My day job is one of the sponsors of the First Robotics Program. The idea behind the program is to get kids interested in technology. I was invited to participate in the Dallas Regional where high schools from all over the south west and even Mexico participated in a competition to build and deploy a robot to play a game called Lunacy. You can read more about First Robotics here (http://www.usfirst.org) and more about the Dallas Regional here (http://dallas.txfirst.org/).
Lockheed sponsored something called 5th Gear. This was a simulator built on XNA that allowed the teams to practice the strategy playing Lunacy without wear and tear on their robots. You can get a copy of 5th Gear and practice yourself here (http://www.tinyurl.com/5thgear).
My task at the event was to stream and capture the video. The organizers had a team that took video and displayed it in the venue but they wanted the ability to share the event LIVE online. Additionally they wanted the ability to record the video so that the teams could watch it later.
Streaming was done via UStream.tv. This is a free service that has a flash plug-in that allows you to broadcast LIVE video to the internet. This allowed parents, classmates back home, family, and the world to see what was going on at the event. Attendance in the online broadcast fluctuated but we had over 7000 people logged in watching the event. To capture the video we used the Pinnacle Systems - Studio MovieBox Plus (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8983816&st=pinnacle&lp=9&type=product&cp=1&id=1218004430057).
Recording was done using the Pinnacle - Video Transfer (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8719032&st=pinnacle&lp=8&type=product&cp=1&id=1200702767761). This allowed us to capture high quality video direct to a hard drive (i.e. without a computer). We then used the included software to chop up the videos by match. Due to concerns over the length and size of the videos we chose to upload the clips to Veoh. We chose that service again because it was free and because YouTube and MSN Soapbox have size/length limitations. The videos have/will be uploaded here (http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/publisher:DallasFirst#).
All in all this was a great experience. The only way this country is going to say a leader in the world is if we get the next generation interested in science and technology. Programs like this are a great step in that direction. I would like to thanks the folks at First and my company for sponsoring this event.