Long Distance/Remote Live Draft Options (1 Viewer)

[bjabrad]

What are some of the options out there to include out of town owners in a live draft?

My league is a local league but there are some guys who have moved away over the last year. We like to have a live draft party with a big screen projector that serves as a draft board, beer, bbq, etc...

We have accomodated out of town owners in the past when we've only had one and they just call in on their cell phone to a draft room speakerphone (free nights and weekend minutes on Sprint PCS works pretty well for this). However, once you get beyond one out of towner your phone set up has to change. Does anybody know of a conference call in service that we could use?

We have used a Yahoo custom league in the past and we're pretty happy with what they provide.

If everyone at the draft party had a laptop we could set up a live computer draft and have everyone access the internet via WIFI but not everybody has a laptop.

We actually use Draft Dominator as the draft board to help hurry along the draft and show what other people have taken. I wish there were a way to dumb it down for use as a draft board so that it doesn't show average draft position and cue up the highest value player. I'd keep access to that info private and make these guys do their own homework.

Any live remote draft options you can think of would be helpful.

 

[Warhogs]

If everyone can get on msn messenger or something like that then you can have one person at the draft handle the communication from the party and have everyone else remotely connected through msn. Some draft sites also have a live draft feature where you can eliminate a pick timer so that every one has enough times to go enter their pick on their and the out of towners can follow along.

 

[massraider]

Just use IM. Yahoo or MSN. No reason to be on the phone all night.

 

[reg]

get local guys together and hookup a projector. run the draft on Yahoo using their live draft so the out of towners can login there and chat/draft with everyone else.

 

[Chaka]

Why does everyone need a laptop? We have several out-of-town owners and we set up one central computer, we then rotate owners manning the computer. Works fine. In your case, using the DD as the draftboard you should probably have two computers, one for the projector and one for the chat, as having the chat overlayed on the DD could get a little busy. If you want you can also set up a webcam as a nice touch.

Regarding the DD just close the Player Pool window. Everyone should have their own cheatsheet so they do not need the player pool information. If for some reason you do not like that idea (and you should like that idea) then you can download a VBD spreadsheet and delete the ADP information and import that sheet into the DD.

But you really should close the Player Pool window, no need to provide that information to the owners they should make their own decisions.

 

[dloew]

freeconferencecall.com

 

[simey]

when we do our live draft, there is a guy in california that usually can't make it. last year one in florida, couldn't make it either, so we had them on something called skype. their voices came out on the stereo speakers, and they could hear us. it was cool. skype is a free download. here it is if you are interested in using it. the calls are free, and multiple people from different places can be on it and hear everybody else.

 

[bjabrad]

get local guys together and hookup a projector. run the draft on Yahoo using their live draft so the out of towners can login there and chat/draft with everyone else.

I've done a live draft on Yahoo for baseball without the draft party and it was cool to trash talk everyone in the chat window but everyone had a computer. Can you do a live Yahoo draft using one shared computer that is serving as the projected draft board? Maybe a commissioner controls setting?BTW, thanks for the suggestion, this would be the best if it can be set up correctly.

 

[bjabrad]

Why does everyone need a laptop? We have several out-of-town owners and we set up one central computer, we then rotate owners manning the computer. Works fine. In your case, using the DD as the draftboard you should probably have two computers, one for the projector and one for the chat, as having the chat overlayed on the DD could get a little busy. If you want you can also set up a webcam as a nice touch.Regarding the DD just close the Player Pool window. Everyone should have their own cheatsheet so they do not need the player pool information. If for some reason you do not like that idea (and you should like that idea) then you can download a VBD spreadsheet and delete the ADP information and import that sheet into the DD.But you really should close the Player Pool window, no need to provide that information to the owners they should make their own decisions.

thanks we'll close the player pool. I think we used it last year to find the players to add to the draft board since it was easy to just click the players name to add. I can't remember what DD looks like right now but I thought there may have been a player search function that would serve this purpose as well isn't there?

 

[bjabrad]

freeconferencecall.com

wow!!! that is a cool tip. I checked it out and it says that it's free, 96 simultaneous users for an unlimited number of 6 hour sessions. They want a user name and email address. They make their money selling voice mail accounts and operator assisitance. Long distance charges apply and the area code to call in is 319. They also give you conference recording capability. Pretty cool deal except for the long distance charges to AC 319 which is Dubuqe, Iowa. Anybody else know or used this?

 

[buffburgo]

I think Yahoo Messenger has a voice option that lets you talk with a microphone. We did that 2 years back and it worked out well. Everyone could hear the remote guy (Portland, OR) and he could basically hear all of us through our mic.

If you have a guy who can't make the draft and he won't be near a PC to draft from Live, we have had guys in the past make up a presorted list, each posistion seperately, and give instructions on what position they'd like to draft for each round, and we have a "Designate Drafter" pick the team for the guy. It has worked out real well, to te point that one guy in our league does not like to draft Live anymore because his listed Teams have done better. The instructions also state which position should be drafted before another.

Example "Round 3: top 10WR, top 20RB, top 5QB, Gates" So that means he is asking, in Round 3, for the DD to pick a top 10WR 1st. If they aall gone from his list, then choose a top 20RB, if all gone go for a top5 QB, and if all of them are gone (meaning he would then have the 36th pick, choose Gates.

In the list option, we try to at least be in phone contact for the 1st Round pick.

 

[Man in the yellow hat]

freeconferencecall.com

wow!!! that is a cool tip. I checked it out and it says that it's free, 96 simultaneous users for an unlimited number of 6 hour sessions. They want a user name and email address. They make their money selling voice mail accounts and operator assisitance. Long distance charges apply and the area code to call in is 319. They also give you conference recording capability. Pretty cool deal except for the long distance charges to AC 319 which is Dubuqe, Iowa. Anybody else know or used this?

The way around the long distance charge is to use Skype. Calls to landlines are free until the end of the year with Skype. So, call the conference number using Skype, and voila. Truly free conference call.I haven't tried it, but it should work.

 

[simey]

The way around the long distance charge is to use Skype. Calls to landlines are free until the end of the year with Skype. So, call the conference number using Skype, and voila. Truly free conference call.I haven't tried it, but it should work.

as i posted a few post ups, we have used skype and it works great. we will use it again this year for those from out of town that can't be here. the sound quality is great too. we could even hear the guy in florida taking bong hits in the background.

 

[bjabrad]

The way around the long distance charge is to use Skype. Calls to landlines are free until the end of the year with Skype. So, call the conference number using Skype, and voila. Truly free conference call.I haven't tried it, but it should work.

as i posted a few post ups, we have used skype and it works great. we will use it again this year for those from out of town that can't be here. the sound quality is great too. we could even hear the guy in florida taking bong hits in the background.

Damn that has me laughing and remembering a fantasy football conference call in a mixed company league that involved my buddy taking the phone into the toilet and squirting like a race horse for what seemed like at least a minute. Shock Value!!!

 

[hove]

Long distance calls are always free when you call from work. We've used one of our meeting rooms in the evening after everyone went home. Used the conf phone to call out to multiple people - it's a big company so there wasn't any issues with the charge on the conf room phone.

 

[Ned]