Kickoff Event Webcast

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by RoboMadi

Thanks for the info. Actauly we are tryitn gethave a small kick off evetn at our school for hte studetns and their families. Our school is not able to provide NASA Channel, so our bext option is webcast. I will look forward for the fninal info from FIRST. Thanks again

While we have always been fortunate enough to have satellite reception through our major sponsor for the kickoff, we have often used the webcasts of regionals during the competition season. (The NASA links are already given by other contributors in this thread.)

Run your ethernet through a laptop that has a video out port, and then connect that to a projector or large television. Use the Full Screen mode in RealPlayer, and it'll be easy for all to see. The quality will not be as good as a broadcast, but it'll be acceptable. (My attempts to use WinMedia Player streams always ended up out of sync, or continually trying to buffer the download. Not a knock, just the difficulties I ran into. Others have run these streams successfully.)

Put a VCR in between the computer and the projector/TV, and you can tape the kickoff for later viewing, in case you have questions about the game. It's quite simple, but do a dry run ahead of the kickoff on some dummy stream off the net. That way, you know the procedure works, and that you have all the needed cables/connectors to do it.

If your team builds a practice robot after you ship, consider using the webcasts of the regionals to help train your competition team. Run the webcast in the practice area to give the team the "feel" of the regional; the sounds (turn the speakers up LOUD), the timing (start and stop your practice rounds with the streamed matches), and the length of time for robot setup/removal. Your comp team will be a bit better adjusted to the flow of things once you get to the regional.