Long distance drafting (1 Viewer)

[nygiants56]

I'm in a few leagues with GM's that are out of state..I'm looking for a way to allow these GM's to be 'present' at the draft, either by video on a laptop or by a telephony-enabled draft room so that the out-of-towners can listen in live to the draft, and make their selections more easily than calling someone every ten minutes..

has anyone experienced this problem and if so, what are some of the workarounds?

I can bring a laptop to the draft and put a cam on it for both remote parties to

view the draft board and so they can interact with us however, it will only be thru a modem/phone line, since a Wireless hotspot is nowhere in site, so I worry about the relability/speed of the setup..

any help/info would be much appreciated!

 

[noneother]

every year... AOL IM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM... there are options...

 

[nygiants56]

cool! ..I thought about that, very lightweight with AOL , but I was trying to avoid the overhead of having others at the draft having to respond to IM's from these remote GM's, just to keep it fair for everyone..I'd rather have it be a set up where these guys see whats going on, and someone lets them know when its their pick..they say the pick,and someone puts it on the board..

but, I don't want to put the cart before the horse, so maybe IM is best, they do have live webcam capability too..

thanks!

 

[noneother]

cool! ..I thought about that, very lightweight with AOL , but I was trying to avoid the overhead of having others at the draft having to respond to IM's from these remote GM's, just to keep it fair for everyone..I'd rather have it be a set up where these guys see whats going on, and someone lets them know when its their pick..they say the pick,and someone puts it on the board..

but, I don't want to put the cart before the horse, so maybe IM is best, they do have live webcam capability too..

thanks!

yahoo does... google has voice...

 

[Bob Henry]

Try Skype or Teamspeak if everyone has computers and broadband/DSL access. Teamspeak may do a better job of getting 5+ people onto a conference call via IP phone (internet) but if you don't need that many lines, then Skype does great.

 

[BigRed]

every year... AOL IM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM... there are options...

We have tried these options and they sucked. Connections aren't always real clear, can be lost, etc etc.If someone at the draft has a cell phone with the speakerphone and conf call options, I would use that. Free long dist calling on weekends right?

 

[noneother]

every year...  AOL IM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM... there are options...

We have tried these options and they sucked. Connections aren't always real clear, can be lost, etc etc.If someone at the draft has a cell phone with the speakerphone and conf call options, I would use that. Free long dist calling on weekends right?

we have used AOL for the draft, it worked fine.. text only.. i have used Yahoo for the wife when she has been in Italy on business, not great but worked well enough for 15 minutes at a time... never tried anything beyond basic IM with google talk...skype to skype tho.. I just looked at.. is free..

 

[Fantasy Strategist]

Has anyone used Skype? I had never heard of it until just now...anything I should know about before trying them out?...thanks in advance

 

[nygiants56]

thanks for the info! I'll look into Skype.

 

[Mooks77]

Has anyone used Skype? I had never heard of it until just now...anything I should know about before trying them out?...thanks in advance

It's great. I talk to my brother in China all the time.

 

[jerseyh8r]

I am using chatzy this season. I was under the impression that you can only max out at 5 users at a time with Skype, and my entire auction is in 5 states, and no common towns (10 teams). This seemed to be the easiest (free) way to it.

 

[Titans2003]

Tell 'em to show up to the draft or else. We tried the draft with chat/cell phone/using a list and it just didn't work. Most of our owners are local so we made a rule. Show up or you're out.

Yahoo has voice as well. Most of those chat programs should do it. Give the owner an update every round. I once did a Yahoo draft at an Internet cafe while on vacation in San Fran.

 

[Mik789fl]

every year...  AOL IM, Google Talk, Yahoo IM... there are options...

We have tried these options and they sucked. Connections aren't always real clear, can be lost, etc etc.If someone at the draft has a cell phone with the speakerphone and conf call options, I would use that. Free long dist calling on weekends right?

This is the way to go. We have 1 owner who lives "out of town". We tried the computer route,it gave us more headaches than we needed. Our commish has a speaker phone,we place it right in the middle of a table,the "out of towner" calls(free minutes on his cell). Everyone's hands are free and we talk to him just as if he's there with us. It's worked perfectly the last two years. Simple yet functional.

 

[Bob Henry]

So, the best answer would be:

1. Each out-of-town owner installs Skype or Teamspeak (same as Skype, but allows more than 5 concurrent connections into a conference call).

2. Each out-of-town owner has Draft Dominator installed and running.

3. Both apps are running on their computer.



Of course, the other owners might not agree with this.. but that's where the Projection Dominator comes into play. Customize YOUR projections so nobody really knows what you're going to do.

As for the techie questions.. Skype or Teamspeak are clear as a bell.. providing your connection is reliable to the internet. If you're on a laptop then you likely don't need a microphone, but you might want a set of headphones. If you're a desktop PC then you might want to get a headset to handle the microphone/headphone combo and make it easier for you to hear and others to hear you. With either one you can call another computer or the actual phone number. Skype's callout (to real phone numbers) is now free in the U.S.

 

[Fantasy Strategist]

Went to Wal-Mart last nite and got a "skype" compatible hand-set phone with speakerphone for under $40. I'm by no means a computer genius and this took all of 5 minutes to figure out and start making calls. 4 person plus host is the max "conference call" but that is perfect for us as 10 guys usually show and the other 4 are call-ins and/or on the internet. If you have a draft during the week you can use this instead of wasting your cell minutes. Thanks for the heads up on Skype guys...I really have to become more computer literate. This kicks butt!

 

[Jaysus]

What I would do is set up a free yahoo league, and have an "online" draft via their website.

If you have, say, a 10 team league and 2 owners that can not make it - you would only need 3 computers. 1 for each owner not present, and one in the "war room".

Have your draft as you normally would witheveryine in the war room going at thier businsess as usual, however, have someone enter the picks on the yahoo site in real time.

The remote players will see when they are up, and will have an acurate, real time, listing of all available/drafted players.

Be sure to have a phone number list handy in case internet connections drop.

I think that would do the trick. After the draft, load the rosters into your leagues managment tool as per usual.

 

[jerseyh8r]

What I would do is set up a free yahoo league, and have an "online" draft via their website.

If you have, say, a 10 team league and 2 owners that can not make it - you would only need 3 computers. 1 for each owner not present, and one in the "war room".

Have your draft as you normally would witheveryine in the war room going at thier businsess as usual, however, have someone enter the picks on the yahoo site in real time.

The remote players will see when they are up, and will have an acurate, real time, listing of all available/drafted players.

Be sure to have a phone number list handy in case internet connections drop.

I think that would do the trick. After the draft, load the rosters into your leagues managment tool as per usual.

Way to think outside the box.