Week 1 Event Notice - FIRST Robotics Canada

[hobbins]

FIRST Robotics Canada is pleased to be working with Crescent school
and team 610 to execute the GTR West event this year. It will be
taking place from Friday Feb 28 to Sunday March 2, 2014. The event
will host 30 teams and promises to be an action packed display of
fantastic robots and teams.

While we would love to have additional spectators at the event, due to
space and parking
limitations this will be a PARTICIPATING TEAM ONLY event. Only the 30
teams registered for this event will be able to attend. Each
participating team
will have a limited number of team attendees. Any other visitors will not
be allowed into the venue due to safety and fire regulations.
FIRST Canada would ask that unless you are on a team and have a wrist
band assigned from the team as part of their allocation, that you do
not come to view the event in person as you will not get in. Instead
we ask that you watch the webcast at www.watchfirstnow.ca

Thank you for your understanding, and please do plan to attend in
person any of the other FRC Ontario events listed below:

Week 2 - University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham
College (GTR East)
Week 4 - University of Waterloo (Waterloo Regional)
Week 5 - University of Nipissing (North Bay Regional)
Week 6 - University of Windsor (Windsor-Essex Regional)

[cadandcookies]

I'm not going to the event, but I will be watching.

It doesn't sound optimal to not have any spectators, but thank you for getting this out in the open quickly and publicly. Always best to be up front about things like this.

[JackS]

I certainly hope the webcast is high quality.

[jblay]

I hope no kids or parents or anything like that are forced to not attend their own robot's competition, because of the individual team limitation. I get limiting public attendance, but if you had a part in building a robot, even it means sitting on the floor, you should be permitted to watch your team play.

[brandon.cottrell]

I wonder how they'll manage that. Because our team certainly has a lot of people who come to our regionals and represent us but aren't necessarily on our team anymore/never were. Like, at what point is someone on a team?

[Ankit S.]

Originally Posted by Brandon1266

I wonder how they'll manage that. Because our team certainly has a lot of people who come to our regionals and represent us but aren't necessarily on our team anymore/never were. Like, at what point is someone on a team?

It sounds like the event will only hand out a certain amount of wristbands to each team. From that point on each team needs to allocate its wristbands so that their true members can attend.

As a result, the event coordinators probably don't need to worry about what constitutes being a team member; that issue is for the teams leadership to solve.

[bduddy]

That sounds... pretty terrible. Didn't GTR West used to be a pretty big event? If I was part of a team where all members, mentors, and parents would not be able to attend, I would be quite upset... especially considering that there doesn't seem to have been any notification before now, in the middle of the build season...

[LeelandS]

Dang. A couple friends and I were planning a trip up there to see the action and catch up with some friends, but I guess that's on the backburner now

It's unfortunate that GTRW doesn't have the capacity to allow even full team attendance. It's awesome that 610 and Crescent are hosting the event, though. It should still be amazing and we will definitely be tuning in via webcast.

Good luck to all the teams attending!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by hobbins

FIRST Robotics Canada is pleased to be working with Crescent school
and team 610 to execute the GTR West event this year. It will be
taking place from Friday Feb 28 to Sunday March 2, 2014. The event
will host 30 teams and promises to be an action packed display of
fantastic robots and teams.

While we would love to have additional spectators at the event, due to
space and parking
limitations this will be a PARTICIPATING TEAM ONLY event. Only the 30
teams registered for this event will be able to attend. Each
participating team
will have a limited number of team attendees. Any other visitors will not
be allowed into the venue due to safety and fire regulations.
FIRST Canada would ask that unless you are on a team and have a wrist
band assigned from the team as part of their allocation, that you do
not come to view the event in person as you will not get in. Instead
we ask that you watch the webcast at www.watchfirstnow.ca

Thank you for your understanding, and please do plan to attend in
person any of the other FRC Ontario events listed below:

Week 2 - University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham
College (GTR East)
Week 4 - University of Waterloo (Waterloo Regional)
Week 5 - University of Nipissing (North Bay Regional)
Week 6 - University of Windsor (Windsor-Essex Regional)

Good thing I'm going to the Alamo Regional instead.

[Tom Line]

I'm sure it was a very difficult decision to do it this way. I was talking with one of the event organizers (go 610!) earlier this year and he was very concerned. High schools aren't in Canada aren't generally as big as the ones we have done in the states, and they were extremely limited in their available choices for the venue.

That said, in true 'Firster' fashion, they are doing the best they can and moving forward.

[hobbins]

Thanks everyone for showing interest in this event! The webcast will be very good and we have a great list of teams competing. We do have a process of wrist bands for entry and team members can swap the wrist bands with anyone from their team: parents, mentors, students, etc.
It was important for us to inform the FIRST community of the limited capacity as we do not want to have someone make a trip here only to be turned away. We also have a large school building adjacent to the competition building where we will have additional, but restricted space for team representatives, a scouting centre, live feed video screens, and great food!
We want everyone to know that we are working very hard to make this an amazing event, which included not allowing Karthik to sing at this event.
Go Teams!

[Duncan Macdonald]

Seeing as I have a roll in the webcast, can we agree that the full field fisheye shot is the preferred camera setup?
fisheye
vs.
traditional

Unfourtunatly the broadcast aspect ratio will likely be 4:3 because of the projection screen in the Crescent theatre.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Duncan Macdonald

Seeing as I have a roll in the webcast, can we agree that the full field fisheye shot is the preferred camera setup?

Absolutely agreed. The full field fisheye setup is by far the best view for people who are not in the building, or have an obstructed view of the field.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Duncan Macdonald

Seeing as I have a roll in the webcast, can we agree that the full field fisheye shot is the preferred camera setup?
fisheye
vs.
traditional

Unfourtunatly the broadcast aspect ratio will likely be 4:3 because of the projection screen in the Crescent theatre.

Is it possible to have multiple web streams with differing angles, such as 1 full field fisheye and 2 half court fixed traditional feeds where the viewer can decide which angle(s)/feed(s) they wish to view?

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Absolutely agreed. The full field fisheye setup is by far the best view for people who are not in the building, or have an obstructed view of the field.

I have often thought that the full field "fish eye" or Nerd's eye view (pun off the Enginerds set up) is optimal for the match. If possible, then replay the match with the zoom-ins/splices while waiting for the score to come up. This acts as a sort of "instant replay" while still giving the viewers the opprotunity to see the full match for the first viewing.
This set up also gives the opportunity for the audio/commentary to match the screen. Nothing worse than hearing the anouncer talk about an awesome play while the video is showing a stranded turtle impression.