HometownLive for School Districts — Multi-School Streaming FAQ

These answers are written for district-level decision makers — superintendents, assistant superintendents for curriculum and technology, district technology directors, and athletic directors overseeing multiple campuses. District purchasing is different from a single-school decision: you are evaluating a platform across multiple buildings, multiple staffing situations, multiple budgets, and potentially different levels of technical readiness at each campus.

HometownLive is designed to support both the school-level independence that makes athletic programs feel local and the district-level oversight and efficiency that administrators need. These questions address how that works in practice.

If you do not find what you need, use the Contact Us form at platform.hometownlive.tv to reach HometownLive directly.

District Contracts and Purchasing

Can a school district purchase HometownLive for multiple schools under one contract?

Yes. HometownLive offers district-wide licensing that covers multiple schools under a single agreement. Rather than each school negotiating and billing independently, the district executes one contract and HometownLive provisions each campus as part of that agreement.

Benefits of a district contract:

• Consolidated billing — one invoice, one renewal date, one procurement process
• Volume pricing — bundling multiple campuses under one agreement typically reduces the per-school cost compared to individual school pricing
• Coordinated onboarding — HometownLive works with the district's designated technical coordinator to deploy across campuses efficiently
• Standardized support relationship — the district has a single point of contact with HometownLive for contract, billing, and escalation questions

Contact hometownlive.tv to request a district-level demo and pricing discussion.

How does pricing work for district-wide deployment?

District pricing is custom-quoted based on the number of campuses and the number of channels needed at each campus. Individual school pricing starts at approximately $2,995/year for 2 channels and approximately $4,500/year for 4 channels. Bundling multiple schools under a district agreement typically reduces the per-campus cost.

Factors that affect district pricing:

• Number of schools in the agreement
• Number of channels per campus (2-channel vs. 4-channel)
• Whether all schools deploy simultaneously or in phases
• Any district-level support or custom integration requirements

To get an accurate quote, contact HometownLive with your district's total school count, approximate enrollment by campus, and which sports and event types you plan to stream. The sales team can build a proposal tailored to your district's configuration.

Tip: Many districts find it useful to pilot HometownLive at one or two schools before committing to a full district deployment. A pilot lets your technology and athletic staff gain experience with the platform before training staff across every campus.

Branding and School Identity

Can each school have its own branded channel and identity under the district contract?

Yes. Each school in the district gets its own fully independent HometownLive platform — its own branded page, its own channel names, its own content, and its own administrative panel. The district contract is a billing and provisioning structure; it does not create a shared platform where all schools appear together.

What each campus controls independently:

• School name, logo, and color scheme on their platform page
• Channel names and thumbnails
• Event listings, descriptions, and access types (free vs. PPV)
• Home page layout and featured content
• Blog and community news content

A family watching Westfield High School on HometownLive sees only Westfield's content — not a district directory of all schools. Each school maintains its own community identity on its own branded platform, consistent with how fans experience school sports in person.

See Home Management for the home page configuration options available to each campus.

Administration and Account Management

Who manages the HometownLive account — district IT or each school's AV team?

Both are supported. HometownLive provisions admin accounts based on how your district wants to structure responsibility:

• School-level admin accounts — each campus's AV coordinator, student broadcast director, or athletic office staff manage their own platform independently. This is the most common configuration.
• District-level oversight access — district administrators can be provisioned with access to review platform configuration at individual schools. Contact HometownLive during setup to discuss what oversight visibility is needed.

In most districts, the practical answer is that school-level staff do the day-to-day work — creating events, managing channels, reviewing analytics — while district IT coordinates initial deployment, billing, and any escalation questions with HometownLive directly.

See Users and Plans for the user management model on individual school platforms.

Can district administration see all campuses from one centralized dashboard?

Each school platform has its own admin panel. A single unified dashboard showing all campuses simultaneously is not a standard feature — contact HometownLive to discuss multi-campus visibility options for your district's specific oversight needs.

What district administrators typically do in practice:

• Review analytics for individual schools by logging into each campus's admin panel when needed
• Receive summary reporting from campus AV leads or athletic directors on a cadence that works for your district
• Use the district's designated HometownLive contact to escalate any platform or billing questions

Tip: Designate a district-level technology coordinator as the primary HometownLive contact for your district. This person coordinates onboarding, handles contract and billing questions, and serves as the escalation point when school-level staff need support beyond the user manual.

Privacy and Content Control

How does HometownLive handle student privacy and FERPA compliance?

HometownLive streams live athletic events, fine arts performances, graduation ceremonies, and other public school programming. The platform itself does not collect or store student educational records — it is a video streaming and content management platform, not a student information system.

How FERPA considerations apply to streaming:

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) restricts the disclosure of personally identifiable information from student education records — it does not generally prohibit streaming of public events such as athletic contests or public performances. However, the specific application depends on your district's policies, state law, and the nature of the content being streamed.

Your district is responsible for:

• Determining which events are appropriate to stream publicly
• Ensuring any content restrictions required by your district policy or state law are enforced using HometownLive's access controls
• Obtaining any parental consents required by your district for broadcasting minors

What HometownLive provides:

• Access type controls so events can be made public, PPV-gated, or hidden entirely
• No audience data sharing beyond what is needed to operate the platform
• No sale of viewer data to third parties

Consult your district's legal counsel and privacy officer to confirm how your district's streaming policy applies to HometownLive events.

Can we control which events go public versus restricted to district families only?

Yes. Each event on HometownLive has an access type that controls who can watch it:

• Free — publicly accessible to anyone without logging in. This is the standard configuration for athletic events and public performances.
• Paid (PPV) — requires viewers to create an account and purchase access. Works as a de facto gate for events where you want controlled access without fully hiding the content.
• Inactive — the event is hidden from all viewers. Use this for events that are not ready to be published, or for events you want to archive without public access.

There is no native geographic restriction — HometownLive does not support blocking viewers by zip code or IP range. If limiting access to your district community is important, PPV acts as a practical gate because it requires account creation and payment before viewing.

See Events for configuring access types on individual events.

Technology Integration

How does HometownLive integrate with existing district technology?

HometownLive is a cloud-hosted SaaS platform — there is no on-premises server to install, no district network infrastructure to modify, and no IT-managed software deployment. This keeps the technology footprint small for district IT teams.

Streaming integration:

HometownLive accepts streams via standard RTMP protocol, which is compatible with:

• OBS Studio (free, software-based)
• Hardware encoders (Teradek, Kiloview, and similar)
• TKDS streaming appliances
• Most school AV production switchers with RTMP output

If your school already has an encoder or software streaming setup, it very likely works with HometownLive without modification.

District technology stack integration:

System	Integration status
Student Information System (SIS)	Not integrated — HometownLive is standalone
District SSO (Google, Microsoft)	Not a standard feature — contact HometownLive
Learning Management System (LMS)	Not integrated — content links can be shared manually
District website	Event links can be embedded or linked from your website

For districts that need specific integration with existing SSO or identity management systems, contact HometownLive during the sales process to discuss what is possible.

Tip: Most district IT teams find HometownLive requires minimal involvement after initial provisioning. The platform is managed by athletic and AV staff, not IT, which keeps it off the IT support queue. The main IT touchpoint is confirming that school network firewall rules allow RTMP outbound traffic on port 1935.

Does HometownLive require any specific network configuration at school buildings?

HometownLive streaming requires outbound RTMP traffic on port 1935 from your encoder to the internet. In most districts, this port is already open. If your district uses a restrictive firewall policy, confirm with your network administrator that outbound RTMP is permitted from the AV/broadcasting network segment or VLAN.

For viewer access, HometownLive runs on standard HTTPS (port 443) — no special viewer-side configuration is needed.

Deployment and Support

What support is available for district-wide deployment?

HometownLive provides onboarding support for each campus, including:

• Platform provisioning — HometownLive sets up each school's branded platform with the school's name, colors, and logo
• Staff training — remote or guided training for each campus's streaming team or AV coordinator
• Test stream — a verified test stream before each campus's first live event
• Ongoing support — access to the user manual, the Contact Us form, and HometownLive's support team for post-launch questions

For district deployments, HometownLive coordinates rollout with the district's designated technical contact so each campus is set up correctly rather than each school individually troubleshooting setup on their own.

See Introduction and Getting Started for the full onboarding reference.

How long does it take to get all district campuses up and running?

Individual campuses are typically operational within a few days of signing. For multi-campus district deployments, the timeline depends on the number of schools and scheduling availability for training sessions.

Typical district deployment timeline:

Phase	Duration
Contract execution and provisioning kickoff	1–2 business days
Platform setup per campus (branding, channels, settings)	2–5 business days per campus, run in parallel
Staff training per campus	1–2 hours per campus via remote session
Test stream per campus	Scheduled around staff and event availability
Full district operational	2–4 weeks for most districts

For districts deploying before the start of fall sports, contact HometownLive as early in the summer as possible. August timelines are achievable — but provisioning, training, and test streams across multiple campuses take coordination, and earlier is always better.

Partial and Flexible Deployment

Can some schools in the district use HometownLive while others don't?

Yes. HometownLive does not require all district schools to participate. A partial deployment is a common starting point — districts often pilot with one or two schools, confirm the platform meets their needs, then expand to additional campuses in subsequent years.

Reasons districts start with a subset of schools:

• Budget sequencing — spreading the cost across fiscal years by adding schools annually
• Technical readiness — starting with schools that already have AV infrastructure and trained staff
• Pilot evaluation — testing the platform before committing district-wide
• Interest level — prioritizing schools whose athletic or activities programs have the highest community demand for streaming

Schools that are not yet on HometownLive are unaffected by the district contract and can be added at any time.

What happens if a school leaves the district or a new school is added?

Adding a school: Contact HometownLive support to add a campus to your district agreement. Provisioning a new branded platform for an additional campus typically takes a few days. Pricing for the additional campus is handled as a contract amendment or at renewal, depending on your agreement structure.

Removing a school: If a school closes, consolidates into another campus, or exits the district, contact HometownLive to remove the school from your billing arrangement. The school's content archive and platform can be preserved or deactivated based on your district's preference. Billing adjustments are typically processed at the next renewal cycle unless your agreement specifies otherwise.

For mid-year changes, contact HometownLive directly rather than waiting for renewal — the support team can advise on the cleanest path based on your contract structure.