Great turnout and crowd last night for the Cedar Rapids tailgate tour stop. Probably the best one by far that I've been to. The NewBo Market is a great place to hold the event, outside of the fact that it got hotter than you know where in there. The following are a few observations and new information I learned while attending the event:
Observations
- During Fred's speech, he got the crowd going when, out of nowhere, he pretty much yelled how we "got screwed" out of the Ohio State game. While I've heard him say this before, I've never heard him say anything this loudly or with this much passion. Needless to say, he got a standing ovation for that one.
-He also said again how he was sure we would have gotten to the Final 4 if we would have won that game
-CPR sounded very optimistic that our offense is getting set up for a breakout year
New Information
-While talking to CJL and asking her some specific questions, I learned of a VERY big news item in the works for the volleyball program which she said is in the very down-low mode right now. Only by the fact that it is pretty big news and she obviously only shared this with me because I specifically asked her about it, I'll probably choose to keep this one to myself. I only say this because it is something worth getting excited about with the program. Look for an announcement on this relatively soon.
-While talking to the Cyclones.tv people, I learned that with the Mediacom dedicated channel coming online and consequently making it easier for opposing coaches to get game film anyways, CJL is now allowing Cyclones.tv to archive replays of all the volleyball games for the coming season. This was something I've always hoped for.
-The Cyclones.tv people also let me know that things are in the works for them to be able to stream video for live events on smartphones. I did not learn when this would exactly become available necessarily, but it seemed like they were talking about this fall. Don't quote me on the time frame.
-Things are also possibly in the works to make Cyclones.tv more SmartTV friendly as they would like to get an MLB.TV type app available through a few streaming boxes. I know one he specifically said was the Roku Box, but I can't remember the other one (perhaps Boxee). He said they will probably only be available on a few platforms at first as there are hundreds of platforms with all the different setups, which would be a ton of work and cost a ton of money to be on all the different platforms and all the different Smart TVs.
-They showed me this new machine they are renting and testing out now for $2,000/month, to see how it works and how they could use it. What it does is that it is a portable thing that allows them to broadcast filming more easily and instantaneously on Cyclones.tv. During the tailgate tour, they were using it to film and broadcast the event live. For instance, I stepped in front of the camera and through a computer they had there, I saw myself being broadcast live on Cyclones.tv. I'm assuming the specialness of the machine is it being very portable.
-They lastly talked about some type of a pregame type show they would like to stream live prior to football games in a set outside the Bergstrom facility where the Wilson Toyota tent is now. It sounded like that new machine I talked about above will help them with this. I didn't get too much more details on this and this one sounded more like an idea than a set plan.
Hopefully everyone appreciates this information. Most of it is new Cyclones.tv stuff, which is stuff I'm always interested in.
Observations
- During Fred's speech, he got the crowd going when, out of nowhere, he pretty much yelled how we "got screwed" out of the Ohio State game. While I've heard him say this before, I've never heard him say anything this loudly or with this much passion. Needless to say, he got a standing ovation for that one.
-He also said again how he was sure we would have gotten to the Final 4 if we would have won that game
-CPR sounded very optimistic that our offense is getting set up for a breakout year
New Information
-While talking to CJL and asking her some specific questions, I learned of a VERY big news item in the works for the volleyball program which she said is in the very down-low mode right now. Only by the fact that it is pretty big news and she obviously only shared this with me because I specifically asked her about it, I'll probably choose to keep this one to myself. I only say this because it is something worth getting excited about with the program. Look for an announcement on this relatively soon.
-While talking to the Cyclones.tv people, I learned that with the Mediacom dedicated channel coming online and consequently making it easier for opposing coaches to get game film anyways, CJL is now allowing Cyclones.tv to archive replays of all the volleyball games for the coming season. This was something I've always hoped for.
-The Cyclones.tv people also let me know that things are in the works for them to be able to stream video for live events on smartphones. I did not learn when this would exactly become available necessarily, but it seemed like they were talking about this fall. Don't quote me on the time frame.
-Things are also possibly in the works to make Cyclones.tv more SmartTV friendly as they would like to get an MLB.TV type app available through a few streaming boxes. I know one he specifically said was the Roku Box, but I can't remember the other one (perhaps Boxee). He said they will probably only be available on a few platforms at first as there are hundreds of platforms with all the different setups, which would be a ton of work and cost a ton of money to be on all the different platforms and all the different Smart TVs.
-They showed me this new machine they are renting and testing out now for $2,000/month, to see how it works and how they could use it. What it does is that it is a portable thing that allows them to broadcast filming more easily and instantaneously on Cyclones.tv. During the tailgate tour, they were using it to film and broadcast the event live. For instance, I stepped in front of the camera and through a computer they had there, I saw myself being broadcast live on Cyclones.tv. I'm assuming the specialness of the machine is it being very portable.
-They lastly talked about some type of a pregame type show they would like to stream live prior to football games in a set outside the Bergstrom facility where the Wilson Toyota tent is now. It sounded like that new machine I talked about above will help them with this. I didn't get too much more details on this and this one sounded more like an idea than a set plan.
Hopefully everyone appreciates this information. Most of it is new Cyclones.tv stuff, which is stuff I'm always interested in.
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