The Signal Online will be broadcasting Saturday night’s Tiger Tunes performance live from its Web site.
The online Signal was launched last year and used last year’s Tune’s broadcast as a test-run, to see if the idea was viable.
“We were interested in going beyond just putting the print content on a Web site,” said Dr. Jeff Root, dean of the school of Humanities. “We thought live events on the site would be exciting and challenging. We knew Tunes would create a large audience and it came early enough in the fall that we didn’t really have time to try anything smaller first.”
The broadcast was not widely publicized last fall, said Emma Smith, online Signal editor.
This year the broadcast will be more widely publicized.
According to Mitch Bettis, former online Signal adviser, around 584 computers tuned in to watch it live last fall.
“There were [an average of] one to three people per computer watching Tunes, with a few reports of 10 plus people,” Bettis said. “My guess on viewership was around 1,000.”
Since the original broadcast, about 2000 viewers have re-watched it.
Bettis no longer works at Ouachita, but will be in town this weekend to help with the broadcast.
Smith said their “biggest issue was whether or not we’d be able to run it all without Bettis, but he’s coming back for it so it’s solved.”
Last year there was some concern about copyright issues with the host/hostess segments and Tiger Blast’s performance.
“Ouachita has an agreement allowing stage performances, but a Web cast was new territory for us,” Root said.
Due to this, the host and hostess segments and Tiger Blast were not aired.
However this year’s broadcast will include them. Bryan McKinney, university counsel, researched the situation and discovered that they are within copyright law to air them.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Smith said. “The audience gets to see the host and hostesses and Tiger Blast, which are some of the best parts of the show and we don’t have to find as many segments to fill that space like last year.”
The Signal Online’s broadcast will include the normal Tiger Tunes show, along with back-stage interviews with Tunes performers, video of the clubs practices and a segment on the history of Tiger Tunes along with other live and pre-recorded segments.
Smith says the technical and production sides to making the broadcast happen are “huge, I have a whole notebook in my office dedicated to broadcasting Tunes, it’s crazy.”
The broadcast will start at 7 p.m. on Saturday night, and will continue until the end of the Tiger Tunes performance.
