Touch of Class has been my favorite competition for the past four years and I must say I had so much fun yesterday! Every group that performed gave 110% and they were all AMAZING. Kudos to every show choir at finals (and during the day) for giving your all and making the night so enjoyable. Congrats to everyone who won a Star performer award, those are pretty neat I can't wait to come back next year and creep on all of you
Is it more difficult than setting up a livestream? I feel like most competitions wouldn't mind providing an audio feed to a computer with a webcam of the stage.
In theory, no... but it's never that simple. The biggest hurdle is that you have to get a hardwired internet connection to the video source; WiFi doesn't cut it for live streaming. If a venue can't supply that, you're pretty much out of luck no matter what you do. And while a webcam could suffice in a pinch, it's not going to give very good audio or video quality. What you ultimately want is a feed from the video company so you can get nice closeup shots (a wide angle only shot doesn't show very much after it's been reduced in size and compressed for the web) and a separate audio feed from the audio board to get decent sound. Then you have to have an internet connection that isn't being throttled by everyone else in the auditorium (if the WIfi password gets out and everyone is using the connection to tweet all day long, you're hosed), and finally find a host that will effectively relay the feed to hundreds of viewers. If you want this to be free, it usually means intrusive ads that annoy people... you can pay to avoid this, of course, but then it costs $$$.
Best case scenario is to do it all in-house like Milton does it: they shoot the event themselves, stream it, and have control over the internet connection all at one time. That's rarely the case, however, and addressing each of these variables from place to place can be prohibitively tricky if you don't have a good technical director willing to work with you.
Ironically, I think the feed can actually increase DVD sales if the audio/video quality is good and people want a high quality copy of what they see. I don't think it really affects ticket sales much either; nothing comes close to being there live and I think most people who "tune in" are viewers from out of town who want to see what the shows are like.
Union-LaPorte City was the small school top scoring group and made the finals as the sixth performing group. WDM Valley placed sixth in the large school class, but did not qualify for the finals
Sorry for the confusion - I was at a competition myself today and was trying to handle everything remotely from my iPhone. The error occurred when I assigned awards to the top mixed Tier; no finals division had been created yet and the groups in Tier I were almost identical to the groups in finals so I got confused. I'm back home now and it's all fixed.
PREP DIVISION RESULTS-
GC- Lincoln SW "Ambiance"
1stRU- IC West "Showtime"
2ndRU- Xavier "Xuberance"
3rdRU- Jefferson "Ovation"
4thRU-Prairie "Focal Point"
5thRU- Indianola "Flipside"
6thRU- Indianola "Sidewayz"
CAPTION-
Most creative show- Jefferson "West Side Delegation"
Most creative song- Jefferson "WSD": Viva Las Vegas
BEST VOCALS- Varsity- IC West "Good Time Company"
Prep- IC West "Showtime"
BEST CHOREO- Varsity - Lincoln SW "Resonance"
Prep- Lincoln SW "Ambiance"
I was at this competition and was so impressed with finals! Every group brought the noise and it made for a very exciting night of show choir. Congratulations to Lincoln Southwest on a great win in a very even field.
Who is Union? Did the 7th group in Finals just not receive a trophy?
Union-LaPorte City was the small school top scoring group and made the finals as the sixth performing group. WDM Valley placed sixth in the large school class, but did not qualify for the finals
Any idea where DVDs can be purchased?
Blue Sky Productions was doing the video today....check their website? Good job to everyone. Very competitive. Thanks to Benton for hosting a great contest.
It's a lot more complicated than it seems. Every year technology gets better, though. I'm hoping to put more of my resources into this in the coming years... it will be a reality someday.
Is it more difficult than setting up a livestream? I feel like most competitions wouldn't mind providing an audio feed to a computer with a webcam of the stage. Though the videographers probably wouldn't be very happy... and they'd probably worry about cutting in to the ticket sales. Meh.
Why don't competitions live stream...
It's a lot more complicated than it seems. Every year technology gets better, though. I'm hoping to put more of my resources into this in the coming years... it will be a reality someday.
Benton Touch of Class 2012
I can't wait to come back next year and creep on all of you 
