Webcasts

[Stephen Kowski]

First off let me say I really enjoy the current webcasts that are offered online each season, they are awesome. I wondered exactly if there are plans to try to broadcast regionals that normally wouldn't be able to get NASA coverage or any otherwise.

I wondered how difficult it would be for teams that coordinate ahead of time to setup (ie they volunteer to do this) to setup a VLS Server (http://www.videolan.org/) and stream through an available internet connection (once again coordination ahead of time would be needed for this). I know that some regionals are limited through internet connection at their site and that is understandable. I just hear every year how much money and how much time it takes NASA to coordinate this service, and while I appreciate them greatly for it I think we in the FIRST community might be able to take some of the pressure off by getting a smaller, cheaper solution.

Also I think when using a technology such as VideoLAN we could then provide compressed MPEG-4 video which would ultimately enhancing the experience. Any ideas, comments suggestions? And please if anyone thinks that I am way off the reservation with this idea please tell me why because I do not know the current process.