Portland Pirates offer live Internet broadcasts

As the first team in the American Hockey League to utilize live game broadcasts on an Internet site, the Portland Pirates are among a handful of hockey trailblazers on the World Wide Web.

Portland, now in its ninth AHL season, will broadcast a quarter of its home games live on the Net this winter, beginning with a Dec. 2 game against Saint John at 4 p.m.

“We may be the first professional hockey team in North America to put an entire home game schedule on a Webcast,” said Dave Ahlers, the radio voice of the Pirates for the last seven seasons and the team’s director of communications, broadcasting and team services.

The Pirates, who broadcast all 40 home games on their Internet side last season, are still providing live Webcasts of games this season, but the number has been trimmed to 10.

“Doing just 10 games this year is an economic consideration, but the schedule does spread out the teams we play and it’s a good representation of who we play,” said Ahlers.

The Webcast involves a single camera positioned behind Ahlers and color analyst Andy Young which follows the action up and down the ice. People watching the games on the Internet will also hear Ahlers and Young call the action.

“Basically what people are seeing is what the camera sees from the press box in row 24 and they’re getting the regular radio feed as far as play by play goes,” said Ahlers, noting that the more powerful the computer is, the better the Webcast will look.

“If you have a good connection with a T1 or coaxial or Roadrunner or something plus a powerful computer on the other end, chances are you’re going to get a very good look at it,” he said. “I’ve watched some of the archive film on my computer, which is not terribly fast, but it’s a lot clearer than I expected it to be.

“Basically this is a game film for the coaches, but it is broadcast quality, not like some high school production where some kid takes a camera into the nose bleed section and takes a dark, grainy film where the camera’s shaking and stuff.”

You won’t see any instant replays, close-ups, wraparound shots, or cutaways, but you also won’t get commercials. As the announcers are taking breaks, they remain live on the internet feed.

“Yeah, so we can’t swear or say anything off-color,” said Ahlers. “We have to be careful of things like that, but we are anyway because our broadcast is still live in the building during commercial breaks so we’re used to it.”

Best of all, the Webcasts are free. All viewers have to do is log onto the team Web site (www.portlandpirates.com) and click on the icon “Pirates live.” After that, they just have to click on a separate button for live video and they’re all set.

Many people are already logged on, as Ahlers’ e-mail file can attest.

“We hear from a lot of parents and a lot of fans who lived in Portland and then moved away who still follow the team and really enjoy having the service,” Ahlers said. “We get e-mails and letters from people all over Canada, California, Colorado, the rest of the U.S., and folks from Europe too.”

The quality of the Webcasts, which are provided by Oxford Networks – the Maine company which set up and maintains the Pirates’ Web site – has also been well received.

“We’ve never had any complaints about disconnects or whatever, so whatever Oxford is doing, they’re doing it well,” said Ahlers.

The Pirates began airing game radio broadcasts on the Internet in 1998. They also broadcast all 80 regular season games on a five-station network built around Portland flagship station WJAB (95.5 FM, 1440 AM). Games may also be heard on South Paris’ WKTQ (1450 AM), Norway’s WOXO (92.7 FM), Rumford’s WTME (790 AM) and Mexico’s WTBM (100.7 FM).

Touchdowns on the tube

Couldn’t get to the weekend state championship football games and desperate for a firsthand look at the two most exciting games? You might be in luck.

Adelphia Network 9, a local access cable channel in the Augusta and Lewiston/Auburn areas, is rebroadcasting the Class B state championship football game two more times this week. Portland-area cable access – Portland Community TV Network – is also airing the Bangor-Portland Class A tilt several times this week.

For more information on the B game air times, call Jim Walker at 623-3685. For the A game, call Tom Handle at 775-2900.

Andrew Neff’s On the air column is published each Tuesday. He can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net.