FIRSTcast Episode 7 Released (3-6-06)

[Joe Matt]

FIRSTcast Episode 7

Matt Krass, Adam Richards, Joseph Matt, and Jeff Rodriguez recover from the coma of the build season to a new segment and new opening music. We talk about team updates 11 & 12, people complaining to FIRST, field damage and how much would disqualify you, poof balls hitting people, UTC regional, the premier of DaisyCast, and Matt & Adam bet who's the more popular host.

Download it here!

iTunes

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

...and Matt & Adam bet who's the more popular host.

We all know it's me!

But Adam doesn't believe me, so help me prove it.
Find me at the UTC regional this coming weekend and take a picture with me, whoever gets more pictures with people at their first regional is the winner, don't let Adam beat me! Listen to the show for more details!

[Tim Arnold]

Have not finished listening yet so I won't comment on the content yet, but why only 41kbs?

:X

Still though, thanks for producing shows like this (I will edit later with my comments)!

EDIT: (Below notes taken as I listened)
Well... to he honest... try to let the other people have plenty of time to complete their thoughts. I don't know how this is edited and I am assuming you want to keep it moving fairly quickly, but I feel that some opinions may be cut short. I prefer a laid-back style so perhaps that's just my personal preference. Seems rather rushed [After edit: This improved as the show went on, but still try and let people finish their thoughts!]

I enjoyed the opinion section about the robot development process and poof ball stories. Still, more time could be given to this subject. The self-plug was also interesting. Why does all the love go to the UTC? Bah... do you really hate Adam? [After edit: A little friendly competition never hurt anyone]

Podcast within a podcast? If I was a rookie I would just download that podcast separately. Not too sure if I dig this yet. "I love to look at visuals" Corny, yes? Very good info for rookies, don't let me fool you. With the batteries, you could mention using the AndyMark clip-insert-thingies to mark charged batteries (as they say on the pamphlet that comes with the kit). Seems like an AWEFUL lot for rookies. In our rookie year we had buttons and a single simple banner, but that was all of our promotional material. I think following KISS throughout your rookie season is good (getting a feel of things). As the cast within the cast went on the style seemed more relaxed, which is very good (in my opinion). Wish we had this information last year (actually we didn't have time to look for this sort of info)!

Again 41kbs (music this time) :x
Is this music even appropriate (or following copyright laws)

(Above notes taken as I listened)

Sorry to drill out the bottom of your boat with the above comments. I, as always, enjoyed this FIRSTCast, but just wanted to be as honest as possible to help it improve in the future! Cya at UCF (lets win this picture-taking-contest-thing)!

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by robosapien

Have not finished listening yet so I won't comment on the content yet, but why only 41kbs?

:X

Still though, thanks for producing shows like this (I will edit later with my comments)!

The sweet spot for quality, yet small file sizes. We tried 128kbps, but found that for an episode equal is size, it's over 2x the size!

[Tim Arnold]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

The sweet spot for quality, yet small file sizes. We tried 128kbps, but found that for an episode equal is size, it's over 2x the size!

Heck... I'll mirror it at higher quality if you will do it

I almost forgot, contrats with Sparky - I watched VCU and loved your bot. Only thing that I think could of been improved is the height of release (but that probably would involved a major design change).

[Michelle Celio]

I like I like I like.

So uhm yeah.. that music in the beginning is really cool, just a little bit two long for my tastes.

and I think Adam's gonna win, just because he has me on his side lol

[Tomasz Bania]

I'll Mirror it on my site if needed.

[Joe Matt]

It's not bandwidth (ok.... kinda), it's also download speed and storage size.

[Greg Marra]

Fun Fact:

With mono audio, you halve the bitrate, for free!

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

Fun Fact:

With mono audio, you halve the bitrate, for free!

I know! And that's why it's 9mb! See, easy for 56k users, small enough to store it on a chepo mp3 player with other songs still there, and not big enough to start clogging people's hard drives when we get more episodes out!

[Tomasz Bania]

sorry to say this, but at the rate you guys are going (comparing to other podcasts of course) I don't think you'll overload my hard drive any time soon.

Tomasz Bania

EDIT: OR you could put out 2 versions of each Episode if your looking our for dial-up users. Sound quality is a pretty important part in podcasting, but obviously making it 700 meg is a HUGE stretch. You guys were doing fine earlier at 15-20 meg. My biggest downloaded podcast is like 85 meg (mind you it's 2 hours long but sounds Terrific) and my smallest downloaded podcast is like 1 meg (6 minutes long, still sounds great). Just trying to give some POSITIVE critisism

[team399]

Team 399 here, we've had our new podcast up for about a week now, FIRSTified. Come check it out, team399.org or on iTunes, just look up FIRSTified.

[OZ_341]

I would just like to start by thanking the administrators of FIRSTcast for letting Dasiycast be a part of your show.
Our intent is to, over the long run, provide advice for rookies in an entertaining format. This of course runs the risk of stating the obvious for veterans. That is why we plan to produce each episode as a stand alone segment.
We also plan to post a link to FIRSTcast on our site ( www.team341.com ) and have our Daisycast as a separate download as well.
Our goal is to improve production values, content and delivery over time. We want it to be timely, informative and entertaining for rookies while sounding like a real radio show.

We will take the constructive criticism of everyone and try to apply it to future casts. We have applied the same concept of continuous improvement to our "Team in a Box" DVD for the past year and that seems to be aiding its development.

As for doing a separate cast, we actually like the idea of partnership and made a conscious decision to seek cooperation rather than compete. This is another idea that we have applied successfully to "Team in a Box". We have recently added segments from Teams 103 and 67 to provide new perspectives.

Quite frankly this is an area of FIRST where cooperation is simply more FUN!!

Thanks again to FIRSTcast! Hopefully we will meet you guys at competition this year.