Kudos IRI Organizers and Volunteers!

[Foster]

Thanks to the video team and the people posting the scores from the sweltering East coast! Videos were great!! I cooked sweet corn, put out a Koko Ed Bobble Head doll and it was almost like being there!!!

Special thanks to all the volunteers that made this possible. I was impressed how close you stayed to scheduled match times. It made it easy to watch my favorite team compete.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Foster

Thanks to the video team and the people posting the scores from the sweltering East coast! Videos were great!! I cooked sweet corn, put out a Koko Ed Bobble Head doll and it was almost like being there!!!

I have a bobble head?

[ayeckley]

Let me be the first person from FRC Team 2252 to also express our appreciation to the organizers, volunteers, participating teams and spectators. This was our first participatory trip to IRI, and we had an unparalleled experience. Our students and mentors are now more motivated than ever to earn an invitation to IRI 2014.

[mdituri]

I watched the webcast and it was fantastic. Quite honestly, the sound is not crucial. I try to ignore the sound at competitions because it is so loud anyway. I had the sound off on my computer and just watched the robots.

I have had many individuals say to me: "IRI was better than worlds...". They say that it is well run and the whole weekend is amazing.

I would love to set up streaming youtube for the MAR districts and championship. If anyone has experience with this and is willing to help MAR, please let me know. We will get on it ASAP. We can test it out at one of the pre-seasons.

[Robotmmm]

This was my first time attending IRI and it was simply amazing! From the incredible teams and awesome people, to the flawlessly run event I do not see how it can be topped. Every single match was like an elims at Champs.

Thank you to all those who worked so hard to make this event first class all the way!

[jason_zielke]

Thanks for all the great comments about IRI. We are all honored by your compliments and are happy to be able to host so many great teams!

As for youtube streaming, I am happy to help anyone interested head down that path. I did the work to get our account setup for Live Streaming. In order to get the access, we leveraged the status of IndianaFIRST as a 501(c)(3) organization to get approved under the Google for Non-Profits program. This was a multi-step process.

Youtube offers a few advantages over others including DVR, automatic archive, HD streaming and automatic conversion to lower resolutions that allows each viewer to stream at an appropriate quality level for his/her internet connection. I believe this last benefit significant improves the viewing experience for the at home and mobile audiences.

There are a couple disadvantages as well. Youtube has a fairly strict policy around audio copyrights and the support/knowledge base for live streaming on youtube is limited. As long as everything works, you are good...if not, it is not always easy to determine why.

As many of you may have noticed, we had to switch to Ustream for the finals at IRI. For some yet to be determined reason, Youtube decided about 1 p.m. to restrict our live streaming to a single stream. So, we stuck with the HD full field view on youtube and went to Ustream with the multi-camera stream.

Additionally, a couple of the archived videos from the full field camera and the archive of the multi-camera stream are currently restricted due to copyright issues because of background music. We attempted to use a separate audio input with just the field sounds, MC mic and Game Announcer mic but some of the music come through on the Announcer's mic. We still have more work to do to figure out a solution here.

Please feel free to PM me if you want help getting setup with a youtube account.

Also, a special thanks Team 2337 EngiNERDs and especially to Colin for manning the computer for all the individual match archives and Clinton for bringing the full-field GoPro camera setup.

[Jack_poldon]

On behalf of team 1310, I would like to thank all the volunteers and organizers at IRI. You all did a fantastic job. From the volunteers on the field to the volunteers in the concessions your contributions were greatly appreciated by all.

No wonder IRI is considered the best event in all of FIRST!!!

[AllenGregoryIV]

Everyone at IRI was fantastic. Thank you to all the support staff, refs, field reset, practice field, and everyone else.

We decided IRI needs a tagline something like. "Where everyone knows what they're doing!". The whole event is just smooth. No one yells ROBOT, people in the stands move a little to let you squeeze in, queuing is simple, strategy talks are easy, etc. Everything just sort of flows like it's supposed. It must take a lot of work to get it to look like that and having such amazing teams doesn't hurt either.