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Re: Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage
Well we were sending the webcast at about 250kbps and it looked good comming back to us from our website. There are a few things I can suggest going forward
1) Play Window Media Video Content in Windows Media Player. If your having issues with another player dont blame it on the webcast. I do global webcasts for companies with several hundred thousand employees, I know what I'm doing. If I want to watch real content I know I will get best results in Real Player, QT content in QT player, and Flash content in a Flash player application. Though other players like VLC seem to handle multiple types of files, you are adding something different to the mix when you streaming from video servers. Its no longer just a codec/player question, there is communication betweeen the player and the server as well.
2) The video is a standard 320x240 window. I played my at 200 percent and it still held up fine if you do somthing crazy like blow it up to full screen and expect it to look like it does at 100% then please dont blame it on the webcast. I could send out a 600k stream but only half of you would be able to see it as we have to limit the number of connections based on bandwidth. So I figure its less selfish and more gracious to allow more people to watch the files than to have half as many. So we may push the quality to 300kbps for the regional, but we are trying to host for the entire first community so please keep that in mind.
3) somebody talked about projecting it... again you take a small file and blow it up, you lose quality. So please dont fuss if thats what you are doing.
4) thank you to all those who watched it.
Before somone says, but we always play full screen or project it or what ever.... I will tell you that we normally have a manually opperated camera that zooms in and follows the action, but we opted for a stationary camera for several reasons. It allows our students to focus on the event and not running a camera. It is much better for scouting, since you can see almost the entire field and every robot. When we follow the action there are always 3-4 robots that get left off camera for portions of the match. And at a First Regional there is a PAID video crew with several cameras and live production equipment. We typically take their feed and rebroadcast that at a regional (we do the CT regional every year, and in the past we have done Las Vegas and this year New Orleans - we basically volunteer the service if one doesnt exist when we attent). We are volunteering our time, equipment, and knowedge, and we want to enjoy the event and not kill ourselves in the process. We couls rent cameras, crew, switchers, ect... but then the attendees flip the bill since they'd have to charge more... and they are less likely to need the webcast since, well... they are attendees!
SO this is not a typical video feed to compaired to a typical Kick-off/Regional webcast as we are not giving a closeup picture of people/robots that can withstand the artifacting and breakup that happens when stretching images.
I hope those with issues take this as helpful advise and not criticism. If my intent was to criticise I could have chosen much different words!!!
Good luck to everyone in the final days.
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