2015 FIRST Championship Survey

[Citrus Dad]

We had an observation we discussed in St. Louis that doesn't fit well into the survey so I'll post it here.

We rely on FIRST's presentation to support our outreach to our community and our sponsors. We send them to FIRST's website and webcast to learn more about us and to follow us at Regionals and Championships. Without that support we can't spread the message of FIRST.

FIRST's web presence for Championship seemed inadequate given that the primary goal of FIRST is to promote STEM in our culture. That promotion requires a presentation that reflects the priority of using the latest technology in the best way. And since FIRST wants to emulate other sports, it should look to how other sports are shown through the media.
To that end, we discussed the following suggestions:

- Over the last two years, continual problems have cropped up in displaying ongoing competition results. This appears to be an infrastructure issue for which we don't know the details. Regardless of their source, FIRST must provide enough resources to fix them before they happen. Updating standings at lunch and the end of the day is not an adequate solution. (We felt sorry for the teams that left Newton without knowing exactly where they stood in the rankings Friday night. It had to inhibit their discussions with other teams.)

- Official webcasts too often have not been up to the professional standard that an organization promoting a world championship for 3,000 teams should be presenting. FIRST need only look to the PNW consortium led by Team 1318 to see how this can be done at a minimal cost. The webcasts out of Ontario are also excellent examples. Grainy Regional broadcasts with inadequate lighting and unreadable team numbers are really unacceptable. We need excellent webcasts to show that we really are on the leading edge of promote cultural change.

- WiFi and/or cell coverage in the Edward Jones Dome (or any stadium) needs to reflect the technology emphasis of FIRST. AT&T users had slow connections in the stadium. (I use T-Mobile so had fewer problems.) And of course Wi-Fi is banned. FIRST should be looking at how other high-tech events such as South by Southwest and the Consumer Electronics Show address connectivity and high bandwidth demand. The FIRST Championships by its nature attracts a highly-connected crowd; the infrastructure should be sufficient to meet demand. And why not move the robots to 5.8 GHz WiFi to free up the use of WiFi for team functions? (We use Bluetooth and cell at a cost to get around this issue.)

As a community we should ask FIRST to address these issues before next year. We have a great product--let's make sure that the public can really enjoy it along with us.