PALISADES, NY—June 12, 2017—The Video Call Center (VCC) today announced that its weekly Stick-to-Sports show, which airs 8pm ET Wednesdays on Facebook Live and YouTube, set a record-breaking pace for the handling of live video callers on air in a half-hour show. On June 7 host Robin Lundberg—a face and voice familiar to millions from ESPN radio, SNY and Sports Illustrated—led a high energy, fast-paced show that included 19 separate video callers using Skype, FaceTime, and Gruveo (WebRTC) apps from their smartphones to appear live during the broadcast, expressing their opinions on the day’s burning sports topics from the NBA, MLB, NHL and more.
“I've done thousands of sports talk radio shows in my career but none have captured the impact of being face-to-face with the audience,” host Lundberg said. “Stick-to-Sports viewers are literally on air and part of the show. The VCC’s system gives me complete control to determine the direction we go, who comes to air, and when they appear. It is incredibly exciting and new. No show exists without viewers and thanks to the VCC no sports show engages them so directly as part of the process."
Lundberg’s live show brings the pacing and dynamic host-audience interplay familiar to sports radio to a live television format. The result is sports TV with an ideal combination of engagement and participation that has instant appeal to young, socially-engaged audiences. Seeing fans on air provides a novel viewing experience that radio cannot offer. This past week alone, callers appeared dressed in full hockey attire, promoted their favorite teams with banners; one even wore a knight’s helmet prepared to battle for his viewpoint.
The VCC’s unique video caller television platform enables Lundberg to bring his show to air without the vast, costly technical crew and control room normally required for live television. Caller participation starts with a simple click of a link on the show’s Facebook or YouTube pages, or its website www.callsticktosports.com to connect them to the VCC’s Caller Queue™—the green room in the Cloud—where they register as a guest. There callers select their preferred video calling app—such as FaceTime, Skype, or WebRTC—that they wish to use from any smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.
The show’s producers verify the visual quality and propriety of each caller before making them available to Lundberg. The host then selects video callers to air in any order or combination that best serves the show’s direction. While in the Caller Queue, callers watch the live show and promote their participation to their own social networks; a powerful, organic means of expanding the show’s audience.
Executive Producer Tom Porpiglia said, “Building a video caller talk show is all about having lots of callers with unique points of view, from wide-ranging visual locations, and each showing us different things. The audience truly has a stake in the content. The VCC makes this format work by giving the host maximum choice of video callers and the confidence that those calls will air with the highest reliability.”
The VCC uses newly patented call reliability techniques. Consistent with the VCC’s demonstrated on-air call reliability rate of over 99%, no video calls were dropped during the record-breaking Stick to Sports episode.
Stick-to-Sports is one of more than 450 shows produced via the Video Call Center for broadcast, cable and web (including for the broadcast stations of Tegna and Fox) that have brought nearly 5,000 live video callers to air. Samples of these shows, as well as additional information about the VCC, are available at www.thevcc.tv. Stick to Sports can be seen live on Wednesday nights, at 8PM EDT, at http://www.talkcenteramerica.tv/
About The Video Call Center, LLC:
The VCC is a technology and content development company devoted to handling large numbers of IP Video remotes-by-smartphone and putting them on the air through patented workflow and assistive automation (patents #8,767,031, #9,654,731 and other patents pending). The VCC is both a Facebook Live Media Solutions and Broadcast partner. The VCC licenses its software and provides caller acquisition and production services. VCC has produced hundreds of programs for the web through its Talk Center America platform, and dozens for the stations of co-owner TEGNA Media. The VCC is jointly owned by Wolzien LLC and TEGNA, which is a significant investor and customer. Examples of video caller television programs and complete information about the VCC are available at www.thevcc.tv.
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