The MYHockey Rankings’ team was fortunate enough to catch up with Ray Giroux, former NHLer and the current COO of LiveBarn, for a quick Q&A session. Ray touches on the youth hockey season, LiveBarn’s new Live Tagging product and much more. Check out the whole interview below!
How is the start of the season going for you… both hockey and LiveBarn?
From a personal point of view – my youth hockey teams - the season has started with our teams being a little inconsistent, both individually and collectively. The goal of the season is to improve throughout the year, so I always try and focus on being where we need to be in January and February as opposed to September and October. From a LiveBarn point of view, we’ve added 300 more ice hockey surfaces. We’ve also significantly expanded our footprint in other sports, providing hockey families with more value for their multi-sport athletes. We are also busy on the product side of things as well. We recently released our new Live Tagging feature. In September we started to roll out digital scoreboard solution and we have even more things in our pipeline that will benefit our subscribers.
What are some of the key rinks you’ve added?
We’ve added a lot of new rinks in the past six months with more on the way. A few big additions are New England Sports Center, the Vegas Golden Knights facilities in Las Vegas and Henderson and the Islanders facility in Syosset. The Florida Panther’s new training camp (Fort Lauderdale War Memorial) and ASU’s Mullett Arena are coming soon. We have partnerships with 20 NHL practice facilities.
You mentioned Live Tagging is now live… can you tell us more about that exciting product?
Live Tagging is a gamechanger. I’ve used Live Tagging as both a coach and a dad, in both cases I’m really fond of this new feature. It is a huge time saver when it comes to catching clips live rather than having to go back and watch the Video On Demand. As a coach, it’s capturing the real teaching moments. And as a dad, it’s all about capturing the highlights!
How is this different than downloading 30-minute video?
The 30-minute download will capture the entire game and has value, but if you want to really save time there is nothing easier than clipping it in real time. I used to have to jot down the time on the clock when something happened, then go find it on VOD. Now, I tag it and it’s automatically emailed to me after the game. Basically, just a huge time saver!
What is it like having to have a phone or iPad on the bench?
Everyone already has a phone on the bench, you are just able to use it for player development now which is great! You might want to let your parents know ahead of time you are Live Tagging, not texting from the bench! You are just pushing a button and naming the clip from your phone, so really just exponentially more efficient than pen and paper. The fact you can name the clip is a huge help too. Sometimes I will go back and notice 3 or 4 teaching moments on clip, but because I’ve named in real time, I know exactly what the original talking point was.
How do you use the video with your team?
I either go over the clips with the team during a video session or send them in advance via email for them to save and be able to reference in the future. We are currently working on some great features that will make storing and annotating video so much easier. I anticipate that by next hockey season we are using Live Tagging in an entirely new more efficient way.
We saw the Martin St Louis/Jeff Hamilton video… that’s great, how did that come about?
I’ve played with and against Jeff and Marty for a long time. They were great players and are great coaches. They are true teachers of the game and they both appreciate there is nothing like having a time captures video of what you see in real time to use as a teaching and player development tool. We asked them for a testimonial and because they are passionate about the product and they agreed. You can check out the full video here.
Can parents or scouts use Live Tagging?
That’s the best part. Anyone can use live tagging! Parents can capture plays, scouts to capture a player’s tendencies or even team managers for content on social media etc. Anyone who doesn’t want to go back and look at Video On demand should be Live Tagging.
Can you live-tag while watching at home?
Live tagging is currently only available for in venue use, but as I mentioned we have some products in the pipeline that our subscribers will really like so stay tuned.
What if I have multiple kids on multiple teams?
We designed the feature for the busy parent or coach, simply create a new team and you can tag for as many kids, in as many sports as you would like.
Where is the video saved?
The video is delivered via email as soon as you end an event. From there you can download it directly to your device. Although the email links are only valid within 7 days, you can go back into your desktop account and request a resend at any time. You really will never lose the video.
What’s next for LiveBarn?
We have more great things to come here as well regarding player profiles and lockers, all centered around your athlete’s video! Stay tuned for player analytics as well. We are committed to bringing you not just live streaming and on demand video, but a full suite of product offerings.