I've always been disappointed with the video feeds. They are designed to be supplements for people watching from the stands, but they are used for live broadcasts and even for archival purposes. Its hard to follow a tournament unless you attend it. This needs to change. I want FIRST to do more than just "ZOOM OUT!1!!1". This post is going to be really long.
Dean wants FIRST to become a spectator sport, just like football or basketball. This would be great! We could get more sponsors and share the ideals of FIRST with a much broader audience. Unfortunately, the format of FIRST tournaments is not conducive to casual spectation. A tournament consists of a whole bunch of short and un-related matches played by too many teams to follow. IMOHO, you're not going to get an arena full of unaffiliated spectators without drastically changing the structure of FIRST tournaments.
This doesn't bother me though, because I think there's a better way to make FIRST a spectator sport. Football fans don't attend, watch, or follow every game that happens in an NFL conference; they watch the games that they're interested in on TV and on occasion expend time, money, and effort to watch them in real life. This is how FIRST could work as a spectator event.
Firstly, I want a high quality live broadcast feed that is meant and designed to be watched by people who are not in the arena but wish that they were. I would be fine with all of the resources that are currently used to produce the in house feed being diverted to the broadcast feed-- it's much more important and valuable.
Secondly, I want all of the match footage from all of the cameras to be recorded, archived, and produced into something that an average person can watch casually. Imagine The Blue Alliance with high quality videos and well thought out camera angles which match up with commentary that allows people to easily understand what is going on in the match. The match videos should be organized in a way that allows viewers to enjoy FIRST in manageable doses and in a team-centric fashion.
And who knows-- once a whole bunch of people start following FIRST online (or on TV
), we might start seeing the stands fill up with dedicated fans and supporters who are truly ready to understand what FIRST is all about.