ZOOM OUT!
 

I'm not too familiar with the inner workings of the camera crews and system, but I noticed many times they tend to zoom in on stuff that no one really cares to see. This was particularly evident on the screens inside the pit area at the championship. Due to the separation between pits and field, often times, these screens are the only matches students will get to see other than their own (or even of their own). Additionally, many students hope to do scouting from these screens. I recall one particular instance that triggered me to produce this thread: I was watching one of the Newton matches, and a robot fell on its back, and then BAM, I was looking at the wheel of a dead robot nearly 7 feet tall on this screen, for over 10 seconds while intense scoring was happening all over the rack. It was zoomed in so far I could have seen a grain of sand on the wheel. In this match, one robot I was trying to watch was shown only once, for a period of less than 5 seconds. I think the choice of where the camera is pointed and how far it is zoomed in needs to be reevaluated. Personally, I'd enjoy seeing a stationary view of the whole field. I have no need to see the stiches in a bumper, or the chain that fell off. Anyone agree?

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Well, from looking at the wide views, I don't think there's any way to really see anything intricate about the robots, which is what I'm usually looking for. I agree that there are too many shots that are too close to see action. I think the part that makes the videos the hardest to watch is that they switch cameras far too often for the big screen. I see a robot moving 5 feet, then they switch to the other side of the field. It makes the field seem disjointed, and I don't know of anybody who looks at the field with such rapid changes in focus. Because the screen switches too often, I'm often more confused when watching webcasts than when I'm on the ground level or in the stands. Even after several rewatchings of a match, it's very hard to tell what any particular robot is doing.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Exactly, FRC is not like Soccer that there is only one ball which is important. there are 6 active robots during the whole match.
I can't see anything from the matches.
on soap archives compare arizona regional videos with other regionals. The az archives are filmed by one of the team member, it looks way better than the rest

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

would having a smaller picture in the top corner of the screen with the whole field showing be good? maybe 20% of the total screen?
/forest

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

The reason there are a lot of close up shots in the pit feed and webcast is because they are just taking the feed from the big screen People field side don't need to see a wide angle of the playing field because they already can see it right in front of them. It may be possible to have a wide angle with close ups in the corner for the webcast and pit monitors but that requires a separate camera video feed and video mixer. hiring an extra video mixer per division will add up, believe me they get paid well.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

would it help to have the big screen stationary and never change it just view the entire field and have each of the 4 corners a separate camera with close ups and zooming in and out?

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I think this is a critical message that First needs to understand.

These videos are not just for people in the stands. They are webcast, broadcast, recorded to DVD's, teams use them for scouting...

Please tell the camera crews to stop flipping their camera on its side, or rolling it over and over for 5 or 10 seconds at a time. These matches are only 2 minutes long, and missing 15 seconds of it is analogous to missing 8 minutes of a hockey game. Can you imagine the reaction of the fans if the NFL decided to spin their cameras in circles instead of showing the game?

You don't have to have the whole field in view the whole time, but I've seen constant complaints regarding the amount of zooming in on robots, and I have to agree wholeheartedly. I know that my team, watching the webcast and trying to see what's actually happening, gets very irritated when the camera folks start trying to make it "more interesting".

On showing the DVD to several other folks to promote first, they've also commented on the fact that from the camera shots it's very, very difficult to tell what's going on because their view is so limited.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

you're right. if this were the NFL like first is supposed to be modeled after there would be companies competing to film and broadcast the matches with the highest clairty and best abilty to comprend the game. FootBall fans would be incredibly angry and would recive better. the Dolphins game does not do closeups of individual players durring play because the audiance is intrested in the ball.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I can't express enough how right you guys are. The video footage is horrible.

The camera guys should back up, get more than one part of one robot in view, and stop switching the camera views so much.

The game is exciting. Don't try to make it even more with the camera.

And don't even get me started on the trend to spin the camera upside down... OMG... I actually scream "STOP IT" at my computer screen when it happens. It drives me crazy...

[/rant]

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

In order to satisfy both the field viewers and the webcast viewers, FIRST would probably have to double its investment in video hardware. They'd need the whole pipeline of camera->mixer->webcaster for both the wide-field camera destined for the webcast and the close-in/interesting stuff destined for the back of the field.

You guys have to remember though: at a regional, there are probably going to be 40 teams, and at least 10 people from each team sitting at the field, watching. How many webcast viewers are there (I don't know, but I imagine it is less than 400)? How many people stand in front of the screens in front of the pit trying to see the match? Probably less than 10, continuously.

I think the best thing to do would be for one team to record the full field of each match with a high definition camcorder and distribute the videos afterwards via bittorrent. There are camcorders available within a team's budget, like this Sony 1080p model that records to a hard drive for $1800CDN. For a less crazy price, here is another one that does 1440x1080 (not real 1080p, but still very good) for $1200. My boss has the $1800 one and says he loves it, perhaps I can borrow it for the waterloo regional next year.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

We could always invest in 7 screens/cameras, one for each robot and one for the whole field :D . Then scouting from matches becomes easier, if you are watching a specific team it is easy, and you can still see everything!

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I think you're underestimating the number of people who watch the webcasts, particularly on Saturdays. I watched at least half of one regional per weekend when I wasn't competing. If there's only one person per team who does the same, you're looking at a couple thousand viewers, distributed across the one or two regionals that get webcast in a typical weekend. And that's not counting the parents and team members who couldn't make it to their regional, scouts, and people who teams have convinced to watch while trying to grow the community.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I have to disagree. I AM a webcast viewer at the events that I don't attend, and I get very annoyed with the camera work. Scoring is the important part of the game. Let's get the cameras focussed on that. If you want to focus on one side of the field, then do so, but single robot close-ups for more than a couple seconds (say as they score) do nothing but confuse.

Certainly, in a basketball or a footbal game there is only one ball to follow. That makes the camera guys job much easier. In this game there are 6 balls (each robot) and the camera folks have to try to keep all 6 in view for the game to make any sense!

How many of you have watched a webcast that they've "zoomed" in only to see at the end of the match that the entire other side of the rack is full, a robot is laying on it's side, and one is in the home zone with jammed ramps. You're left to wonder when the heck it all happened.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I wholeheartedly agree that something needs to be done about the way that the video is shot. I am one of those people who doesn't get out of the pits until eliminations, which means I watch all of my team's matches and any others I happen to find time for on the screen in the pits.

One memorable moment where I was disappointed was in one of our last matches of the day. They showed us beginning to attempt to climb up the ramp, but then suddenly switched to the other side to show the robots over on the other side of the field where nothing really was going on. They did not even switch back to the other side of the field after the match to show whether our attempt was successful or not; we had to wait for the match scores to be displayed to find that information out.

The camera shots were extremely irritating because of the complex nature of the rack; there are chains and pipes and tubes all over the place and zooming in on something on the side of the rack opposite the camera makes it really hard to figure out what is going on.

I think that if they could have one camera dedicated for the feeds to the pits (and possibly the webcasts) that simply showed a wide angle of the field, allowing people to see what is going on, it would be much better than their current system.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

He's not underestimating. I've done the webcasting for about a dozen events now and the largest audience we've had was this year's Midwest regional which topped out at about 200 viewers.

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Looking at it from an experienced FIRST participant and scout's point of view, then yes a constant zoomed out view of the entire field would be much better. I watch at regionals on weeks that our team is not competing on the webcasts and close ups of things that I don't care about are annoying for me.

HOWEVER, from the point of view of someone who has never been involved in FIRST and this is most likely their first time seeing robots in action then the views they use now are perfect. It would get EXTREMELY boring to watch grainy dots of robots from a stationary camera view for an entire match if your not already familiar with the game. It is also much better this way from a media standpoint, it makes for much better TV reports and video clips later. One of our local TV stations covered our progress at the Buckeye regional entirely off of interviews we did before we left and a satelite feed from FIRST of the action on the filed (what was shown on the screen).

It would be like watching NASCAR when the entire track is shown constantly. Yes when they zoom in on specific cars the people who are fans of the cars not shown get a little irked and I'm sure that the audience will miss someone passing someone somewhere on the track, but it is much more intense to see close ups of two cars toward the front going back and forth for position.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

This is why I think they should have a separate camera for the pits and one for the field. Like you said, the close ups make for some good highlight clips for television stations and promo videos. However, why should the people in the pits be kept from actually knowing what is going on out on the field?

If there was a dedicated camera for the pit feeds in addition to the current cameras, I think everyone would be happy.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I have heard slightly higher numbers from other regionals, but I agree that the number watching live probably isn't in the thousands.

However, the statistics exist:

• SOAP pushed out over a terabyte of data last month.
• The Blue Alliance has had almost 3500 unique visitors this month who have requested a total of over 35,000 matches.
• The Blue Alliance's Championship Division Breakdown was viewed over 6,000 times.

Video in FIRST is a major force.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I think these people are the same ones that shoot the concerts on PBS, or at least went to the same school to learn it. Zoom in on a guitar player's fingers, or jump back and forth between two closeups in time with the music beat, but never stay long enough to watch technique. Enough already! Show me the whole game, or maybe spllt-screen to the two ends. I'm not going to understand what's going on with the jumping about.

And another thing: what's with the 5 second shot of the final score? What's the hurry? Ya gotta date or something? It takes me that long to realize you finally posted the score, and the MC is long gone with the ref's explaination of the penalties, so why was red penalized?

Okay, one more. I only stayed in the Dome to watch our robot and a couple of games either side, so I can't complain too much (unlike our poor scouts), but show different "commercials" between games. They're acting like a 3rd rate tv station that has only one sponsor all day. There were 380 teams there, and even if they show 1/10th of the videos submitted by teams between games, that would be better rotation and more entertaining than seeing that slick video of a guy talking (sorry, I tuned it out, probably for the better, so I can't tell you what the sponsor was). At least we'd see all the submitted videos.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I'm not saying to back way up and set up a camera for the whole, or half a field. But, at least let me see the whole robot and any robots that are pushing it or something...

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Here's an example:

http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2...ur/cur_095.wmv

So, to start, the overall field is nice.

Then, auton starts and they focus right in on the keeper. Back-up a little and lets see the whole robot and a little around it. We want to see how the tube got there and we still get the excitement of it scoring.

Then tele-operated mode starts and it goes good for a second, but then they focus right in on the arm of the robot so close that the camera loses focus and the arm is in and out of the picture... This shot is absolutely useless.

Then we shoot back to the red alliance and a super close-up of some gripper trying to score a tube. Useless again...unless you just zoom out a bit and show us the robot.

Then, back to another super close-up of a tube being handled by the blue alliance.

Ok, a little better now... We actually see almost a whole robot at 59 seconds in...

Hey...they are zooming out and ... oh...no good to be true...back into a super close-up of the blue tube being scored. Why so close? Would I have missed it if zoomed out a little?

Back to the other side of the field and more super close up of the blue tube flying around on the screen...

Now...we get a super close-up of some electronics. That's great and everything, but why?

Hey...they are going to grab a spoiler!!! Oops... Maybe they got it...I don't know because they switched views...

Now some more close-ups of some parts of robots, but none of them totally in view...

Hey...a close-up of the black spoiler... I guess they got it...or is it another team that has it...I don't know because the spoiler fills the screen...

Ok...we almost get to see a little action as the spoiler is tried to be placed...

Some more close-ups of robots driving across the field... Although, I don't get to see the whole robots because they are so zoomed in...

Hey...they are going to start climbing a ramp...oh no's...they switched views to the other side climbing... Both zoomed way in so we can only see part of the picture...

Back to the other side just in time to see the first, then the second robot get on... Better, but it still should be zoomed out a little...

The close-ups at the end are OK because the action has stopped...

This is just my constructive criticism. Forgive my sarcasm and attempt at humor...

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I think that the trouble with the video footage is that there really isn't anything like FIRST that the camera operators could have had experience with. In sports, there is one ball, and if the director keeps picking the camera with the ball in it, then he'll do fine.

I have to admit, though, it's difficult for me to know where to place my gaze when I'm watching the game up close on the field. A good match gives you several places to look, each of which will typically exclude another robot that is probably also doing something interesting. I'd like to see what someone with video editing experience could do with all the available footage if he or she wasn't constrained to have the match run in real time. A 4 or 5 minute (or even a 1 or 2 minute) after the fact reconstruction of a match could be made very interesting, and useful.

Also, whomever had the idea of spinning the camera, I'm willing to forget that it ever happened, so long as you do too. That's how you film a lame 80's music video, not a world championship.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

How's this for covering the FIRST matches:

During the match, the full field camera feeds the webcast, NASA TV broadcast and pits.

The big screen behind the field can show all of the close-up, "artsy" views it wants.

Optional:
After the match (during field reset), the webcast, NASA TV, etc. can show "highlights" of the close-up action as well as the final score.

Would that work??

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I think this bring out a comedic theorem of webcast-viewing:
Theorem: Under no conditions is anything happening on-field more exciting than what your robot is doing
Corollary: A broken robot is more exciting to watch than the eventual championship winner, so long as that broken robot is yours
Corollary 2:The excitement level of a given frame of video footage is proportional to the percentage of pixels taken up by your robot

I never said that I supported the status quo, I was just pointing out my thinking that FIRST would have to invest quite a bit to satisfy the (relatively) not-many people who needed a wider-angle shot. Which is why I think a team or individual needs to take the initiative to record and distribute matches with a wide-angle shot, since FIRST is not likely to do it.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I've been a camera person at the IRI, and we usually try to point the camera where the most action is (for the benefit of those watching the webcast, since at the IRI the field is very close to the stands). We try to keep it wide enough to include multiple robots. Usually, we alternate between two close-up cameras and a wide shot. We try to do our best, but sometimes we miss an important event.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

The problem you guys may not seem to realize is doing all of these things take up a lot of resources. Sargent productions has a crew at every regional, for them to add more camera operators and or a video mixer is a lot of money. During weeks with a lot of regional's and a champs Sargents crew is already pretty spread thin, running 4 fields plus Einstein plus vex and FLL adds up to a lot of video people and equipment, adding another video mixer and video feed to each field doubles the amount of video mixers that are hired and doubles the amount of video equipment needed.

while a fair amount of people watch the webcasts i am not sure if it enough to justify the extra cost to FIRST, when running the NJ webcast the guy from NASA was very impressed we had over 100 people witch really isn't that much.

For all the people bashing Sargent productions cameramen should stop they are very well educated and every dedicated to first, many I have met have taken the time to remember me and ask about me and my team at other events when i see them.

P.S: If Steve is reading this I would love a job:D . hah

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Just zoom out...that's all we're asking... No extra resources needed. It should be even easier on the camera guys... You don't have to zoom all the way out to show the full, or half a field. Just don't zoom so close in that we all get motion sickness while we watch...

If you know the guys, then ask them. I know I'm going to make a point of talking to them at the next competition I'm at... Maybe they don't even know that a lot of us would rather see it a different way...

edit: And...just because they are educated and dedicated, doesn't mean they are doing the best job... I'm sure we can all improve with positive criticism.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I wonder.... it just occurred to me that perhaps the cameraman didn't have the scoring screen plastered across their camera so they saw twice as much as what we saw. That thing took up close to 25% of the screen....

Perhaps we could move to Just The Team (Blue / Red) and the scores on the screen, so that we can see more of the match?

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

To respond to AV_guy007:

Sorta like building a robot, huh?

At which they should be practicing like the rest of us, understanding the game, learning where the good camera shots are, knowing how to present a fast moving robot to people that don't want artsy photography.


Waitaminute -- they get paid? <raised-eyebrow smilie>

I'm sorry for sounding so snarky about this, but after watching FIRST videos for too many years one should expect improvement. Look, you got vet teams that are so good they have to change the robot rules in unexpectant ways to keep them in line with the newbies. And these are high school kids. Kids that managed in six weeks to build and ship a complex machine. And in spite of a 2" thick rulebook managed to find unexpected loopholes. And a professional video team can't present a game?

I grant you that it is difficult to keep the camera on the action. There is no singular "action" -- no ball, you might say, to keep an eye on. Even in football where you don't know which way the ball will go, you have to hope for the best. But unlike football where the action converges on the ball, the action here spreads out. Which means a whole-field shot.

Don Wright's example is typical, except he forgot to mention having an overall shot at the end. I don't know if the video was cut short at the end or what, but I would like to see the final carnage of all the robots.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I would like to make a comment on this based on my experiance as a ref. With 6 robots out there, there is the potential for action at 6 separate places on the field at the same time. It happens all the time, for two robots to be in a monumental struggle to score/prevent the score and all of a sudden a robot is on its back on the other side of the field. It is very hard, and I say impossible, for one person to be able to watch an active match and tell you what happened for each robot during the match. You get attracted to one action scene and miss another. (If you ever wondered why there were 8+ referees, you now know.) With selective shots of action and only one view available at a time, no group of people is going to be happy with all the choices of action made.

As for a static wide field view, thats most of what I saw on Thursdays webcast from Hotlanta. Some robots I just recognized, but otherwise I had a hard time just reading the team numbers on the scorecard, let alone on the robots themselves. I could see them pick of ringers fine, but couldn't tell who was doing it.

Wetzel

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

If you really, really, really want a whole field view all the time, I'm sure a team at most regionals can set up one camera so that is has the whole field in it's view the entire time. Then that can be posted (somewhere) later and everyone can watch the whole field or the other videos, depending on which they want to see.

I mean, it's just one camera, no one needs to really man it, and life is good :) .

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

That would work for scouting purposes, but all of us stuck in the pits for the majority of the competition would still like to at least know what's going on during the match, instead of seeing close-ups of electronics, manipulators, drive trains, tubes, etc.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

why don't they get 1 stationary camera that captures the whole field and record that one along with sending it to the pits etc. then have the 2 other cameras for the big screen. then for the web cast. inlay a small video 'thumbnail' type thing in the top left quarter of the screen. and the close up shots for the rest of the screen. you don't need anymore crew. and the video mixing should be possible with their equipment. also the feed that they let you plug you VCR, DVD recorders, etc into can have 2 different outputs .... the whole field. and the web cast feed.

problem solved
/forest

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

We should stop messing around with NTSC, digital or not.
We need a 1080p record of the field, broadside. It would
provide a nice archive of the matches and probably a nice
display of matches in the pits at the champinship event.

Eugene

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Alright... Here is my theory... and something you all have to understand.

At Championships, the video is broadcast on NASA TV... even though FIRSTers love the full field, it does get a bit boring. Especially to a channel that is trying to get viewership and people interested in FIRST... people at home love crashing and tipping and seeing things that they normally wouldn't. That is why things like Robot Wars are so successful. Yes I do know we are not robot wars, but FIRST and NASATV are trying to gain viewership.

By showing things close up it also enhances the viewers experience by creating a bond between the machines and the viewers. It also creates a sort of anticipation to see the next camera angle, something that will keep them watching. I can tell you that my classmates who watched the NASATV broadcast found it a lot more interesting than the static shots I had on my camera.

-Kelli

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

i really wish next year at championships you could zoom in on the feild on the live feed because i couldn't see that well.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I do not think many people protest to the fact that the best action for someone unfamiliar with FIRST would be to watch a robot up close “strutting its stuff”. What people are complaining about is that for our [FIRST veterans] purposes, the zooming in does us no good. Although these two ideas of how cameras should be zoomed/paned/tilted is something that we would like changed there is a possible solution. How many cameras are at the regionals? I saw at least two on the floor and one sitting up high in the stands. Let’s utilize our resources. If we could have a small section of the screen, not even 1/2 or 1/4 of the entire screen, just a small section of the screen that would stay consistent I can guarantee more than half of the complaints would be gone.

Example of what I’m talking about:
|------------|
|------------|
|------------|
|-----|------|
|-----|------|
|-----|------|



Pavan.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

This "picture-in-picture" would be great for TV broadcast - especially Discovery Channel HD!! :D

BTW, I'm 1080p ready too! I'm waiting for something special from Dave's next (big) car on Mars...

It would work well even for standard definition TV, but it might be too few pixels for webcast. Oh, that's right, we'll just have a dedicated full-field webcast channel available! ;)

It's OK to dream, isn't it??

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Sorry to bring this thread back up, but I didn't know I had a reputation list, let alone have comments there to my comments here. Here is a "reputation comment" about what I said here:

Since I don't see any good debating using PM's when we've been doing this thread in public, I'll respond here.

Yes, the video crew does a good job. That is their job, to report what is happening on the field. What the OP is saying (and I'm agreeing with) is that we don't want "artsy" video, or worse, dead air (or the video equivalent) -- just the facts, Ma'am. A shot of a quarterback throwing the ball, with no shot of the receiver making a touchdown would be deadly TV. Why can't we expect the same?

The video crew does not need a "complete strategic understanding" of what is important. Certainly no one else did. Yes, we all came to the game with an idea of what we thought works. Then the cold clear reality of Thursday's practice day shows what really is important. If the video crews weren't at one of the many regionals, they at least had Thursday's practice day to watch the game and realize (or, hopefully, were told by someone at FIRST) that A, B and C may or may not happen, and keep a camera on them. Or, like I said above,

Hopefully the person in charge of hiring the video crews will read this thread and decide that maybe we have a good point and repeat it to the video crew. And as they are professionals, they will understand what is needed and adjust accordingly for the next time.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Watching the webcasts, this is a problem once again this year. I don't want to see the drivers' faces. I don't want to see joysticks moving back and forth. I don't want to see a single robot in a corner of the field for 15 seconds. I want to see all the action, at the same time. Please, PLEASE ZOOM OUT!

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Not to call you out, but I'm pretty puzzled as to why some people are still replying to this thread without reading it first. If you want to see all of the action at the same time, you should be sitting in the stands. The video crew is being paid to produce video catered to people who can *already* see all the action at the same time. It shouldn't be surprising that the webcast doesn't give the full picture of what's going on, but when I can't be at an event in person, I think it's great that I'm still able to get some idea of what's going on.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

At our regional today, they zoomed in on a single label on our robot labeled "pressure relief". It took up the entire screen for quite a while... not exciting, even to people who can see the whole field. I find drivers, broken robots, and other close-ups of any teams/robots to be great... but a single label? Not so exciting.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Maybe the cameraman thought your robot would "blow off some steam"??

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

After watching this year's webcasts so far, I feel the need to bring this thread up again. I don't recall which events specifically, but some were downright painful to watch. The scoring is on each end of the field. Don't show me the middle, don't show me a robot spinning in circles, or bashing itself into the wall in a lack of control. I want to see the scoring, and I want to see the defense. It does me little good to see a ball kicked but not where it ends up. So, once again, for 2010,

ZOOM OUT!

This is a game that really lends itself to a view of the ENTIRE field. There are not really very many intricate or interesting mechanisms or manipulations going on here. The positions and movements of all the robots on the field is far more interesting than what one particular robot is doing at an area not anywhere near a goal. If nothing is happening anywhere on the field, fine, zoom in for two seconds. But to miss 5/6 of the action to show one robot spinning its tires is ridiculous.

Anyone agree?

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Yes, I have always been disgusted by the video of these matches. there is so much more going on that they miss.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

a wholehearted YES!!!!

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

The video is primarily for the big screen at the competition itself. The spectators can already see the whole field by not looking at the screen. The view the webcast viewers want is completely useless for the people at the event.

The only reasonable way to resolve this conflict of preferences is to not use the normal AV feed and instead have a totally separate camera view for the webcast.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I think the live feed should should be a simple birds eye view of the rack in the center of the field. :rolleyes:

Seriously though, I think the best solution would be for a team to set up a stationary camera in the stands, broadcast a low-res live feed, and later publish a full-res archive. I'm sure that this already happens at some tournaments, maybe we just need a group like TBA to organize it and pull things together.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I can't imagine why you keep reviving this thread when the answer has been the same every time.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I spent an agonizing minute and a half wondering if our robot was even driving at all in one match where there was a chance of field issues, since I was behind the curtain watching the screen.

I completely agree. This game needs to be digested with a full field shot.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Webcast for Northstar will almost certainly be the standard house stream, but I'll see what I can do about getting my camera in a decent spot and getting someone to tend it for archiving. We will also be archiving the house feed (hopefully at full 640x480 with a fairly high bitrate) so if I don't end up getting my camera set up or if it doesn't turn out well for whatever reason there will be a backup option.

10k Lakes will be house feed for both webcast and archiving.

The bottom line is that the house feed is always going to zoom in on things we find bizarre unless you get camera operators that know and understand the game (which is never going to happen).

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

Personnaly, I would like to see a camera above the field looking down on the field showing the whole field all during the match.

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

I know some people on here say that the camera is for people already at the event, which is true, but it is very hard to see sometimes (especially in the finals at Peachtree) what is going on when everyone in the stands is practically standing and there isn't anything really for me to stand on (which could potentially block the view of people behind me as well). In this case I am forced to look between people just to peek at the screen which often shows just one robot and then the crowd yells/cheers and I'm not sure what they're talking about for another 5-10 seconds until the camera guy switches over. It can be difficult at times to see what is going on.

Though I did see one thing this weekend watching the Florida Regional I believe it was where they had the overhead camera like every regional does, but they also had a camera behind the drivers that was able to view all the field. It was interesting to see the different perspectives, which I can't say was great all the time, but it was nice to see something different.

-Tanner

Re: ZOOM OUT!
 

its not like it actually matters this year unless you are archiving the webcasts yourself. or trying to watch from home. OH WAIT what am i saying? Comeon FIRST, its the same Pet Peve that i've always had with the footage. I admit that they have improved by cutting in more broad areal shots but the timeing is still horrible.