ARCATA, CALIF. — Yes, the Humboldt County tech company known as StreamGuys has made its name primarily for its software-as-a-service based streaming and podcast products.
But, they’ve also gained a niche with pro sports leagues and teams. A NFL team in the South is the latest professional club to link up with StreamGuys.
The Carolina Panthers is the latest sports franchise to leverage StreamGuys’ professional SaaS toolset and content delivery network, allowing the team to create and deliver live and on-demand content to fans regardless of where they may be.
Taking notice that an increasing number of sports clubs worldwide were self-producing innovative content, the Charlotte-based NFL team wanted to be at forefront of that movement. In addition to live simulcasts of game-day radio broadcasts, the Panthers’ digital media and broadcast teams viewed podcasting as an engaging way to connect with audiences.
Carolina Panthers Executive Producer for Radio David Langton said, “Podcasting has allowed us to strengthen our innovation and provide more content to our fans,” said David Langton, Executive Producer for Radio, Carolina Panthers. “At the same time, we can serve the needs of our sponsors through smart and compelling storytelling. We see this as a new generation of audio production and digital communication.”
Langton and his colleague Matt Hogan reached out to StreamGuys, as their work with the NFL and other league teams attracted their attention. But, Langton and Hogan approached StreamGuys with the goal of differentiating their approach from their peers. “Their relationship with the league opened the door, but it was their willingness to innovate and be flexible that sealed the deal,” Langton said. “Their approach has helped us deliver our podcasts over multiple platforms, without any geographical constrictions. With every new request we make, the latest being a request to add Alexa skills, they quickly return with a solution that moves us forward.”
StreamGuys’ SGrecast software is used to automate the creation of podcasts, side channels and rebroadcasts.
Hogan said, “I just need to upload the content to the SGrecast interface, and add titles and descriptions. I can also create shorter clips for social media through the video generator, which provides high-quality thumbnails of each scene. The processing is very quick, and it looks very professional upon delivery.”
StreamGuys automatically populates the podcasts to the Panthers website, as well as other podcasting platforms including Google Play, iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher. Hogan can also create video clips for use in future podcasts and save them within the SGrecast interface, which he compares to the simplicity of using a WordPress blog engine.
“We produce 11 weekly podcasts, and their processes save me hours of production work each week,” Hogan said. “We don’t have to worry about having a hosting site, set up RSS feeds, or have coding background. They have helped us elevate our digital strategy without complicated workflows. There are only four or five franchises in the league producing as many podcasts as we are.”
