Broadcasting sport throughout the APY Lands and beyond

The broadcast of national sporting events is commonplace in Australia and sometimes we can access city based competitions on TV or radio.

But until recently, there wasn’t anything from remote Australia.

Thomas Holder, Manager of PY Media based in Umuwa in the APY Lands of South Australia said he believes they are the first Remote Indigenous Media Organisation (RIMO) to conduct live telecasts of regional sporting competitions.

This year, they broadcast 12 matches of the APY women’s softball and men’s football competitions including each grand final.

And the viewers have shown their appreciation while they watched the events live from their community.

‘Many APY Lands viewers left comments of thanks and other positive reactions to our broadcasts, which has spurred us on to make these broadcasts a permanent fixture of PY Media’s operations,’ Thomas said.

‘In fact, interaction and engagement with our broadcasts stretched well beyond the confines of the APY Lands with people from Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, NSW, Victoria as well as some international viewers, tuning in.’

The broadcast of each match requires significant effort with up to 6 professional cameras used along with on-field microphones and an audio mixer.

Also used is multi-platform broadcast equipment which can stream to platforms like FaceBook, YouTube, Vimeo and more at the same time.

Personnel includes a director, camera operators and 1-2 dedicated commentators.

‘Our commentators are sourced from a pool of enthusiastic Radio 5NPY broadcasters across the lands. Generally the commentators were residents of the community in which the games were played,’ Thomas said.

Still needed is a proper broadcast van which can house all the equipment and enable ease of transport and set-up at the various APY communities.

The service has come a long way from the original radio broadcast service only, and from the first actual televised event.

‘The first game used a rather rudimentary (and problematic) laptop based streamer software and a mobile telephone to connect to streamer server,’ Thomas said.

‘The quality of the footage unfortunately reflected this rudimentary arrangement but set a benchmark which subsequent broadcasts surpassed profoundly.’

‘Moving forward we will be enhancing our broadcast techniques to incorporate on-screen graphics such as picture-in-picture, live scores, and a countdown timer,’ he said.

‘We will also focus resources towards training more staff in preparation for the 2022 season which we intend to cover from start to finish. We also are in dialogue with the Indigenous Community Television network to trial live broadcasts on that platform and further increase our broadcast footprint.’

Based on the sports coverage and increased community profile, PY Media has also been approached by many community members about live streaming funerals.

‘This would make it possible for family members that are unable to attend to view the proceedings and also serve as a visual memorial of the cherished family members that have passed away,’ Thomas said.

Travelling from one community to another for sporting events or for other important events such as funerals has been hard for many who live in remote communities.

The service offered by PY Media is uniting communities in a welcomed and special way.