Sports-Style Broadcast

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by Donut

In the case of FiM and the Kansas City Regional, were these production efforts done by FIRST volunteers or by the broadcasting station (mainly talking about the video editing)?

The TWC Metro Sports coverage of the GKC regional was produced by Time Warner for their own programming. Their Metro Sports channel covers primarily high school sports, but also regional college, major, and minor league sports. I think they simply consider the FRC Regional unique and worthy of coverage. Time Warner Cable is an active FIRST sponsor, at least in our region.

[z_beeblebrox]

MSC, right now!
http://www.dptv.org/programs/robotic...cmpgn=shorturl

[Donut]

Originally Posted by z_beeblebrox

MSC, right now!
http://www.dptv.org/programs/robotic...cmpgn=shorturl

I've been watching this all morning, this is one of the best feeds I've ever seen. Lots of camera angles, instant replay with drawing on the screen, announcer commentary, nice overlays for final scores and which teams are competing in a match. There's even an occasional interview. I feel like their camera crew is a little better at focusing on the most exciting action on the field than the typical FIRST webcast also (thanks for not zooming in on robots just sitting there!).

[Racer26]

Could one of the guys involved in Gameday put this feed into it?

[J_Miles]

Originally Posted by Donut

I've been watching this all morning, this is one of the best feeds I've ever seen. Lots of camera angles, instant replay with drawing on the screen, announcer commentary, nice overlays for final scores and which teams are competing in a match. There's even an occasional interview. I feel like their camera crew is a little better at focusing on the most exciting action on the field than the typical FIRST webcast also (thanks for not zooming in on robots just sitting there!).

It helps that Dave Verbrugge, probably the most FRC-knowledgable man in FIRST in Michigan and possibly the world, is doing color commentary. Very well done - I'm glad it's live this year.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by J_Miles

... Dave Verbrugge, probably the most FRC-knowledgable man in FIRST in Michigan and possibly the world, is doing color commentary.

Probably, possibly? Make that definitely. Dave is the man.

[rbrown1]

Originally Posted by Donut

In the case of FiM and the Kansas City Regional, were these production efforts done by FIRST volunteers or by the broadcasting station (mainly talking about the video editing)?

As more regions move to the District system it would be cool to see more of the District Championships along with the World Championships get productions done like this, even if it's an after-the-fact thing that gets rebroadcasted a month later. Given the number of Regionals and varying quality of play at them it wouldn't make sense to try to do this at every event, but being able to highlight the best of the best with elimination matches from these Championship events would make for good TV. It's not really any different than ESPN highlighting significant high school football games periodically.

Even if you can't get live coverage on ESPN, maybe something like PBS affiliates would do it.

This was shown after the competition on the local cable sports channel. They were edited by professionals here in KC.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

Probably, possibly? Make that definitely. Dave is the man.

Dave's strategic insight is priceless. It is a huge asset to the viewer, it makes the whole game make so much more sense.

I also love that they are explaining what is going wrong with the robots when people are frantically fixing them. Breaking is big drama for the teams, but it often doesn't really get out to the audience as they are busy doing the Cotton Eyed Joe or Cha-Cha slide.

[GeorgeM]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

Dave's strategic insight is priceless. It is a huge asset to the viewer, it makes the whole game make so much more sense.

I also love that they are explaining what is going wrong with the robots when people are frantically fixing them. Breaking is big drama for the teams, but it often doesn't really get out to the audience as they are busy doing the Cotton Eyed Joe or Cha-Cha slide.

I couldn't agree more!

The only thing that I found surprising was how fast the teams were willing to give up their strategies to the LIVE viewers !

A quick text to the opposing alliance and the strategy that was supposed to win could easily turn into the factor that makes them lose!

Teams may "trick" the viewers as well, anticipating this. (Creating a whole new meta-game within strategy).

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by GeorgeM

I couldn't agree more!

The only thing that I found surprising was how fast the teams were willing to give up their strategies to the LIVE viewers !

A quick text to the opposing alliance and the strategy that was supposed to win could easily turn into the factor that makes them lose!

Teams may "trick" the viewers as well, anticipating this. (Creating a whole new meta-game within strategy).

"We are going to try and stop 67." I'm pretty sure 67 knew that, given that 217 was in the process of putting on their pool noodles.

[PVCpirate]

I mentioned it in the MSC thread, but I wanted to do it here too. This broadcast from Detroit Public TV was definitely the best live feed of an event I've ever seen. I'm gonna make a list because I feel like it deserves it:

• Great quality video stream with no ads
• Great commentary and analysis, educated me about the Michigan teams and filled in the time between matches
• Instant replay
• Split-Screen Autonomous view
• Interviews with team members gave better insight into what was going on than actually being at the event

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

I mentioned it in the MSC thread, but I wanted to do it here too. This broadcast from Detroit Public TV was definitely the best live feed of an event I've ever seen. I'm gonna make a list because I feel like it deserves it:

• Great quality video stream with no ads
• Great commentary and analysis, educated me about the Michigan teams and filled in the time between matches
• Instant replay
• Split-Screen Autonomous view
• Interviews with team members gave better insight into what was going on than actually being at the event

Teams and organizations should ask for a tape of the recording (shouldn't be that hard, it's public TV) and shop it around to various local stations (your PBS', Fox/Comcast SportsNets, etc. to gauge their interest in broadcasting events like this. Local stations, I think, would like to have access to engaging, original content they just have to produce and not pay out for licensing.

[Donut]

Best of all, Detroit Public TV has already archived all of the footage and put it up for viewing. Definitely going to send this out for the rest of my team to watch.

[Ivan Malik]

Originally Posted by PVCpirate

Great quality video stream with no ads

If/when a broadcast like this is brought to live tv there is actually built in ad time during elims. Long stretches of elims were silent today. It actually kind of made for boring stretches where ads would have added some distraction. As for ads during quals they could easily do a quick recap of matches in between live matches, or use them as fillers for those moments of silence we heard in the broadcast today. They could even reserve ads for times when the field is down (cause that problem is clearly never going away )

[popnbrown]

Anyone know of cost/resources list that went into the MSC taping or who to contact?