[skippy178]

Just use a Comcast set-top box remote or similar "learning" remote.

With the Comcast remote, you can set up what brand of TV it is talking to, from a huge list (provided on paper when you get the set top box). There are probably a hundred or so variants listed.

As long as each team on the field selects a different one, and there is some way of co-ordinating the "available" variants, then it shouldn't be a problem with on-field interference.

It would be a similar situation to what you see at a radio control flying field, where each model operator takes a "frequency flag" from a pole to reserve that frequency for their transmitter / receiver pair.

Hopefully FIRST comes up with a way of pre-assigning teams to certain IR codes BEFORE they hit the playing fields.

As for the range of the IR, it would be simple to create an "IR repeater" that boosts the transmit range via an IR receiver and a set of IR diodes. I'm sure there'd be a kit or two on the internet via a Google search.

Years ago, I had an IBM PCjr which had an IR keyboard link, and I could bounce that signal off the back of my bedroom wall or roof and still get reliable typing on my PC screen. While the IBM PCjr was a market failure, in my opinion the IR keyboard worked incredibly well.

Happy building.