Regionals on TV?

[George A.]

Originally Posted by Pavan Dave

Sorry for the profanity but how about mentioning the "C" word? Commercials? With a FORD or GM commercial between the matches and livelier emcees maybe we could swing some votes over?

Yeah I don't know how much more lively you can get than Dave standing on his head, Mark Leon flipping through the air, or Blair riding around on Rollerblades.

But some sponsors might take on to getting air time. GM and Ford probably would like to get their name out there more (though they don't need it.)

[Steve W]

I have been talking with Discovery Channel for the GTR. I believe that they may try and do a high def feed. I have gotten them a second DSL so we shall see.

[Nawaid Ladak]

Here is my solution

don't just do one regional, FIRST im pretty sure RECORDS these regionals and has private channels to veiw these stations through a secure network. It just doesn't seem like FIRST would just do the same video setup/layout for every regional and championship divisions.

so here is what i suggest. do something like NASA TV does for Championships. Switch from Division to Division (or Regional to Regional) to broadcast all the action. for the most intriging matches/important

last year at championships, i was up friday night looking at the scedule for all 4 divisions, i had the media badge for my team and i went through each divisions saturday scedule and i picked matches taht were going to be worth wathing. then i picked which alliance selection would be the most intresting, same witht he playoffs once i knew all the alliances, and i stayed there... it was the best idea i had come up with that whole week regaurding matches... my team was no where near getting picked...

i think this would be the BEST idea for Friday and Saturday.... but a better idea would be by putting on limited airtime and broadcasting the local regionals across a national spectrum from 1pm-4:30pm on saturday showing important highlights for each team in the elimination matches. regional sponcers a buy ad spaces across teh regional covrage....

just my $0.02

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Nawaid Ladak

Don't just do one regional, FIRST im pretty sure RECORDS these regionals and has private channels to veiw these stations through a secure network. It just doesn't seem like FIRST would just do the same video setup/layout for every regional and championship divisions.

I am afraid you are giving FIRST credit for possessing more resources than they actually have. They do not have a secure television network with private channels at their disposal. They do indeed move the video/audio equipment that you see from event to event, and use it just for the video production at the events. In those cases where a third party has agreed to provide broadcast of the competition video (such as when then events are covered on NASA TV), then they are able to just tap into the line that goes to the "big screen" and use that for their source feed. But the big screen video gets produced the same way, whether the event is being broadcast or not.

-dave

[Ellery]

The Only way the FLR had Time Warner braodcast it the last year for the first time was due to the efforts of a few mentors from 1450 and RIT to match funding of the broadcast so $$$ is still a factor. I'm not sure what the deal was this year but it's broadcast ont he educational Channel 4 and not necessarily a main broadcast channel. Either way it's still better than nothing and gets alot of people to see it if they could not make it, especially this year through the snow.

[DonRotolo]

As for opinions: NASA does enough as far as TV coverage.

For getting new folks interested, the Championship brodacast is sufficient. Once that's being done, I think additional resources being used for x additional teams gets FIRST and NASA more bang for the buck

Having the Kickoff sent via NASA TV is actually far more valuable, since the alteratives aren't as good or easy, and it's a critical need to have "all" teams view the Kickoff live.

Should NASA devote even more resources to FIRST? Perhaps, but we all need to remember that NASA depends on the whims of Congress and has a hard time with some long-term planning because of the vagaries of funding. If everyone involved in FIRST in the USA was to write to their congressperson and express their desire to see greater funding for NASA, believe me FIRST would also benefit.

Originally Posted by George A.

Yeah I don't know how much more lively you can get than Dave standing on his head, Mark Leon flipping through the air, or Blair riding around on Rollerblades.

Well, seeing Dave fly would be more lively, but I know he doesn't like to show off in public

Don