With just hours before the friendlies kick off, we’d like to let you know about some of the upcoming changes to our online media this season that you can look forward to.

Rovers fans are lucky to have one of the best media offerings in the Championship, and the content is frequently praised by other clubs and their fans. The media team are continually pushing forward with new developments to keep fans entertained and in the know, wherever they are. It’s all produced by fans who give up their time freely to support the club.

Raith Rovers Abroad

For the past three and a half years, Raith Rovers Abroad has been the live streaming side of the media operation – bringing people all over the World live action from Stark’s Park. Initially, the service provided audio-only commentary, but live video streaming from Stark’s Park was introduced in 2013. If you can’t make it to the ground on matchday, it’s the second-best place to be. As well as live audio/video, you can also get text updates and chat with other fans around the World. It also provides an audio-only feed from selected away games.

New video cable being installed

When the service added a video feed, there were some significant hurdles that meant the team couldn’t always provide the picture quality they wanted.

Over the past year, they’ve have been working to resolve these issues – including installing much faster broadband, and buying a new high-spec laptop. The last issue was in getting the video feed across from the camera in the Railway Stand to the Main Stand.

Up until now, a radio link had been used, but this was prone to interference. With the pitch being relaid at the start of the summer, the team took the opportunity to have a cable buried right through the centre of the pitch before the grass was sown. This was arranged at short notice, and the entire half-metre trench was dug, tube buried, trench refilled and cable fed through – all within a matter of hours! Thanks are due to Greentech Sportsturf and the ground crew at Stark’s Park for making this possible.

With an improved video service, the RRA team decided to use this occasion to bring in some other improvements. The team met at the end of the season to review the service and how it fitted in with the wider media set up. Feedback has shown that some find the “Abroad” reference in the name confusing; either thinking that it’s some sort of ex-pat supporters club, or not realising that (with the exception of the video feed) you can still get the service within the UK. Most users of the service are actually in the UK (just not local).

As it’s the same people bringing you RaithTV and Raith Rovers Abroad, it made sense to bring the two together under one name.

So, the new service is being launched today – RaithTV Live – and this will replace Raith Rovers Abroad.

There’s a new website – www.raith.tv – which will also include the highlights, interviews and other content from RaithTV.

We’re obviously keen to get as many new subscribers as possible, so early-bird prices are just £20 for an audio-only season pass, and £50 for video (only available outside the UK & Ireland). That’s exceptionally good value. As an extra bonus, the audio-only season pass includes live video of the home friendlies (including those within the UK).

To find out more, or sign up, just go to www.raith.tv. Raith Rovers Abroad users can still use their existing usernames and passwords to access the service.

We hope you like the new-look service, and will join Davie, Brian, Neil, Niall, Steven and Lyle on Saturday.

RaithTV

We have new editing software for the match highlights packages, and we’ll also be making more use of GoalCam which we experimented with last season, so you can look forward to improved coverage.

Twitter

We’re changing a couple of our twitter account names:
@RRFCLive (feed of the match updates) will become @RRFCUpdates
@RoversAbroad becomes @RaithTV

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