Official video feed of matches at Regional Competitions, incl. Granite State Regional

[Randy Forgaard]

Does anyone happen to know how to obtain the official FIRST videos of the matches from Regional Competitions, and in particular, the 2013 Granite State Regional (GSR)?

At GSR that ended yesterday, the video feed on the big screen was truly excellent, as it is every year. It shows all the robots, action close-ups, the official score at the end, the works. Multiple high-end video cameras are used to record the action from every match, and a video director sitting at a laptop computer chooses which camera angles make it up onto the big screen.

I would LOVE to get those official FIRST videos of the matches our team's robot was in at GSR. (I'm currently a parent and the videographer for Team 1729 that was at 2013 GSR, and was a software mentor on Team 3126 that closed up shop a couple years ago.)

I shot video of all of our matches at GSR, but some of it is not so good. Getting the official video feed would be terrific. I suspect that many other teams would love that official video feed as well.

We plan to edit that video feed along with video I took of our individual team members and mentors, as a video to help us attract more sponsors for our team, and attract more students to the team next year.

Yesterday, I talked to Pete, the video director at GSR. I asked him if there was any way I might obtain the official video feed of the matches our team was in. Pete pointed out that there was actually an electronic video hub with several BNC video connectors on it that duplicated the official video feed shown on the big screen. Teams were invited to connect up to that hub, to grab the video feed or display it. However, our team didn't have the equipment with us to do a recording from those BNC video connectors, and I didn't see any other teams doing that, either.

What I really wanted was the digital video files of the feed he was sending to the big screen. Pete confirmed that all of that video streams into files on his laptop computer during the matches, is saved and recorded, and after the tournament is over Pete gives all those video files to FIRST.

Pete noted that he didn't have the authority to give me those video files, but he looked into it for me. He asked around, and found out that I should send an email to frcteams@usfirst.org, which is of course the main official email address for all FRC teams to use when asking any questions of FIRST.

I know that the FIRST people are very busy right now, so I'm a little afraid that if I send that email to the general FRC teams mailbox, it might be a while before I get any sort of answer. And if I do, I'm a little afraid that my request might accidentally be routed to the wrong person who might mistakenly tell me that the videos don't exist, or teams aren't allowed to have them, or whatever. So I'd love to get the accurate info on this.

Before I go down the road of emailing frcteams@usfirst.org, I wanted to ask: Does anyone happen to know how to get ahold of the officlal FIRST match videos from the regional competitions (in particular, the Granite State Regional)? I know there are many videos of the matches on YouTube from 2013 GSR, but all the ones I found are from the viewpoint of a particular team, shot on a camcorder by someone in the stands, so the videos focus on one particular team's robot. What I'm really looking for is the very nice, professional, official video feed files from the matches.

Alternatively: By any chance, did anyone happen to record the official video feed from the provided BNC video connectors at GSR?

Or: Do you happen to know the specific person at FIRST who is truly the guru of the video files that come in from the regional competitions?

Thanks so much in advance for your help!