Broadcast Guidelines

Requirements

These requirements are things you must follow as a FIM AV volunteer when running your stream. If you believe your event should be exempted from any of these requirements, please clear it first with an AV Lead.

These requirements apply to any coverage of a FIM event which is used to create official match videos.

  • Show the full field for the entire match
    • Caveat: during the endgame you can show an alternative perspective if it gives a better view of the robots and still gives the audience a sense of what all six robots on the field are doing
  • Do not stream audio/video which you do not have the rights for
    • If it’s in the event script, it’s probably safe
    • If you’re not sure, ask or default to no
  • Stick to the event script
    • Your event’s script has been carefully put together by FIRST headquarters, FIM staff, and your event coordinator. It includes content that sponsors require us to show. Unless the script says otherwise, consider any sponsor-related content to be “must play”
    • MCs and GAs may opt to reference bullet points rather than reading word-for-word for some of the spoken parts of the event script. This is okay as long as the major points in the script are still made.

Recommendations

The following are our recommendations for how you can set up your graphics and run your broadcast. We’ve found this to work well, but you’re welcome to use all, part, or none of it. Requirements for the broadcast can be found elsewhere on this site. If you have questions about these recommendations, or aren’t sure how to do any of them, reach out for help to the friendly people in the #av-help channel on Slack!

Overlays

  • Make use of our live captions, this makes your event more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. We recommend placing these captions at the bottom of your screen, with a separate color set up for each microphone (the default configuration is red and blue). Use overlay number 4 in vMix for this.
    • Live captions configuration can be accessed via AV Assistant
    • More information can be found in the software guide
  • Place the real-time scoring from Audience Display on the top half of the screen, with red and blue matching the sides of the field from the camera’s perspective. Use overlay number 3 in vMix for this. If you’re using the rankings ticker you may need to move it up a bit so it doesn’t conflict.
    • Audience Display configuration can be accessed by right clicking the window in the taskbar
  • Use the rankings ticker during qualification matches. This shows a live view of each team’s placement in the event. Use overlay number 2 for this.
    • Rankings ticker configuration can be accessed at https://q.fimav.us, using your event key and the Manage Options screen

Camera

  • Avoid excessive live camera movement. When possible, move the camera to get a good shot before taking it live.
  • Show each alliance as they’re being introduced. Your vMix file should already have PTZ inputs for red and blue which you can adjust and make use of to quickly recall each camera position during introductions
  • Always show the full field during match play. Exceptions can be made for the end game, as long as the action is still clearly visible.
    • If using the Sony camera, make sure auto tracking is disabled during match play

Audio

  • Have your DJ volume all the way down on the Live Stream bus in xair.
  • Make use of a ducker to ensure the announcers and game sounds can always be heard over the music.
  • Make use of a compressor on the microphone inputs to keep the volume consistent.

Other

  • Have fun!