Tucked away in a former broom closet at the south end of Mary Miller Gymnasium is the hub for much of the access fans can have to this year’s NJCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Mark Barnes is DACC’s Director of Information Technology and is in charge of running the live streaming portion of the tournament, which has a greater emphasis this year since fan capacity is being capped at only 25 percent for each game. He says that an experienced group of volunteers keeps up with all of the action.
“We have three camera operators,” Barnes explains. “We try to put our most experienced ones up at center court, and then we get two down on the court to get free-throw shots, action shots on the floor, and it works out wonderfully.”
Inside the dark, air-conditioned space, Barnes and volunteer coordinator Chuck Jones put every game on the air. Jones talks through a headset with each of the camera operators, while Barnes puts graphics on the screen and makes sure the broadcast is still on the air.
(Chuck Jones organizes the video feed during a tournament game Thursday afternoon.)
During past tournaments, Barnes says that a only a temporary control room was set up, which was located in a conference room in the building.
“We would break this system down and really only do it during the championship games, but when we got this room figured out, we just leave the equipment here now and we do a better quality system throughout the season,” Barnes says.
Fans can watch all of the NJCAA Tournament live on Xfinity Channel 5, and it is also being streamed through the nationwide NJCAA website for a small fee. The WDAN radio broadcast is included with each game.
