Broadcasting Hockey Slovenia.

video2go.live is all about bringing hockey broadcasts to a professional level in Slovenia. Consistent improvements and establishing a local TV station are just parts of what the company has to offer. Broadcasting hundreds of games for events like IIHF WC U18 and more has brought the company closer to starting the hockey season as a true TV station with www.hokejtv.si in Slovenia.


"We knew that we needed a scoreboard....that is when we discovered Live Score.
It was another step up in our production! Live Score was a game changer for us!"

Gregor Podrekar CEO of video2go.live
CEO of hokejtv.si

www.video2go.live, www.hokejtv.ssi





Interview

We spoke with Gregor Podrekar of video2go.live about his company, his experience and how Live Score has influenced and changed the way he works. Thank you for the interview.



1. Tell us something about you and your company/work?

We've started on a budget almost 10 years ago with some web cams in Linux.
At first we did some international hockey tournaments that our club is hosting at the end of a season.
The streams were really not so good, but they served the purpose – parents could watch their players at home.

After that we almost gave up on the idea since the quality just was not OK.
But the demand was there - the parents wished and wanted the streams.
So we began to investigate on how could we upgrade the quality.

In between we started with photography and we did that for several years, making some income to invest in video gear.

In Slovenia the sport is neglected from the media. You just cant get some real media coverage if you do not pay. That made us even more stubborn to get to a certain level.

We managed to assemble some gear and we started.
At first just with a 720p encoder and one camera. We were very happy with the quality, but we wanted more.
We invested in additional gear – since the quality of the encoder and one camera setup gave us confidence that we are on the right path. Our stubbornness and will brought us to the point where we were happy with everything, but still there was something missing.

We achieved to have the result being displayed and we even managed to crop the scoreboard into the result display.
But that just was not OK. If we want to help our club and the youth sport we needed to have a real scoreboard with game clock and everything. So our kids will have the real deal. 

We made all the software for switching, live graphics and replays ourselves. But scoreboard was an overkill at that time!
Our funds were depleted. We were doing a 100 games per season from our own funds.
We tried with some marketing, even pay-per-view, but in Slovenia this just does not survive.......but our work was noticed.

Our club was helping the Slovenian Hockey Federation with the organization of IIHF WC U18 division I group A and B.
We knew that we needed a scoreboard....that is when we discovered Live Score.

It was another step up in our production! We made some income for the first time in our history!
But please, all in all we earned less than 1000 EUR for both championships, for 30 games.
But we did it for hockey and to help our game being recognized beside soccer, the only sport in Slovenia with some serious coverage.


2. How did you find Live Score and what was your first impression?

As we mentioned before, a lot of research on the web. We found several solutions, but all were unreachable for us.
We almost gave up.

That is when we found Live Score.
Since that time we make decent live streams.

Sponsors have already noticed that our club has such live streams....and when our club managers visit them, they do not get a door slam in their face so often.

Live Score was a game changer for us!



3. How do you use Live Score and how does it change the way you work?

We are using a 3 camera setup. 2 of them are static and 1 dynamic.
The static cameras are covering each net and I follow the game with a dynamic camera.
I do all the switching, graphics and replays.

My wife handles the game clock and scores.
She has her own laptop with Live Score and vMix. Her laptop is connected to the HDMI port of Blackmagic ATEM TV Studio HD.
Live Score sends a NDI source to vMix and vMix has a green background with an overlayed NDI Scoreboard. The green is then keyed in ATEM TV Studio HD. Sometimes I am using a blue background instead of green, since I think it makes a better key.

If we will make some more money we would like to buy a PRO version of Live Score so we could abandon vMix and use the External Display option.

We use vMix because of the option to scale and place the scoreboard to a position that we think is best.
Maybe some day we will manage to invest into some-kind of capture/output device so we could use vMix and program out video from switcher.



4. Which projects and shows have you been involved and what are you currently working on?

Until now we have broadcasted the following events (including Live Score):

  • IIHF WC U18 - Divison I Group A (hockey)
  • IIHF WC U18 - Divison I Group B (hockey)
  • IIHF WC U20 – Division I Group B
  • Slovenian men's national competition with finals (hockey)
  • Slovenian youth national championships (from U10 to U18) (hockey) (about 100 games)
  • Local women's handball games (2. League) (handball)
  • Some soccer charity games (ice hockey players after-season charity event) (soccer)
  • Local soccer games
  • Austrian Alps hockey league for team Jesenice (Erstebank 2. league)
  • Women's Ice hockey tournament
  • Slovenian men's national competition with finals (hockey)
  • Slovenian youth national championships (from U10 to U18) (hockey) (about 100+ games)
  • Tournament in Czech Republic (ice hockey) - 20 games
  • Some soccer charity games (ice hockey players after-season charity event)

In 2017 we made some decisions and we established a local TV station, www.hokejtv.si.
We are confident that this will help us with marketing and to some commercial displays to fund our mission.

In 2018 we had a top 10.000 live viewers doing the Men's Finals (ice hockey).
Our goal is to start a hockey season as a true TV station covering Ice hockey in Slovenia with www.hokejtv.si.

We helped to raise awareness for the game and we truly believe that we will succeed and turn our "hobby" into a business with full time jobs.


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