Blinding lights at Championships

[Joe Johnson]

Open letter to FIRST,
Stop blinding the audience at the Championships!
My retinas can't take much more.

I'm not sure what you think you're doing, but trust me, you're doing it wrong.

Sincerely,
Dr. Joe J

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Agreed. Lights are cooland awesome but not like this. Between this and the huge delays, I'm quite disappointed. I guess since I've never run an event to this scale I wouldn't know but what could possibly be creating these delays?

[BJT]

Yes! definitely too much.

[sanddrag]

Agreed. Nailing the programming on the lights 100% is a tricky thing, and they did look really good, but a few times I felt like I should be wearing my welding helmet.

[vSavage]

Blinding lights are the least of our worries at competition...

[protoserge]

Put it in the survey. Things like this need to be brought up with the A/V crew.

[Dunngeon]

Put it in the survey. Things like this need to be brought up with the A/V crew.

They should just have the PNW A/V crew for streaming..... The stream quality we have at the Championships of a technology challenge is horrendous.

[Jay O'Donnell]

The lights were definitely way too bright, and honestly don't add anything to the experience. I fail to see why I should have to look away from te field in between matches.

[Evan W]

I liked the lights

[protoserge]

They should just have the PNW A/V crew for streaming..... The stream quality we have at the Championships of a technology challenge is horrendous.

The A/V crew is responsible for the lights, backdrops, speakers, video projection, coordinating with the Scorekeeper to show FMS-generated output (match scores, live score, timeouts), etc. I don't know if CMP webcasts are part of their contract or if a volunteer manages the switches.

In the survey be sure to place your approximate position in the stands if you had a problem with the lights.

[EricLeifermann]

We had 2 students get sick during closing ceremonies from the 3 days of constant flashing lights.

[Wayne TenBrink]

I agree that the spotlights were too much. However, I was more annoyed by the dim lighting in the stands. It made it very difficult to read and record scouting data.

A robotics competition is not like a concert or a theatrical event. Although, the action on the floor is the focus of attention, the people in the stands are not mere spectators who are there to be entertained. They are part of the action and have a job to do as well. It would help if they could see what they are doing.

[Sperkowsky]

I agree that the spotlights were too much. However, I was more annoyed by the dim lighting in the stands. It made it very difficult to read and record scouting data.

A robotics competition is not like a concert or a theatrical event. Although, the action on the floor is the focus of attention, the people in the stands are not mere spectators who are there to be entertained. They are part of the action and have a job to do as well. It would help if they could see what they are doing.
Especially at cmp when there are less parents and realatives in attendence and more students. Maybe they should use box seating as a place for scouts to get their work done.

[Brad Hanel]

You must be mistaken, as team 5433 was not at championships.

[The other Gabe]

Especially at cmp when there are less parents and realatives in attendence and more students. Maybe they should use box seating as a place for scouts to get their work done.

box seating would have been really annoying for my team... we had only 3 dedicated scouts, the rest were pit crew on break. they had to do enough walking with us being on Curie