IRI Live Thank You and Feedback

[Collin Fultz]

I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people that helped make IRI Live the experience that it was.

IRI Planning Committee: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take this project on and run with it.

Danny Blau: Thank you for being an incredible co-host. Your enthusiasm, knowledge, and ability to go with the flow made it so much fun to work with you.

Production Crew: Neil Brenneman (234 alum), Jeff Maberto (1024 mentor), Nikki Panda (MAR volunteer, stepped in last minute and operated the camera for us), and all of the 234 students who ran the A/V side. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.

Tyler Olds and Dan Green: I gave you almost no detail on how exactly the broadcast would work until you were at the event. Your professionalism and skill as an MC and Game Announcer helped the entire experience flow incredibly well. Thank you.

Guests: Andy (IRI PC), Chris (IRI PC), Tyler (2826), Kaleb (1114), Lucien (118), Ethan (118), Jonathan (FIRST HQ), Jamee (FIRST HQ), John (148), Al (111), Libby (1923), Renee (Indiana FIRST), Chrystal (FIRST Ladies), and Erin (FIRST Ladies). You all helped make this everything it could have been. I wish we could have had more time to talk to each of you. There are so many great stories in the FIRST community that need to be told. Thank you.

Indiana FIRST: Thank you for allowing us to use the broadcasting equipment from the season. Not having to spend money on that or to learn to use new equipment was a huge help.

Eugene and everyone at The Blue Alliance: Thank you for working so much with me to make sure our event could be broadcast on TBA and sites like it. There is so much that we can do to help “make FIRST loud”, and sites like yours are so critical to that.

Kevin O’Connor and others at FIRST HQ: Thank you for all of your help getting the Indiana district events broadcast and allowing us to use this equipment for IRI. What we learned during the season helped make the IRI broadcast a success.

GameSense, PNW, FiM, etc.: Our broadcast was heavily based on the pioneering work that you have done in broadcasting and covering events in the past. Thank you for leading the way.

Finally,

Nick Lawrence and Liz Smith: Watched matches all day Friday and Saturday. Then, fed Danny and me scouting information on each alliance, including their analysis of each match and predictions for upcoming matches. Without their knowledge, dedication and support, the broadcast would not have been anywhere near what it was. Thank you both so much.

If you have feedback on the webcast or on IRI Live, we'd love to hear it.

Thank you all for watching!

[Foster]

I loved the feed. Really like the interviews between matches, so I never heard "Cotten Eye Joe" all day.

Interviews were interesting, didn't know that 118 had build the under $1000 bot.

Good job!!!

[thatprogrammer]

A single suggestion from myself. Perhaps you, as in, who ever gets interviewed, should have a short q/a session with questions from the live stream chat?

[TDav540]

I thought it was very well run with a great cast of interviews, pretty good game analysis, and great pace. Please bring this back next year and use it on Friday as well!

[Nuttyman54]

First off, fantastic job pulling together a quality webcast. It's a very big challenge and it looked great! I only caught some of IRI Live due to other commitments, but based on what I saw there was a lot that was done well and a few areas for improvement.

Kudos:
-Location on the upper balcony was perfect. Somewhat isolated but still kept the live background from the live event. I really think having a live background gives it a much more "sportsy" look
-Stream quality was very good. High resolution and well-balanced cameras. The full-field fisheye was a little blurry at the edges but that didn't really detract from the viewing experience unless you were REALLY interested in the human players or something. Camera work was good as well.
-Commentary was on point, there was great synergy between the analysts and I think you did a great job keeping the level of detail appropriate for a general audience without being so high level as to lose the die-hards.

Improvements:
-I personally would have liked a little more analysis and a little less interviews. That being said, I really have no idea how to talk at length about RR without running out of material after two or three matches, especially without the can war dice-roll. The interviews were nice, but I felt a little more time could have been dedicated to talking about the teams before moving on.
-Audio could use some upgrades. When I tuned it the volume was OK but there was definitely some clipping. Headsets are nice, but even just some cheap table-top mic stands would help to tune the levels.
-The flow between matches was a little choppy. It felt weird to have dead air between the end of the match and the score, and then go into analysis. Of course, doing it differently means you need communication between the analysts and the MC/GA, which is hard.
-Overlays. Yeah...this is a stretch. Custom overlays take a lot of work and if you can't do it well it's best to not do it at all. Not a knock on the production at all, but definitely something to try for next year. With the API expanding, I'd love to see it used for more live event stuff.

Most of the improvements I'm suggesting are really a level jump that requires a LOT more effort and work up front to make it all come together, so in no way is it a knock on what you did. For the resources, I think you all put together about the best production possible. The FRC fan in me wants more more more, and the GameSense host in me knows it's never quite that easy.

Overall, great job. It's great to see more sportscasting added to FRC events, it's sorely needed to broaden the program reach and appeal.

[musicgurl1329]

Thanks for letting me run the camera! Maybe I can do it again next if I am not too busy with other volunteering duties

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Anytime, it was fun.