School District Bringing Graduation to the Internet
By Robin Vinci | Editor at June 8, 2024 | 2:15 pm | Print
Whether or not you can physically attend the New Britain High School graduation on June 16 this year, you can see all the activities live and much more.
Matthew Cannata, school board public relations specialist, is setting up many different types of Internet views for the public using social media.
“Anyone not there can still experience it. You can view it first person or third person,” Cannata said. “We are going to do a myriad of different things and I don’t think there is one school district in the United States that is doing all of this for any type of event they may be doing.”
The first thing is a live stream on the consolidated school district website. It will be a high quality production and is the first time the school district is doing it. It will be shot from the press box with a view of the field and high quality sound. It will begin with graduation at 4 p.m. The link to view it is csdnb.org/2017.
There will be a Facebook Live with a camera on a graduate’s cap. It will begin at the high school, show the march down to the field and the graduation ceremony.
“Anybody watching on the CSDNB Facebook account can experience graduation first person through the lens of one of the students,” said Cannata. “You can have both views on split screens if you want to for a first person view or a third person view.”
The school is asking people to use #NBHSCT2017 to share twitter photos. At the end of the day all the photos will be compiled into one photo album. It will be done by the end of the day.
People can also submit their cell phone videos taken from the stands. The school district will piece the videos to create a video montage in the next few weeks.
“It will be a cool neat little video, but in the eyes of the people in the stands,” said Cannata. “It is what they are seeing for their graduates. We will piece everything together that way. It is something new this year.”
GoPro cameras are being attached to various graduates on top of their caps. They will show the students walking across the stage to receive their diplomas and more. There will be 10-15 students using the GoPro.
“That will be included in our professional video montage. Anyone who does not see Facebook live, but sees the video (which will be there forever) will get the experience of seeing it first person,” said Cannata.
There will also be Snapchat geo filters. The snapchat can put different filters and locations on filters. A geo filter will be on place in the field. The filter will say NBHS Class of 2017. It is only available for those in Veterans Stadium.
“We are also going to have a drone up in the air at different points during graduation to get aerial footage for our post production works,” said Cannata. “We are making an electronic version available for the people who can’t make it.”
The goal is to bring engagement to families and bring graduation to everyone.
“School districts do live streams, but no one as in-depth as us,” Cannata added. “I have a small army helping me out.”
The yearly photo album and photo album of caps will also be available.
