How PlayOn Uses Canopy to Confidently Live Stream Sporting Events at Over 17,000 Schools

Parents and grandparents love watching their kids and grandkids compete on the field. But until recently, the only way to attend high school and middle school spectator sports (like soccer, baseball, football, volleyball, tennis, etc.) was to show up in person.

Not anymore. Today, internet-connected cameras paired with innovative live streaming technology allow fans to tune in and watch many, if not all, the games. PlayOn is a pioneer in this technology, enabling the live streaming of sporting events across a staggering 17,000 schools.

To stream any event, PlayOn’s system must combine inputs from multiple cameras with a computer and proprietary software and broadcast the live stream through the school’s network. Not only must this product adapt to the differences in capturing various sporting events within different kinds of arenas, but every school is different, too, and the technical capability of the staff and parents varies dramatically.

A lot can go wrong. Technically supporting so many thousands of schools presents a significant challenge.

Recently, Michael Plachta, customer success at Canopy, sat down with Logan Teffertiller, quality assurance video streaming lab manager at PlayOn, to discuss the unique challenges PlayOn has overcome to support live streaming sporting events at thousands of schools:

• How did PlayOn monitor and manage their fleet of connected products as they rapidly went from several thousand systems to nearly 20K deployed products?
• What was RMM like before and after Canopy?
• How does the PlayOn team handle technical support?
• What improvements in quality have they achieved with the help of Canopy?

Below is a summary of this conversation — and you can find the entire ~20-minute recording at the end.

The hurdles of manual remote device management

PlayOn Sports experienced a period of rapid growth in their deployment of the camera systems used to provide live stream content for PlayOn's NFHS network. Logan Teffertiller, quality assurance video streaming lab manager at PlayOn, remembers how, when he joined the team in 2019, they were in the process of crossing 6,000 deployed systems. Teffertiller recalls, “Things were relatively manageable. We had good documentation of pictures and even a team that went on-site to install the cameras, get pictures, documentation, of course, and then we had a great idea of how systems were set up physically."

Then, the network expanded rapidly — doubling from 6,000 to 12,000 activated systems in 2020 and then adding several thousand more activated systems in 2021 and beyond. Keeping up with current data on the network became a challenge. To collect information about their camera systems, Teffertiller’s team depended upon a stack of tools, none of which were designed to manage the entire fleet of camera systems. Their stack consisted of everything from remote access software to proprietary, component-specific management software.

As a result, collecting information about their camera system fleet was done manually, device by device, across all several thousand devices. The process was never-ending:

Teffertiller recalls how they were keeping track of devices using a long checklist, then going device-by-device. On reaching the bottom of the list, they’d just “start right back up at the top again … So basically we were dealing with manual device by device management in addition to just old outdated information. I like to say, ‘Once you export a bit of information about a system, it's immediately out of date until you go and export it the next time.’”

The PlayOn team lacked a remote device management solution that could adapt to their camera system solution, so they struggled to answer questions like:

• Are the cameras functioning properly?
• Are the systems configured correctly?
• Is a nuance of a particular school or venue set up correctly?
• Are third-party devices connected and configured properly?
• Is the software up-to-date?

Manual, remote-device-by-remote-device management became a bottleneck, plagued by inefficiency and prone to human error.

For example, every system had to be configured based on where it was geographically. Each system needed to be set to the correct time zone. Failure to get the correct time zone configuration meant that the systems would record at the wrong times, sometimes resulting in missing events entirely.

The PlayOn team needed a better way to manage their fleet of camera systems at scale — which is where Canopy came in.

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3 ways PlayOn uses Canopy remote monitoring and management

Canopy changed what’s possible for the PlayOn team. Here are just three examples Logan shared in his conversation with Michael:

1. Up-to-date camera system data on demand

Once Canopy was installed, Teffertiller and team got immediate, live access to critical device information. As Teffertiller puts it, suddenly they could answer questions like, “Are [the camera products] even installed correctly? Are they up to date? … The basics of information that we weren't able to get before, [using Canopy] we were able to immediately export [that information] in a list. And then actually have a team start working on it immediately …  It was a night and day difference being able to export everything in a heartbeat.”

2. Real-time alerts and proactive remote device resolutions

Logan shared how a software bug led to complete system failure during events: "There were some instances where events would not start at all due to a software bug. One instance was a memory leak that caused the system to utilize all of its available memory."

This issue made it impossible for the system to communicate with the backend, leaving the team with no choice but to request manual restarts from anyone available at the schools. With the implementation of Canopy, PlayOn Sports found a robust solution. Canopy's monitoring tools now alert the team to such critical issues in real-time, allowing them to proactively handle problems before they affect the streaming of events, thereby ensuring a more reliable viewing experience.

3. Canopy remote device automations: "Super helpful"

Canopy's remote device automations have been a game-changer for PlayOn, providing essential support in managing their large network of live streaming devices. Teffertiller highlights three areas in particular where having Canopy has changed how they manage their remote camera systems:

• Automated reboots: Canopy automations can remotely initiate reboots of devices based on specific hardware conditions, ensuring systems run smoothly without manual intervention. According to Teffertiller:
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  • If a CPU is experiencing high usage for an extended period, an automation in Canopy can trigger a system reboot.
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  • When memory or hard drive capacity is full, Canopy automations “can just deal with it for us.”
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  • This preemptive — or proactive — approach to remote device management helps reduce the frequency and duration of outages (more on what this means below)
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• Reporting and vendor communication: Canopy also assists in monitoring device performance, enabling Teffertiller and the PlayOn team to generate reports on devices experiencing issues and communicate effectively with vendors for timely resolutions.

These automations have proven invaluable, not just in maintaining system stability but also in alleviating the workload on technical staff, allowing them to focus on optimizing the viewer experience rather than dealing with technical glitches.

The deployment of Canopy has yielded significant improvements in PlayOn Sports' operational metrics. Logan reports: "Our event success rate has gone up by 6% and our production quality score by 8.5% year over year."

These enhancements underscore the effectiveness of Canopy's tools for elevating broadcast quality and live streaming reliability.

Canopy, “a night and day difference”

Integrating Canopy's Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software marked a transformative shift in how PlayOn Sports could manage its streaming technology.

As shared earlier, Canopy's suite of tools brought automation and real-time monitoring into the mix, dramatically improving the efficiency and reliability of operations.

Fast forward, and Teffertiller shares there are three primary ways the PlayOn teams use Canopy:

1. Advanced Client Operations with School Support Operations: This support team uses Canopy as a proactive monitoring tool. They look for problems like slow internet speeds, power outages, or port closures.

2. Inbound Ticket Team: Canopy enables the team to perform high-level diagnostics quickly, such as identifying disconnected cameras or if a system is offline. The team gets a high-level perspective first before beginning an investigation.

3. Administrative Management: On the administrative front, which is where Teffertiller spends his time, Canopy aids in essential tasks like system reporting — e.g. are the camera systems online or offline — and managing updates for software, drivers, and hardware component connections, ensuring everything stays connected, updated, and running smoothly during live events.

Logan praises the impact of these advancements, stating, "It's been such an incredible asset to our support team and also to me just as our checking on systems and making sure they're working correctly. It just makes our work — our workforce — way more efficient."

The future: Deeper integration for even better outcomes

Looking ahead, PlayOn is set to deepen its integration with Canopy's capabilities. Plans include leveraging Canopy's APIs for a seamless Salesforce sync — all in order to use Canopy to support device lifecycle management. Teffertiller describes how this integration would enable real-time tracking of devices from storage to deployment at schools to decommissioning devices too. This strategic integration aims to further streamline operations and reduce the manual effort required in managing such a large-scale system.

PlayOn has led the way in advancing how school sports are made available to fans and families. PlayOn has used Canopy to increase the reliability and efficiency of their platform, reducing interruptions and helping ensure that no game is missed. By adopting a remote monitoring and management system designed to adapt to the complexities and variability found with a fleet of camera systems, PlayOn addresses the technical challenges of large-scale live broadcasting head on. For more on PlayOn, visit playonsports.com.

If you’re ready to know more about how Canopy can automate your team’s approach to managing everything from cameras to kiosks, POS systems to signage, sports simulators, and more, reach out.

Finally, watch (and bookmark on YouTube) the full discussion between Logan Teffertiller and MichaelPlachta with the video below: