Introducing The Cloud Sports Network - Flipbook - Page 9
LGBTQ and ally athletes playing in a GayKickball.com tournament, the
California Classic in 2019, as seen on the Cloud Sports Network.
Roman Jimenez is an award-winning journalist
who has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Today
Show, Good Morning America, and dozens of
local television and radio news outlets.
skills between them, to make it happen. What
they couldn’t have known was just how bit that
appetite is — or that they were about to launch
the LGBT version of ESPN.
Mitchell Barnes is an electronics and networking
expert with a degree in Electrical Engineering from
Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts,
one of the most prestigious scientific research
schools in the country.
With Roman’s broadcast experience and
Mitchell’s significant networking and computer
science skills, they took a leap and set about to
change the face of LGBT sports forever. Eventually
Cloud Sports Network was born. With the help of
some early believers, we launched the first ever
professional broadcast of the Women’s Softball
World Series, produced by ASANA in 2018. We
introduced a broadcast model that has become
our staple, regardless of the sport: multiple camera
angles, on-field microphones, on-screen graphics,
professional broadcasters and even instant replay
technology! A Cloud Sports Network broadcast is
the closest thing to being there that you can get.
The two are very close friends and softball
teammates who share a deep and abiding love
for sports.
With the creation of social media live-streaming,
in recent years Roman and Mitchell noticed
players haphazardly tying phones to backstops
at tournaments in an attempt to live-stream
their games, giving no context about scores,
opponents, or who the other players were.
Knowing the passionate community that revolves
around amateur sports, particularly those in the
LGBT sphere, the pair knew there was an appetite
for broadcasted LGBT sporting events. More to
the point, they knew they had the right set of
In 2019, the first full calendar year since the launch
of CSN, over 200,000 viewers tuned in to watch
LGBTQ and ally athletes play softball, kickball and
flag football at tournaments from California and
Nevada to Colorado and Missouri.
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