Many events this year will have attendance limitations, and as such, many teams may be opting towards having team members scout virtually. Virtual scouting becomes far easier if events maintain a constant, consistent streamed camera angle - preferably just a full field view.
It is extremely likely that scouts will miss game pieces if the streams are swapping from view to view, from robot to robot, zooming in on one particular robot, etc.
Scouting is a critical part of the FRC competition experience and I hope it is not cast to the wayside in order to have some ācoolā camera angles.
I ask that, if you are in control of an eventās stream and you are reading this, please keep the stream to a full-field camera view during the match as much as possible.
If the event is running 2 streams at once, please keep one of them to a full-field view, at least. I am sure nobody would mind having 1 stream be full-field and the other be action shots.
Every āclose up action shotā stream Iāve ever seen missed almost all of the cool stuff, every time. The only good angle is full field, end of story. If thereās something that can be missed in a shot, it will be missed. Guaranteed.
To follow up on this: For FRC this should ONLY be a concern for districts as ALL regional events should be on the standardized webcast unit with most being on the dual streams and on the t.tv/firstinspiresX channels.
With Alex Herreid now gone (IMHO the person who was the largest driver towards the standardized web kits) I am hoping this doesnāt change and am not sure what FIRST employee is in charge of this.
So this really comes down to you pleading with your district (in this case NE) to make the right call and decision on camera work. It is quite easy to allow a āhouseā camera to only be shown to those in the venue and to keep the webcast on full screen except during ceremonies.
Point being: I think you are posting in the wrong area and need to take this up with the NE if you want direct results.
There are more districts than just NE. Itās not about just my teamās experience. NE, CHS, ONT, FMA(?), PNW(?) all have attendance limitations, probably others.
Of course there are more districts than just NEā¦
My point being is that this is decided on a district by district level for district events. The best people to speak with about this are the individual district stakeholders and this is where change will best happen due to FIRSTās stance on how districts are treated and the FIRST webcast guide that they are following.
Yeah an upgrade to the SDI pinhole cams they are using on the sides of the field would be nice. The Main camera is not always standardized as it may be the house main cam.
This thread will certainly remind and inspire people across these separate districts to do this outreach. Iām not sure what your objection is. Is CD running out of room for new threads?
Sounds like he just wanted to make sure OP knew who the right people to try to talk to to ensure this ask is heard, at least for the events OPās team is attending. A CD thread is very easily missed or ignored. I donāt think he was objecting to anything, just providing advice.
You are right though, this can serve as a notice to teams in other districts to try to reach out to the right people, and maybe that is what Justin was intending this post to be.
@jtrv NEFIRST has specifically noted at previous town hall events that they will be optimizing streams for remote viewing (static full field shots being a priority as well as making sure each event has proper bandwidth for high quality streaming). I think @Francis-134 is coordinating this effort.
I also would like to request this be followed at many districts/regions. When I am watching match video, either live or recorded, I am often looking at teams outside of my home district (which I believe does a stellar job in this regard). Perhaps in preparation for an offseason event, perhaps looking for inspiration from intriguing robot designs or alliance strategies.
Thank you to the OP for opening this up to FRC at large, and not solely New England.
When it looked like we might be doing limited events in 2021 with remote viewing for scouting, we requested that there be a stream capturing a static shot from each side of the field. There were sight line issues that made it difficult to see items like the far side WOF and the far alliances climbing that made it beneficial for scouting to have 2 wide field static streams. Our district was more than willing to do that, but probably would not have thought about it if we had not asked.
This yearās field does not seem to have as many sight line issues, so a single stream from one side of the field might be sufficient. However, with the end games so separated at opposite ends of the field, it might be nice to have 2 streams and then have those streams zoom in on the climbing structure in the last 5 seconds or so (with one stream zooming in on red and the other on blue) so that the scouts can see what is happening there and accurately scout the end game capabilities of the event participants.
If the event has 2 streams and the teams want to see static full field views from each side, just ask for it and you will probably get it. If you are in a district, ask the district management and let them know what you need for remote scouting. They are there to help make this experience as good as it can be for you. If you donāt tell them what you want to see then they will guess and probably not give you everything you want.
Some teams will still be scoring in the last 20 seconds as well, so that needs to be accounted for as well - you canāt just completely stop showing the centre goal