Unified webcast portal

[Patrick Seeney]

I agree, there needs to be one unified network, or at least a scalable model that teams can adopt, or even organizations (such as FIRST in Michigan). The biggest downside I see to current methods, especially Ustream, is the ads that we are subjected to. We are letting ustream make money off of people viewing FIRST events. If we were able to cut out the middle man, we would open up the possibility to getting some big sponsors other than the typical technologically related sponsors. Imagine if Coca Cola sponsered a bunch of regionals in exchange for x amount of times for their commercials to run as well as maybe a banner ad on the regional webcast page. I think that you could run these webcasts like college sport events. In between matches when there is down time you could cut to 30 second commercials of the big sponsors that support the event. If say Coca Cola was sponsoring the broadcast, they could have a little watermark somewhere, or in the score board like you see on college sports.

I think this could also allow for teams to create 30 second promo's about their team, that way for the teams at the regionals, those could play during the in between matches and during timeouts. THis would give teams that nobody knows about a chance to be featured for 30 seconds, and the viewers at home could feel more connected to teams. This could also open the doors for another award category for best promo video. With the amount of matches that go on at each regional, teams could all have their promo videos play at least once.

In the end, the web is the future of online media. It used to be that media was produced for TV and then repackaged for the web, we are currently starting to see the opposite. With the amount of content on the web, and with many shows saying "check out our website for more content," it would seem logical for this to follow the same path. By taking out the middleman (ustream) we can use the money that could be generated from the ads that we all see to be invested in broadcast equipment that could travel from regional to regional.

[MagiChau]

@Patrick I think along with your plan FIRST would need to invest in high quality recording equipment for better videos of the event. I was thinking perhaps try a task force of 7 people recording the match instead of a lone camera-man. 1 Does an overview on the entire-field while the other 6 focus on an individual robot's actions. Maybe another person will control the 7 feeds and decide which one to show. This recording will be made available (all 7 of every match) after the competition onto something like the firstvideoarchive perhaps.

[Patrick Seeney]

I completely agree, and that is where the "Coca Cola" sponsors can really help out. I am current in a digital media program, and my current assignment is to find all the equipment you would need to start a production company. I have tailored it to creating this broadcast. Currently I have about $30,000 worth the equipment I would like to purchase that could help execute this. Hey if we could get B&H Video to be a sponsor, then maybe we could get alot of this at a discount. I think that you could create a compelling broadcast using the following camera angles...

2 remote control cameras mounted on each driver station. This would give full view of the other side of the field as well as have the ability to zoom, pan and tilt.

A 3rd remote control camera mounted up high to simulate the press box view, once again controlled by remote, but probably not neededing to be adjusted much.

2 ENG type cameras that roam the sidelines that would be used for getting tight shots on the action, as well as shots of the audience and whatnot.

I am guessing most teams that currently stream are using wirecast or a similar client, and these cameras can all be controlled using the desktop interface.

Now I know the 30,000 price tag is alot, but lets say here in Michigan we run two districts a week, that would be two sets of equipment needed every week. $60,000 plus the cost of the internet connection and programming needed to create such a website could run around 100,000. That is a drop in the bucket for Coca Cola's advertising budget...and it would give them access to the leaders of tomorrow.