Michigan schools have a new option to live stream sports online; Erie Mason now has it in place.

Back in July, Kelly Trainor was not even sure if Erie Mason would be able to play sports in the fall when school would start again.

When the coronavirus pandemic first peaked in March, the Michigan High School Athletic Association quickly canceled spring sports and what was left of the winter season.

Little had changed by July.

Even if sports were allowed to resume along with the school year, Trainor knew it was unlikely to be same. Games without spectators were likely to become the norm.

“The thought of not having spectators was tough for me,” said Trainor, Mason’s athletic director. “We’d have parents missing out and grandparents and those who just want to watch their families play.”

So, when a possible solution to that problem presented itself, Trainor wasted no time.

Mason will be one of the few schools around the state of Michigan to join in this fall on a live-streaming subscription service offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

The service, called Pixellot, provides two fully-automated camera systems for member high schools. The cameras are provided to schools for free as long as they agree to cover the installation costs.

“Once I read about it, I was sold,” Trainor said. “I did a big presentation for our Board of Education explaining everything, what it meant, and what it would look like. They had to vote on it. It was a cost to the District somewhat, but some of that money will be reimbursed back with our monthly subscription.”

Trainor said the installation will set the District back $2,500, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.

One camera was installed in the school’s gymnasium Thursday and the other will be on the football field today. The system requires no operator and will automatically track the action during games while integrating with the scoreboard to provide live scores and information during the broadcast.

Trainor expects it will take another 5-7 days to have the system up and running.

Mason agreed to a five-year contract and will have its own team page on NFHSnetwork.com where viewers can pay either a monthly or annual subscription fee to watch the Eagles’ games online. A portion of each subscription goes straight to the school.

“Ultimately I would love a packed field or packed gymnasium,” Trainor said. “I would take that over a stream any day, but I don’t think that will happen for a little while yet.”

Mason is lucky that Trainor acted as quickly as she did.

While over 500 high schools in the state of Michigan have signed up for the Pixellot program, the high demand has created a significant backlog for installation.

“They’re way behind,” Monroe AD John Ray said. “We’re getting two of them, but they’re months behind.”

Ray said he was given an initial timetable of 6-8 weeks, but heard other schools have been waiting for months already with no concrete installation date.

“I was told 6-8 weeks, but I don’t hold out any hope for that,” Ray said. “Maybe by the time basketball season starts we’ll be ready to go.”

Flat Rock and Jefferson also are on the waiting list.

“We’re not going to have that until December,” Flat Rock AD John Clair said. “We hope to have it by winter sports. Everybody is buying it and they’re really backed up.”

Despite the long delay, Clair said that the District is looking forward to the new technology.

“It’s expensive, but that’s a thing we all need to be using,” he said. “We need to be able to get it to the masses that can’t get to the games.”

Not all Monroe County Region schools are getting in on the action. While nearly every school looked into the adding the technology, most passed on the opportunity.

“We looked at it, but it’s a little cost prohibitive,“ Ida AD Tim Leonard said. ”The question becomes how much money you want to invest. We just want to get through this year.

“If we can just get something done so that the grandparents and the family that supports the program can watch online, we’ll be happy.”

That’s been the prevailing view for most athletic directors. With the MHSAA rules against live streaming relaxed this year due to the virus, most schools are turning to YouTube or Facebook Live to bring their games to the quarantined masses.

For them, Pixellot is more of a luxury than a necessity.

“That’s too in depth for right now,” Gibraltar Carlson AD Dan Kalbfleisch said. “We just need something we can turn on and go.”

But Trainor said the benefit of the system will extend beyond this year. Even when the MHSAA eventually reinstates the ban against live streaming, the schools with Pixellot systems will be allowed to continue putting their games online through the NFHS subscription network.

“I feel like we’ll be able to reach out to a lot more of our families and fan base by providing this service,” Trainor said. “I don’t think it will prevent people from coming out to watch the game because nothing beats a packed house for a basketball game or a football game, but it will bring our games to those who aren’t able to make it or can’t make it.”