Marietta Public Schools has its own YouTube channel, but you won’t find any music or how-to videos there. Instead, the district uses the channel to livestream important school events that parents, grandparents, and friends might otherwise miss.

“About six or seven yeas ago, we had a big senior class and the weather drove graduation indoors,” said school Technology Director Nate Jackson. “We knew that we couldn’t seat everyone in the auditorium, so I signed up for a free 30-day trial that would allow us to livestream graduation so that those who couldn’t get in the auditorium could still see graduation. This YouTube channel evolved from that.”

Jackson remembers that for the next two or three years, he would sign up for a free trial using a different email address every year because the subscription cost north of $2,000 and livestreaming was then only used for the high school graduation.

“That was back before YouTube Live was around and we didn’t have the ability to show videos as if you were broadcasting them,” he said. “Used to, the only way you could do YouTube videos was to record them, save, upload, and then YouTube would render them, and you could watch them a few hours later. Now, YouTube gives the ability to almost livestream – there’s about a five second delay, but essentially, it’s live.”

This gives people the experience of “being present” at an event when they can’t be present.

Using the YouTube channel, the school has recently streamed awards assemblies and plans to stream graduation.

“Sometimes people have issues with their jobs, their health, or they’re just too far to travel, but today we streamed the elementary awards assembly,” he said of the Monday, May 16 event. “That way family members who couldn’t be there could still watch.”

Jackson said the school has the capability to use camera positioning to make for a better viewing experience.

“Most livestreams of school events are on a single view that doesn’t change,” said Jackson. “It’s a huge wide shot so you can’t see facial expressions or details. We use the camera to zoom in on things, people speaking, for instance. Sometimes we catch some really great moments and it’s cool that we can capture those things. Viewers can see things up closely that some people sitting in the audience can’t see, and that makes our livestream one of the best seats in the house.”

One of the best things about the YouTube channel is that the videos are archived so that in the future, people can go back and view them.

To watch a livestream of one of this year’s special end-of-year events, go to YouTube and search Marietta Public Schools.

“This came out of necessity,” Jackson stated, “but there are a lot of possibilities for the future.”