Now let’s get this standardized across FRC.
if this is a petition, count me in. I’m tired of being told “go watch match videos and review” just to see someone else’s robot up close. Removes all of the value of recording in the first place.
I’m counting myself as a casual observer. If I have a webcast open this weekend, I’m probably not specifically scouting a match for all the teams involved. I’m watching it in the background as I work in the 1712 shop or at my computer at home. I don’t need an analytic view of everything, I’m just watching for enjoyment and to see some cool robots do stuff. My expectations of that viewer experience are different from someone trying to scout or someone trying to review their own robot/match play.
So almost exactly what the FIRST Webcast Unit is doing?
Yes exactly that. I want to see that at every single event next year along with people that are trained to run/operate it.
Absolute must for scouting and not getting headaches ,tired of estimating what happened in the 10 second delay on the bot I was tracking at the time. Its doable with the switching between two streams…I would propose instead of quad a **full field (not top down) **and a production one the quad is too small to track what’s going on
I could be wrong, but I believe at the Central Illinois Regional they show the full field view all the time on the webstream and show the “normal” 1 camera broadcast on the big screens within the arena
I personally prefer the full field view and agree with what others have said that they should replace the quad-view option with a fixed full field view. Quad-view is impossible to see anything useful. To FIRST’s credit the webstream consistency and options have gotten consistently better over the last few years
At the FiM Midland District, we actually have dual-streams, one basic full-field static shot (with overlays) stream, and one variable shot stream that can switches between 4 different camera angles (though it generally only switches off of the full-field view if something particularly interesting is happening, or if one side of the field has nothing going on). At some point I’d like to get a multi-view set up so we can split screen between two close-up cameras at opposite ends of the field.
I really like how PCH district does their uploads, they upload a zoomed in focused match, but they upload the same match from overhead view.
Got the money to supply a bunch more cameras and video switches?
Nope, but I think FIRST should prioritize cameras and video switches for next year in order to “Make it Loud”.
Yes, that is why I find it frustrating. FIRST has gone to great lengths to improve the webcasting and archiving of videos, but making one small tweak (removing quad view for stationary full field, which is already part of the quad view) would make the entire experience significantly better. FIRST is 99% of the way to a fantastic solution.
Am I the only person who actually likes the quad view?
I think I would prefer it if the full field view took up 80% of the screen, but with the quad view I found myself catching a lot more action on those side views than I expected.
Probably. I hate that and whatever the BS was in 2016/2017 with the tri-view when they were done by FIRST. Unless I got them taking up the whole screen, its useless. And even then not all of them are sent at a good quality, making them useless even when they take up the whole screen.
3620’s Highschool hosts the FIM St. Joseph event every year, and the dual streams have always been a big part of the event. In the past, we’ve had the standard full-field stream for the FIRST people, and a “produced” stream for, well, everyone else. This year was a little different and the standard manned-cameras were replaced with gimbal cameras, but it worked out fine.
The “action” streams were run primarily by students, with a few on the switch box (heh), and a few on the cameras. Felt really professional, and actually was pretty fun.
I’d like to see the full-field be the default though, makes watching videos later way easier to pre-scout. Maybe not the most GP way to call out the issue, but someone had to.
Also keep in mind that many of the more “produced” video systems in place have been around since the days before official FIRST webcasts were a thing. The video was being mixed strictly as a compliment to the live action on the field to spectators within the venue.
While I do also share the frustrations and sentiments of OP when observing from home, close-up shots to compliment live play for spectators at the event (when done correctly) is far more engaging.
Would love to see FIRST get to a level where, similar to the NFL, the camera is full field during match play and goes into close-up camera angles during analysis or post game. Some offseasons already do this well!
Nah, I quite like the quad view. For some reason, the full field view sometimes cuts off near the portals, which is a semi important part of the field…
Note, that yes, 1108 records and posts full-field video of most all our matches and some of other peoples.
But this year, I have two people with great big TV cameras standing right in front of the field on the far left and far right, often blocking robot starts. Just so we can have the wide-world-of-sports images.
Note, we also post videos from a zoom-camera that follows one robot (mostly ours). We also take these videos from the top of the field, mid center.
So, yeah. Full field. And get those people out of the way.
Can you imagine a professional sport broadcast where people stand in front of the fans and cameras? I can’t.
I don’t have a solution to get the refs out of the way, but getting camera people out of the way is easy.[/quote]
But if the only people who this style of broadcast would serve is people already affiliated with a team (as you mentioned earlier) this actually doesn’t serve the purpose of making FIRST loud or expanding it to a broader audience.
It does provide some value to those of us already involved, which is useful and good, but it doesn’t make it any more accessible to viewers who would actually enjoy watching FIRST matches, but haven’t discovered them yet.
Currently people who stumble upon a webcast when they’re browsing Twitch or YouTube are presented with a somewhat inaccessible feed of robots scrambling around a field for no clear discernible reason because these broadcasts aren’t designed for them. Fixing that discoverability problem will take much more thought and work than just putting up a static full field camera. (Not to say no one is currently trying to do this, but in my opinion most of the current broadcasts seem to focus much more on serving FIRSTers rather than introducing non-FIRSTers to the program.)
I disagree. My parents (I would consider a casual observer) hate when they zoom in on Derpsy McCantGrabCubes instead of showing what’s actually going on.
If it isint showing the correct thing, the AV crew needs better training. (or better eyes)