What video content do you want to see at the 2015 Congress?

seigenblues · #1

While not yet a certainty, it's looking very likely that the 2015 US Go Congress will feature live television! With lots of hours in the day, what would you like to see broadcast from the congress to give you that sweet congress flavor? No guarantees on what we'll be able to do -- volunteer hours are a scarce & precious resource -- but any input you can give us is *really* helpful!

So what sounds like something you'd want to watch & recommend to your friends?

seigenblues · #2

Also, if you have other ideas, please post them here!

wineandgolover · #3

Hi Andrew,

You might want to clarify that you mean the US Go Congress.

Though with the sad demise of eurogoTV, maybe it's obvious.

seigenblues · #4

ah, thanks

Right. Doesn't fit though

Splatted · #5

I messed up my voting. +1 for teacher's workshops please. :study:

Kirby · #6

Videotape everything. Especially passionate drama from AGA meetings.

Come to think of it, this brings a new idea to mind: streamed trolling.

I need to setup a twitch.tv account now so that I can stream passionate L19 debates.

seigenblues · #7

Kirby, you're welcome to come have a beer game with me and troll whoever you like

ETA: i am currently the only voter for AGA C-SPAN. :lol:

studying · #8

Apologies if this is obvious, but as someone who has never had the opportunity to attend, does "teacher's workshop" mean all the lectures that guests are giving? Or is that referring to a special workshop on how to teach go to others? I have to think the pro/strong player lectures are some of the most valuable content that's being created, and would love to see that available online, if possible.

DrStraw · #9

You missed an option. I detest having to watch things in video form. Give me a printed version anytime. I rarely watch links to youtube posted here or anywhere else. So how about an option to say "give us all the results and game records in SGF format"?

Kirby · **#10**

seigenblues wrote:

Kirby, you're welcome to come have a beer game with me and troll whoever you like

I'll have to take you up on that. Sounds great.

In all seriousness, though, I think the idea of videotaping events at congress are great. If I weren't attending already, I'm sure I'd watch anything that was videotaped. So my vote is for all of the options you've given, as long as there are the resources.

seigenblues · **#11**

DrStraw wrote:

You missed an option. I detest having to watch things in video form. Give me a printed version anytime. I rarely watch links to youtube posted here or anywhere else. So how about an option to say "give us all the results and game records in SGF format"?

Any video we manage to do will be in addition to the e-journal's usual stories and digests that will go out as usual. The game records will still be transcribed by recorders, independently of any video broadcast. As usual, the E-J will get as many game records as volunteers allow, and they will be posted on the tournament crosstabs (like here: http://www.usgo.org/tournaments/crosstab/band-matrix/170 -- every underlined result is an SGF)

studying wrote:

Apologies if this is obvious, but as someone who has never had the opportunity to attend, does "teacher's workshop" mean all the lectures that guests are giving? Or is that referring to a special workshop on how to teach go to others? I have to think the pro/strong player lectures are some of the most valuable content that's being created, and would love to see that available online, if possible.

The teacher's workshop was a program put together by Chris Kirschner & Bill Camp in Tacoma in 2013, and again by Chris K in 2014; teacher's gave talks on their experiences, successes, failures, etc, that they had teaching, e.g., Nick Sibicky's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEaj5kibXw4 and mine here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUVKOLDYuB8DYuB8

Kirby wrote:

In all seriousness, though, I think the idea of videotaping events at congress are great. If I weren't attending already, I'm sure I'd watch anything that was videotaped. So my vote is for all of the options you've given, as long as there are the resources.

Great! Noted. Not sure how much will be feasible but we'll try and prioritize what we have here.

I'm surprised to see pro interviews ranking so highly -- what would y'all like to ask them??? :shock:

Jujube · **#12**

You can do well to emulate what is happening at the CCSCSL (Chess Club & Scholastic Centre of St Louis) - their coverage of the Sinquefield Cup this year was very nicely produced. Also, Yasser Seirawan is a very cool and suave guy. Get someone like him.

Also, BadukTV have nice ideas about how to show a game and commentate on it. An example is the overlay of a digital board on the live board so that variations can be shown.

I also think a very good point is that the board position is going to remain static for minutes at a time. It is quite OK to interlace the board with shots of the players or 'going back to the studio' for a few minutes.

Finally, you need to make sure that you tailor the coverage to the audience. It is OK to show a long variation, but lots of the audience (especially if it is Twitch or Livestream) will be there for drama and not long variations. Again I feel the CCSCSL get the balance about right.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention that for the good of the game and the popularity of the game, you absolutely need to do this. The online audience for chess is in the tens of thousands for major events. Even stoic British chess clubs are chatting about the latest Internet streamed tournaments.

SoDesuNe · **#13**

seigenblues wrote:

I'm surprised to see pro interviews ranking so highly -- what would y'all like to ask them??? :shock: :o

Standard and kinda funny questions, depending on the personality of the pros or the relationship with the interviewer. Examples (some do overlap):

tips for beginners
what they think western Go can improve on the most
how they study Go
which games of the tournament they found interesting
who they consider to be the strongest pro right now
who they consider the strongest of all time
what they think about the american/european pro system
what their best/most rememberable game was to date
which character on HnG resembles them the most (in case they know the manga/anime)
what they do, when they don't play Go
how they started playing Go
which pro is their personal favourite
did they hit a wall somehwere along and the way and when yes, how did they overcome it
did they have an epiphany (or something along these lines) which brought their Go to a whole new level
if they had to compare their Go to a Hollywood movie, which movie would it be? (in case they know enough Hollywood movies, else maybe comparing to a manga/anime)
what's their best technique to keep calm and attentive at the board in longer games
whether they play online and if they want to make their nickname public
whether they are teaching and how one can contact them
whether they have a favourite Tsumego/Tesuji-problem (when yes, maybe they can show it)
which books they think the western Go scene is in desperate need of (or in general, which topics need to be covered in English)
how they spend an average day as a pro
whether they also play chess, shogi or xianqi (or something else along these lines) and how strong they are
whether they are quiet players or do they like to slam stones on the board (somethimes)
what is their favourite Go-themed motto

So far...

Celebrir_ · **#14**

Maybe some questions about the pro himself:
-Favourite style/opening
-Most memorable game/greatest game they played
-Funniest situation related to Go

Also:
-What are their future hopes for themselves/worldwide Go
-Who is the player to watch from the more unknown pros

seigenblues · **#15**

These are some great questions, thanks!

Jujube, the CCSCSL content is pretty great! Yasser Seirawan is absolutely a treasure. Hopefully i'm not the best we can do! :oops:

We've been working on similar formats, see our tests at the Seattle Go Center here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4CYjuR3Erg. That video is very rough, lots of production issues to clean up, most notably the !@#$% autofocus, but a good example of what we'll be trying. Figuring out how to get the pro commentary in is the next highest priority for me.

I also hope our audience (go players) is a bit more tolerant of long variations, static positions that they're trying to read, etc.

Also, while i see pro review sessions are very popular, i'm not sure how popular they will be with the pros. There may be other reasons why that's not feasible, but i'm definitely getting the message that this is something people would like to see!

Jujube · **#16**

It's a good try, logistics and technology is certainly important. I like that you're posting the experiments on YouTube, it gives a community feel to everything. The more experience gained now, the smoother things are bound to run, right?

I'm sure that people have mentioned about audio issues which I hope can be resolved.

Pro commentary is certainly important, however, recall in the 2013 and 2014 World Chess Championships you had low-GMs and a few IMs doing the commentary, so it doesn't need to be all-out! Remember, the higher-qualified teacher might not give the audience the best commentary!

This is going to sound really stupid, but please, put the board on a table. Then the camera won't get confused and I won't have to stare at a pair of knees.

EDIT: I know I'm gushing but really, well done everyone. I'm assuming that unlike the CCSCSL, there isn't a billionaire funding the centre, and therefore any video or livestream of go events is a blessing really.

seigenblues · **#17**

Yes, the audio issues are also being worked on -- on that video, i had misconfigured the software to use the wrong microphone for the first half hour or so :oops:

skip ahead, skip ahead...

I admit though, i don't know what you mean by "put the board on a table" -- the board there *is* on a table? In fact, the SGC even puts their floor boards on tables, for redundancy. Maybe skip to the middle of the video to see how it worked once we got it all set up. Actually, skip to the end, the middle contains me playing poorly :-?

Alas, we are billionaire free. If you know any, please encourage them to donate :cool:

Do you have any commentators in mind?

Jujube · **#18**

Oh...

I'm watching in 144p (my internet is that slow) - so it's a bit blurred!

What it looks like is: the floor boards are on low, narrow tables so that they can be used with chairs.

The camera can't focus because the SGC's floor and the surface of the goban are in the same shot. A table board on a *table* table, like 2 minutes into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOomZEDHp0Q (worst music award goes to...?) would mean that your camera can focus, the players' legs aren't occasionally in shot, and you can even put a sharp, logo-ridden SGC Main Event tablecloth as a backdrop. Preferably not as garish as in the above video.

Commentators? No idea. Go Juan co-commentating with Sean Plott sounds pretty funny.

seigenblues · **#19**

The camera isn't focusing for other reasons, but you're generally right. Mostly it's because it's a dumb webcam that wants to see faces. Also, the full frame shot is actually much wider: as a webcam, it has a very wide lens, but to keep it out of the field of view of the players, it's set up higher than it maybe should be. This means the source is actually cropped down in the streaming software to just have the board; the sensor itself is getting a much wider shot, which contributes to its confusion. Naturally, the software controls logitech provides are windows-only... Either way, trust me, i got this one under control ;-)

The laptop at congress will be windows, but if i have to spy on the USB comms and bitbang the blasted thing into shape, so help me i will.

xed_over · **#20**

seigenblues wrote:

The laptop at congress will be windows,

mine won't be

What video content do you want to see at the 2015 Congress?

Who is online