All-Access with UND.com | by Pat
One of the big changes surrounding the football program last year was the sudden rise in available media for ND fans at the official Notre Dame athletics website. From video practice reports, to press conferences, to live streaming coverage of various on-campus games, the dramatic increase in content made for interesting viewing and helped fans follow the Fighting Irish closer than ever before. With that in mind, BGS conducted a little Q&A with Alan Wasielewski, a member of Notre Dame Sports Properties and one of the driving forces behind the multimedia options available on UND.com.
To keep this post a bit shorter, we'll reproduce some highlight excerpts here. The entire interview can be read here.
On Alan and his job...
"My official title is 'Director of Digital Media' which is just another way to say that I take care of all the multimedia offerings on und.com. If it is audio or video, it crossed my desk before it showed up on the web site. My day-to-day schedule fluctuates greatly because of the weekend hours, late-night hours and different seasons. During football, it seemed I was in the office 24-7. The office in the Stadium is very nice, I have by far the best parking (since I get to drive into the concourse during the week), but since our office is immediately adjacent to the visitors locker room, I have to move operations out of my office on football Fridays and Saturdays, which you can imagine is a pain considering everything we produce on those two days."
On charging for UND.com All-Access...
"There are absolutely no plans to charge for our product at this time. The fans will eventually decide where we go in that capacity. If they continue to watch our videos and the numbers continue to increase, then there is no need to even think about a subscription service. We view this as a service to our fans - and no one wants to pay a subscription fee."
On the future of All-Access...
"The ultimate goal of Fighting Irish All-Access is to offer every available home game/event live on-line (video and audio) to our fans. What the time frame is for that goal has not been set yet, but we want to develop a broadband channel that turns into the ESPN for Irish Athletics."
On coverage of the Blue and Gold Game...
"As of this moment, there are no plans to stream the game live, or have it as a video archive (we will produce a highlight package). But, if access to the game changed, we could quickly turn around and make the game available. Of course we will be there will full coverage of the post-game, pre-game, etc. We also have practice coverage scheduled this spring as well."
For more questions and answers about recruiting, national awards promotional pushes, and Alan's take on the spring QB derby, make sure to check out the rest of the interview. And many thanks again to Alan Wasielewski for taking time out of his busy day to answer a few questions. Thanks, Alan.
