Man was this a great season for webcasts of what!
It wasn’t long ago that only a handful of regionals were webcast, and those that were could only be watched on about a 3”x3” screen with any clarity. This year we had twenty four regionals webcast and all the ones I saw were of great quality to boot. It sure was fun to be able to look at the match ups, pick a regional, and watch the playoffs at full screen resolution! **So to everyone out there who was involved with all the great webcasts this year - Thank you, your time and effort was both noticed and very much appreciated. **
Thanks again,
Yeah it definitely was great to sit by the computer and be able to watch regionals in a click. Thanks to everyone who made them possible (believe me I know how much work it is to organize one).
It was unfortunate that the Israeli regional webcast didn’t work out. We really tried, but we just had too many technical problems. I promise next year there will be one.
David
thank you 111, 108, NASA, 177, New york Planning committe, and countless othere for providing us with a wonderful webcasting season.
Thanks to everyone who helped to organize the webcasts… being able to sit down and watch all the excitement was almost as good as being there… almost. (I probably wouldn’t have gotten strange looks if I were cheering in the stands instead of from my sofa.) I really appreciate the time and effort you put into this, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to see so many awesome robots compete.
I’d like to send a shout out to everyone who helped run webcasts. Thanks a million!
Another thanks to all those archiving the matches. SOAP, TBA, and others, thanks a ton.
I enjoyed the webcasts too, although I have always wondered why LA (Socal) is never webcast.
Let me count the reasons:
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limited internet access. We had one hard line (dial-up IIRC) and that was needed for the scoring system.
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When NASA does a webcast they bring all the equipment AND personel needed. There is a dim possibility that the Regional Committee could find funding to rent the equipment, but we have nobody with the expertise to pull this off. I have a limited background in taping for later broadcast, and I’m the best we got. I would still need trained camera operators and to train somebody on the switcher so I could take a break when needed. Oh and I’ll probably be doing other critical stuff, like making sure the field stays “up” or inspecting robots
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Most of us on the Committee wear two or even three “hats”. This is not a healthy position to be in for the extended future. This year we lost one key member to a new job in a new place and it took a lot of effort to fill her roles. We are actively looking for responsible adults to help with future events.
If there is somebody out there that has both the desire to see this happen and experience to pull it off, please contact the Regional Committee for next year. Maybe we could try and do so as an experiment for the Fall Classic, but the people doing this would have to be in addition to the current volunteers.
Although your first reason obviously eliminates this possibility right away, I have to disagree on number 2. NASA themselves do not run the webcasts, all they do is provide the bandwidth for some of them. The majority of this years webcasts were run by SOAP, several by Wildstang, and a few by other teams, with both 111 and 230 I know providing their own bandwidth for the regionals they did. However, in terms of the personnel and equipment required, you are mistaken. Every regional (I think?) already has camera operators, video switchers, and a production crew that manage the feed for the main projector screen behind the field for spectators. With the exception of a few of the ones SOAP did, webcasts do nothing more than take a publically available drop of this feed, input it digitally into a laptop using either a camcorder or Firewire/USB converter, and upload a compressed stream to someone else’s servers. All it requires is a computer, ~$50 video capture device, and usually can be run unattended. I believe SOAP also ships laptops completely configured along with instructions on how to get things properly set up, so aside from an internet connection, running webcasts is really a simple thing to do that any team who can bring a small amount of equipment could volunteer to do (as 230 and 177 have done [Wildstang has broadcast engineers on their team.])
We do have a broadcast engineer on the team however the webcasts are handled by me (and as Raul’s mechanical team regularly points out, I’m just a dumb software guy ;)).
Doing the on-site webcast work isn’t difficult but it does help if you’re familiar with some simple networking and A/V concepts. I’ve helped a few people run webcasts of off-season competitions through our server with nothing more than a few PM’s exchanged here on CD. All I take with me is a laptop, a $50 CompUSA USB capture device, and a selection of RCA cables and connectors. As I’m usually tied up with my team, I only check in on it now and then to make sure things look OK (which is where feedback from viewers on CD is important).
The biggest problem, as Chris mentioned, is having a server with enough bandwidth to redistribute the stream. During the Midwest regional we were pushing 80Mbits/sec throughput on our server. Definitely not something you’re going to be able to do from a cable modem or DSL line!
I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find video of the Palmetto regional? It was broadcast but is one of the few that wasn’t archived. There is nothing on YouTube either. So could someone with video please point me in the right direction?
You forgot 230 in there. 
Well This year at FLR we’ve been able to broadcast the whole competition live on Cable TV locally so next year hopefully we can get a webcast going as well.
We should aim and make it a goal for next year to webcast and archive each and every regional.
sorry my bad, i did watch UTC, so thanks for a wonderful regional broadcast.
I was going to webcast FLR except I did not get confirmation in time. If(when) I come next year I can bring all that necessary except the DSL or Lan connection.