[stevek]

Im sure NASA will update their page as we get closer. The previous link looks like they are starting the prep for that info (so far the only active links for the regionals are going to my teams home page)

If you want to webcast. You can simply run windows media encoder but you need a capture card that can take in a signal from the Video Crew.

If you can/want to do this at your regional, I suggest you contact the regional coordinators and see if they have the capacity and if they will allow you to help.

We started about 7-8 years ago with the UTC/Suffied Scrimmage- it took us another year to get past Firewall Issues with the school we were in. (First Year we ended up only streaming to the pits becuase of network issues)

Most Network People wont be able to help you because they typically arent experienced with the full protical.firewall issues- so we resolved to Pushing a Stream to a server instead of Pulling it from the Encoder. This has some limitations (like not being able to send to multiple locations) but will bypass 99% of the firewall issues. After two good years at the scrimage we approached the Regional Contacts and have done that for thet past 4or5 years (but I digress) The point- it helps to have experience under your belt before trying a large event. Id been doing it for a while before even the Scrimage so I could do the trouble shooting needed to make it all work.

If you get past step 1 and the commitee says YES. then you need to determine the video signal you need to take in (composite/S-video/dv/etc.) based on your computer capture device. Then confirm you can get that signal from the Video Crew, if not see if there is a convertor you can run it through. Other wise I recomend seeing if there is a USB capture card that takes in the signal type they have. WinTV cards are a good standby and are pretty cheap.

Then you need a server to go to. I am not sure what UStream.tv has for resources or requirements/limitations. But that may be your best server option if you dont have access to other servers.

Lastly post links on this site, and try to contact NASA (via robotics page) and see if they can post it for you. They are busy so plan ahead (for their sake and yours-- as you see they already have our links up there!) You can ask the regional coordinator to ask FIRST to post it on the Regional page as well.

Re: NASA TV. They typically find one event a week that they can broadcast. I dont know if they just give sattellite time or if they handle the entire uplink. But I would tell you to look there (NASA TV) on saturday of each regional event week (and the Chanpionships). If you have DishNetworks look for Educational Files on the program guide. That is normally the heading (but they use it for many other shows so dont think its only FIRST when you see that listing).

Hope this helps some.