Upon bartending in the curling rink lounge, I found I was always peeking through the hall to the lobby to see the game and keep updated on the score, and to see when the people are going to start to flood in to the lounge. A group of people were sitting in the lounge one evening asked if they were able to her the 50/50 numbers being announced inside the lounge. I replied no. After that evening I thought, ‘Hey, what about a live feed? That way we could hear the 50/50 numbers being announced, as well as watch the game in the lounge, and know what the score is and when the patrons were going to come in.”
I approached IT expert Ryan Kobelsky during Santa Night and asked if it would be possible to run a feed from a camera to the lounge on to the TV. His reply was, “Very easily and very cheap as well.”
I put the plan into motion, contacting Steven Lutsch, our new recreation director, and we were able to get Ryan to install the camera at a cost of $404.
I reached out to community members and asked them for a donation towards this project. It was well received, and we have $200 toward this project from Aaron Lorenz and Mark Wangler so far.
The community of Wilkie is breaking ground by putting in the live feed.
• Now one can sit in the lobby, the inside of the rink on the bleachers, or casually sip a beverage from the comfort of the curling rink lounge.
• This will generate more business for the curling rink lounge, and for the community center as a whole.
• We would be the first rural rink, possibly in all of Saskatchewan, to have the installation of a live feed in their rink.
• The Outlaws are putting a live feed down at their end into their room for training and or practice purposes. The Outlaws will assume all the costs for that project.
• The Town of Wilkie will have no or little cost to them to keep the feed maintained, and with no cost for installing it, the town, curling club and Outlaws will not be charged for anything, resulting in nothing but profit for all groups
• The feed runs smoothly, and allows for a good view. (On that note, I am going to have Ryan use a different camera which has a wider angle and redo the cable.)
• The hall is wired for the live feed; a donation of a TV would be great to put in there. This could be used for grad as the overflow of people not able to attend with the families could watch the grad ceremonies in the hall through the live feed option.
