What to Expect In Atlanta

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Robyn Needel

To answer your questions: the four divisions are Archimedes, Curie, Galileo, and Newton - sense a theme going on?

The passage from the pits to the floor of the Georgia Dome is indoors through a series of roped off walkways and loading docks so you don't have to worry about inclement weather. Just hope that it's nice for Saturday night, because the party's held in Centennial Park - where you and 20,000 of your closest friends will have a blast together!

You forgot da Vinci (Edison and Frankin divisions) for FTC, and Einstein field...

If you aren't on the drive crew/team media, you can't go the indoor route to the floor. That's robots only. There are ways to get to the Dome's seating area without exposing yourself too much to the weather, but they involve lots of escalators and going well out of your way, or lots of running from shelter to shelter. The team party may be moved if the weather's too bad, but don't worry about that yet. If it is moved, they'll tell you.

[rspurlin]

For those who want to get a feeling for locations, try this:

1 go to maps.google.com and search for 'georgia dome'.

2 zoom out and adjust the map so that you can see Centennial Olympic Park on the right side of the satellite view, then adjust the map down just a bit so you can see the whole building directly north of the Dome (which is hall C of the Georgia World Congress Center).

The Dome houses a full football field plus surrounding seating. The park/plaza between the Dome and hall C is roughly the size of a football field itself. With the pits in Hall C, you'll have to cross this area to go from the matches to the pits. Robots and their drive teams have a covered but longer route to the dome floor.

Centennial Olympic Park is where the after party is held unless the weather is not cooperating. It is bordered on the north by the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke.

[Jeff Pahl]

What to expect in Atlanta... Pollen!!!

If you have any sort of allergy to tree pollen, make sure you bring plenty of medication. I usually have to start taking something about two days before leaving to go down there, personally.

Here is the link to the Atlanta Pollen Count web page: http://www.atlantaallergy.com/pollenCount.aspx

Today's count is 1284. Anything over 120 is considered "Extremely High". It's not uncommon for it to reach 4000+ around the time of Championship.

[dtengineering]

If you're a Chief Delphi regular you'll get to meet lots of people who you've only known on-line so far.

We (we being the FTC teams I was travelling with... still have to qualify our FRC team) were in Atlanta about half an hour... just long enough to pick up our bags and get on the train from the airport to downtown when I spotted a fellow carrying a big FRC tote of stuff on the train. It was Dave Brinza, who warmly welcomed us to the championships and got an amazing weekend off to a great start for us. Later that evening Al and the Wildstang team, who were one of probably a dozen FRC and FTC teams at our hotel were helping us out as we thought we might have to rebuild our FTC robots as they had been seized by the TSA in Dallas.

It was a great time, and I look forward to going back one year with the FRC team. You won't be disappointed!

Jason

[dani190]

might sound like a dumb question but is a video camera in the stands useful at all?
Or is the distance so great that its useless?

What about a video camera/ cameras with telephoto lenses on the field?

We plan to be recording off the field management or w.e system also so...

Any advice on this sort of topic is greatly appreciated.

[rspurlin]

Assuming that things are as they have been in the past, minus the tornado:

You will have one media pass so that someone can join your team on the dome floor for photo/video. Since there is a wall before the first row of seats, your media person can usually stand there and get good close up video and photos without obstructing the view of the spectators. You will not be allowed to be near the drive teams during the match, nor will you be permitted to interfere with the army of refs, field reset and other volunteers working the field.

Many teams do take a video feed off the FIRST equipment, but there are a limited number of ports. Other teams set up behind the last row of seats with a camera either recording to tape or a laptop. These teams are usually also doing heavy duty scouting with this setup.

Normal camera lenses work fine if you're on the dome floor. The further you go up in the seats, the more you'll need that telephoto capability. For a clue as to size, go to your nearest football stadium that seats 71,000 people and walk around.

Lastly, make contacts with the other teams in your matches and arange to share video with them, especially if they have the match from a different angle. At our one and only regional, I took my camera down to the lowest row of seats neat the opposing alliance drive station. The school camera was close to midfield but higher up in the stands. That way we have two different angles to study our performance.

[mtaman02]

Each field will have its on A/V Output to any video device of your choice...

JUST MAKE SURE YOU BRING any adapters you think you might need since it's first come first serve (adpaters e.g. BNC Connectors).

as well as what rspurlin as said

[dani190]

Ok so in other words having 2 video cameras, recording field feed and having like 3 cameras is not overkill?

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by dani190

Ok so in other words having 2 video cameras, recording field feed and having like 3 cameras is not overkill?

haha not really... a couple in the stands with dif angles is a good idea and one on foot isn't bad either. plus if you want from FIRST's view then one to take off their feed would also be good.

[dani190]

Next question is then how do u guys deal with your dv tapes? Il end up with 8 easy with 2 cameras going daily.... Are u guys offloading tape during the day and re using tapes?

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by dani190

Next question is then how do u guys deal with your dv tapes? Il end up with 8 easy with 2 cameras going daily.... Are u guys offloading tape during the day and re using tapes?

just changing them out before the time runs out but beofre the next match... then offloading at the hotel and re-using them OR just keep changing them and offloading when you get back to your home location.

[rspurlin]

I should have mentioned this before. It's the Essential Information document from the FIRST website. It has a few more details about the video side of things and the media pass, and lots more details about other aspects of the event. Your experience will be greatly improved if your team members are aware of the information in that document as well as the other info FIRST publishes about Championships.

It is like running 4 large regionals simultaneously, but with FTC and FLL events going on as well to ensure consistent chaos.

[dani190]

ok thanks guys, we have 12 dv tapes and i will be offloading whenever i get a chance and keep circulating them...

We will also be recording the live feeds...

[robotlover]

I'm also a rookie this year and have a question! Are all 7 of the fields (for FRC FLL and FTC) all in the same area, or are they really far spread out? Because I would like to visit the FTC and FLL events/pits and check out how that runs, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have if their fields are far away.....