[artdutra04]

Technology (especially with computers and the Internet) is rapidly evolving, and sometimes we forget how only a few years ago, certain things we now take for granted were not easy for the average person to accomplish.

Remember, YouTube was only invented in 2006. Prior to that, it was really difficult to share video on the Internet - there really weren't any easy ways to share video online unless you uploaded a WMV or Quicktime video file to your own web server. The videos that were shared generally were only online for a season or two before they were deleted from their team's web server* for one reason or another.

On top of that, videos recorded from a camera on a tripod at the event were likely recorded on MiniDV or Hi8 tapes in the pre-2007 era. Capturing video from these formats to digital required a Firewire connection and video editing software, and was a time consuming process. Capturing webcasts then was also not likely to yield useful video, since most webcasts were only streamed at 240x160 or 320x240 pixels with awful compression due to bandwidth and computer processor (for transcoding) limitations.


* Before The Blue Alliance, there used to be a lot of match videos on the SOAP 108 website in WMV format, but the last of its various incarnations went offline several years ago.