Information on Loughborough

Loughborough University to broadcast Real Varsity clash

Posted on 27/12/2008

Loughborough University Website

Loughborough University to broadcast Real Varsity clash

Loughborough University will be streaming a live broadcast of its renowned Real Varsity rugby clash today (Wednesday 30 April), when Loughborough’s top two rugby sides take on the University of Bath.

Loughborough Students women’s 1st XV provide the curtain raiser for the men’s fixture from 5.15pm. And in the first ever demo on the University campus, Loughborough’s skydiving team will drop in to deliver the main event match ball for the 7.30pm start.

Loughborough Students’ Union TV (LSUTV) and the University’s IT and Media Services departments are collaborating to broadcast both matches with live commentary, interviews and analysis.

Gary Parker, IT Services Specialist in the University’s Network and Security Team said: “I’ve been working with LSUTV for the last few months to put this event together; we have lots of exciting things happening before and during the event. Everyone involved has worked hard to make this happen and I’m confident it’s going to be a huge success.”

The live matches will be streamed over JANET the UK’s education and research network through two unicast Quicktime MPEG4 streams (768kb/s and 1.5Mb/s) and a single 3Mb/s Quicktime MPEG4 multicast stream, for those who are multicast enabled.

The multicast stream will be available to view in the free VLC media player and is also being carried on Inuk’s Freewire IPTV service, channel 106, available within Hall Networks at universities across the UK.”

Roger Bolam, Content Delivery Group Manager at JANET (UK), said: “It is great to see this type of activity demonstrating the capability of JANET. The network provides an ideal delivery infrastructure for JANET-connected sites to push real-time content to a wider audience.

IPTV and student TV are rapidly developing application areas that JANET (UK) is keen to support and we hope to see more inspiring activities like this in the future.”

To view the event live online visit: http://lsutv.co.uk/varsity

Tickets for the Real Varsity clash are available on the gate at the University’s 1st XV pitch for £10 (£5 for under-16s) and include a free hot meal and drinks. The first event starts at 4pm.