the flagship newspaper of Rust Communications, parent company of the DDD.

"The technology has been available for some time, but trying to find a way to make it affordable and doable for a venue this size has been the challenge," said DDD publisher Bud Hunt. "Another key issue in webcasting is upload speed to the Internet. However, since our local school district has fiber optic connection to its facilities that was not a concern."

Working with the newspaper will be two students who will handle the audio portion of the webcast. Andy Sherrod and Patrick Ratliff will be at the microphone for the first ever webcast event. Newspaper staff members will also be on hand to help with technical issues and, at least initially, handling the video portion of the webcast.

According to Hunt, the proposed schedule for the remainder of the basketball season is to also webcast the games on Friday, Feb., 12 against Dexter, Monday, Feb., 15 against Poplar Bluff. In addition, the newspaper will webcast all of the KHS girls and boys games during the district tournament held here Feb. 27 though Mar. 5.

Once the webcast is over it will remain on the site in an archive available for viewing later.

"In no small part would this new venture be possible without our sponsors," said Hunt.

Those sponsors include First National Bank as title sponsor, Glen Sain Motors, Baker Implement Co., Sears of Kennett, Mitchell Pharmacy, Wilcoxson's Homeplace, Sarah Jo Morgan, CPA P.C., the law firm of Crow Reynolds Shetley McVey and Scherer, Century 21 SEMO Realty -- Nelda Morgan, McDonald's Restaurant, Mark Preyer for Associate Circuit Judge and Divots Golf.

The publisher went on to say that the newspaper is looking at other opportunities to webcast high school events and athletics as well as community-wide events.