[EricH]

Originally Posted by chris janney

this year, we intend on using the pits as a workplace, and using somewhere in the stands to have a PR stand. Also we want to stream the competition live over the internet and wanted some advice from the teams that have don that in the past.

Depending on your target audience for the PR, that could be a bad idea. If the PR is aimed at scouts, judges, and other team members, they will go straight to your pit if they want to pick stuff like that up, or talk to team members. Having to go clear to the stands for that sort of thing is not going to make them terribly happy. OTOH, if your target audience is the general public (i.e., visitors, VIPs, people who don't want to go to the pits), then having your PR in the stands is a good idea. They're likely to see it on their way in.

If I were you, if I did go that route, I'd put some PR material and one PR person in the pit and the rest elsewhere. That way, all your bases are covered.

If you're looking at streaming, I would also advise recording; The Blue Alliance is always looking for videos of competition. There's typically an A/V drop behind the curtain somewhere that you can connect to. Be advised that you'll need an internet connection, and sometimes there isn't one. (Case in point: Colorado last year had about one update to the FIRST site all competition, and that gets priority on venue connections. I think it took about a week for them to get all the data up.)