eSports@Jeff is a joint venture between Purdue University

Purdue University

Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...

 and Lafayette Jefferson High School in Lafayette, IN to bring web based content of sports games to fans. It is the first system of its kind in the nation to be installed in a high school.

How it began

Before the summer of 2007, with the help of a grant from the Motorola Foundation, Purdue University approached Jefferson High School with a proposal to set up a system at the high school's stadium similar to Purdue's own eStadium to bring web content to fans at home games. A group of students were selected from three different areas of study to work on the project: engineering, radio-TV broadcasting, and computer programming.

Summer setup

Jeff students spent the summer learning how to code and creating a website from scratch without the aid of any web design software that would allow fans to view the content. Students also had to set up the system to capture and prepare the content.

Selection

Jefferson High School was selected from three other schools in the area because of its strong Radio-TV program as well as the most advanced facilities.

Partners

• Purdue University
• CWSA (Center for Wireless Systems and Applications)
• Envision Center
• ITAP (Information Technology at Purdue)

eStadium@Jeff

eStadium is the football side of the eSports@Jeff franchise. Inside Scheuman Stadium at Jeff, there are three wireless access point

Wireless access point

In computer networking, a wireless access point is a device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards...

s set up to allow fans to access the eStadium@Jeff website from any Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

 enabled device. Users can also visit the site via their cell phone's internet browser.

A feature of the site that was not anticipated was the benefit that is had for relatives of players who could not make it to the games. By logging on to their computers from home or even across the country, people could search for instant replays by player name or even watch the entire game play by play. The delay between the time the play occurs and when it can be viewed online can be as little as 25 seconds.

Content

Users on the website can view instant replays of games, player and team statistics, the team roster, the concession stand menu, current temp and radar, a link to the WJEF

WJEF

WJEF is a non-commercial radio station licensed to the Lafayette School Corporation in Lafayette, Indiana. It is located at 91.9 MHz on the FM dial. WJEF broadcasts in stereo at an effective radiated power of 250 watts. The station's studio and offices are located at Jefferson High School's...

 radio coverage of the game, as well as post messages on a message board that could be displayed on the stadium's video board.

System components

• Two Canon GL2 digital cameras used on football field
• Two JVC
  JVC
  , usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
  
   Field/Studio cameras used in stands
• Mac Pro
  Mac Pro
  The Mac Pro is a workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. The machines are based on Xeon microprocessors, but are similar to the Power Mac G5 they replaced in terms of outward appearance and expansion capabilities...
  
   for video encoding
• Non-linear editor
• Video Switcher
• 16x16 video router
• Three MacBook
  MacBook
  The MacBook was a brand of Macintosh notebook computers built by Apple Inc. First introduced in May 2006, it replaced the iBook and 12-inch PowerBook series of notebooks as a part of the Apple–Intel transition. Positioned as the low end of the MacBook family, the Apple MacBook was aimed at the...
  
  s for site maintenance and statistics.

Publicity

The project has received large amounts of publicity from both local and national papers, online news sources, sports related websites, as well as state and local television.

eCourt@Jeff

eCourt is the basketball component of the eSports@Jeff franchise.

eCourt differs from eStadium in a sense that its target is not be fans at the games but rather fans at home. The site features a streaming webcast

Webcast

A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...

during the entire duration of the game, the score, live statistics, the team rosters, and the concession stand menu.

Future plans

Future plans for eSports include expanding both systems to include more features as well as possibly expanding into other sports. There is also the possibility of applications in the classroom.

External links

• eCourt@Jeff Web Site
• eStadium@Jeff Web Site
• Jefferson High School Web Site
• CWSA
• Envision Center
• Purdue University
• Lafayette School Corporation