This year we need instant replay

[ChrisH]

I am currently the President of SCRRF, the local organization that plans events for teams in the Southern California area. These events include our famous Pre-Ship Scrimmage (bigger than many regionals) and the Fall Classic. I am also on the Southern California Regional Committee. So I am intimately involved in putting on three FIRST competitions every year, not to mention workshops, FLL and now Vex.

The logistical train to set up Instant Replay would be enormous relative to the other efforts to put on a competition. It might affect the outcome of a small fraction of matches. So we have a huge logistical problem for a small result.

In spite of that I would be willing to use one of our local off-seasons to experiment with this under the following conditions:

1) The effort is started and run by somebody who is not currently on our board or otherwise involved in putting on competitions. I can't afford to loose good help.

2) The effort is well planned in advance. I would need an equipment list and rules for use of IR in the competition at a minimum. At that point the board could think about authorizing further investigation.

3) The cost to SCRRF would have to be reasonable for the expected benefit. Note: I didn't say the cost had to be zero. Zero is good, but what are local organizations for but experimentation? On the other hand I would be irresponsible if we spent half our budget on it.

4) After final approval, the organizer would have to recruit and train required camera operators. Progress reports at our monthly meetings would be essential. All our other departments do this why not you?

5) Be part of the after event debrief.

In addition it would be helpful if the person performing this effort has a track record that indicates they actually will do what they say. I realize that it might be hard for a student to meet this requirement. Volunteering for a responsible job at a different competition and doing well go far in this respect.

I have no problem with IR as a concept. I think it might help in a few situations. While the teams involved might disagree with the Refs interpretations of their actions, what actually happened would be there for all to see, slowed down (I assume) so all parties can get a better view of what happened in what order. I think it could be valuable in resolving certain kinds of disputes, like just how one robot wound up on top of another.

But as an event organizer, it is just one more thing for me to worry about getting done. One more person for me to have to contact to make sure progress is being made. I'm not sure it is worth my additional effort, let alone yours. Then again once we try it we might wonder how we ever got along without it.

If somebody wants to pursue this in Southern California I'll be willing to bug them, it's the least I can do.