Full Field View Only PLEASE

FIRST General Forum
#64

The FRC Webcast Unit project expanded from a beta program last year of 2 truck routes to 7 truck routes this year. We hope to continue expansion in the future, to allow all broadcasts to become official broadcasts. As far as official broadcasts go, we retain the original source files, and we use those for our YouTube uploads to prevent muted audio. If you think there are videos missing that were broadcast on “firstinspires” channels, feel free to PM me.

You can find upcoming official broadcasts at our new TV Guide:
http://frc.watch

There are also links on the event pages at http://frc.events to the official broadcasts, or to the archive if they’ve already happened.

They’re archived on the Twitch page:

We don’t currently chop and upload quad view to YouTube, as it seems that the program view is desired by most fans.

#65

Is this saying FIRST is looking to remove the aspect of AV from areas such as PNW, Indiana, and Australia, who already have equipment and volunteers along with their own setups, and assimilate it into their own? Not trying to be accusing or anything, but thats what this sounds like.

Not on the YT Channel though…

If this thread is any indication, I think you guys need to go back and re-evaluate this.

#66

Regardless of opinions about what action should or shouldn’t be shown, I think we can all agree that this view is nothing anyone has ever wanted in the history of video.

#67

The red pixel robot is on the blue side and the blue pixel robot is on the red side. Literally unwatchable

#68

That should be considered a crime against humanity. The perpetrator should be imprisoned and fed nothing but pineapple pizza.

#69

And JVN’s raisin brownies… shudders

#70

Well at least it solves the constant problem of forgetting the name of this game is or what district we are in…

#71

On this note I’d like to take a moment and recognize the awesome work Jacob, Alex, and co. at FIRST have done with the webcast units. The whole deal is fantastic, and they’ve done a fabulous job getting it all together and cohesively functioning.

#72

#73

Seriously— I know there are folks out there that can’t remember when GameDay was just an idea and figuring out if there was a livestream for a given event meant keeping an eye on the CD thread for it, but the FIRST/Twitch partnership, combined with GameDay, have made viewing FRC matches so much more enjoyable. Kudos to everyone involved— sure we’ve got nitpicks, but the community as a whole has benefitted to much and I for one greatly appreciate the work put into it.

#74

Anybody else here remember the original Gameday–the SOAP Gameday? TBA just made it better, and more permanent.

I like the option used out here in SoCal: the A/V group out there does 1 camera, a full-field mannable camera from the top of the stands. (Basically… it’s full-field unmanned unless there’s somebody needing to be followed for ceremonies or something.) The FWU (FIRST Webcast Unit) was set up on the far side of the field from that (scoring table side) with an opposite view plus the switch-cams. Streams as single (production) and quad (FWU+production).

#75

Here in PCH we put a lot of work into creating the best possible experience for not only the spectators in the venue, but the viewers online as well. We try to go above and beyond wherever possible, for example we have fieldside microphones so those watching online can not only see the robots, but hear them as well (example: https://youtu.be/Dz5gU_-7uyU). I’m glad to hear people like our effort.

We always stream and upload both a “production” view and a full-field view. If we have the internet bandwidth at the event, we will upload each match immediately after the match ends.

#76

It’s pretty easy for them to evaluate, simply look at the amount of viewers each broadcast receives. Currently the production view for the San Fransisco regional has 249 viewers while the quad view has only 72 viewers.

#77

OK, there has been a lot of discussion on this thread. I didn’t read all of it (finals week and all :stuck_out_tongue: ), but here are my thoughts.

I’m one of the Assistant Technical Directors for the PNW district (most Oregon events). We consider three different audiences:
[ul]
[li]Live Audience
[/li][LIST]
[li] The live audience is the people in the stands. We show them the “switched” footage on a couple of projection screens, and they’re happy (It’s still “up-in-the-air” how much the live audience looks at the screens versus the actual field)
[/li][/ul]
[li]General Streaming Audience
[/li][ul]
[li] The general streaming audience is the “grandparents, family, and friends” of the stream. They don’t know a lot about what’s going on. Maybe they stumbled on the stream, and are just curious. Either way, they want a show, and it’s our job, as the AV crew, to give them a cohesive and exciting show.
[/li][/ul]
[li]Scouting Audience
[/li][ul]
[li] Finally, the scouting audience. This is what, it sounds like, is the OP’s view. They just want a full field view (with the FMS) so they can watch a single robot throughout the ENTIRE match.
[/li][/ul]
[/LIST]

This is speaking just from my experience with the PNW. I don’t know what FIRST’s trucks have or what they plan to do.

The PNW has a single streaming box for each truck (Usually, Oregon and Washington). We are looking into getting more streaming boxes so that we’re able to stream the full field view for EACH district event (not just DCMP). Right now, our main priorities are the live and general streaming audiences. Most of the district events are also in high school gyms. The full field view wouldn’t be a “top-down” view. It would be an angled view.

With ALL of that said, I’m excited for DCMP and the coming years! We hope that we can please ALL of our audiences.

#78

I’ve gotten together with groups of alumni to watch events on weekends where we set up multiple laptops to watch all the big names play, purely for entertainment value (general audience). Any stream that isn’t full field we just close out to free up the screen space for streams we actually want to watch. It’s so frustrating waiting 25 minutes to see a specific team play just to end up getting an “entertaining” view of nothing.

Not that the AV crews are doing a bad job. These games just don’t lend themselves to those types of shots. Its a lot more like chess than it is football.

It appears other general audiences have had a similar experience. I’m glad they are trying to cater to a general audiences and not just teams, but general audiences want to see what’s happening too.

#79

Chess where half the pieces are moving at a time.

#80

When watching the Houston divisionals, I was really happy to see that they had the 5?-view showing – a full field and various stationary pieces, and the annoying moving view was in the middle so someone could see it if they really wanted to.

Unfortunately, they switched to the moving view only for the final finals… which was incredibly annoying.

I would love to see them adopt the multiview throughout the whole thing, it seems to be the best of all worlds.

#81

I think mic stand view has surpassed full field view as my favorite way to watch matches. Mic stand view only PLEASE!

#82

I’ll +1 full field only, not only is it more useful for both scouts and drive teams looking to review matches after the event, but general watchers will get a better idea of the game and will be able to watch the bot that they want for the entire match. But for something like climbing last year or this year, where all the action is very localized at one point in the game, split zoomed views could be nice (, because cutting away from our first double lift to show a team just hanging off the bar is frustrating).

#83

The “best” fix for this IMO, is probably the hardest to implement for the A/V crew. Many of the action shots in professional sports are shown between plays. Have the full field running during the actual match while 1 or 2 cameras are during close up work. Then between matches you show the great action shots that might have been missed during the full field auto. It also gives the opportunity to help the casual views who may not know what to look for when first tuning into the stream. The logistics of actually showing the close up of a great team’s auto mode or a robot tipping over during the time between matches would be difficult, but would be a whole lot more entertaining.