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        Team Games >> 2011 Arimaa World League >> Radio Czar Wanted!
        
(Message started by: megajester on Oct 22nd, 2011, 2:15pm)
Title: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by megajester on Oct 22nd, 2011, 2:15pm
For future seasons what we really need is a Radio Czar! Someone to set up the Teamspeak-Radio feed (Omar will provide training), and organize commentators for the major games... It's easy!

Who's up for it??
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 12th, 2011, 2:08pm
OK, Omar has trained me as Radio Czar.  (Thanks, Omar!)  We had a test that was successful, albeit brief, during the aaaa vs. Simon game.  Now all that we need is commentators.  For want of a better method, anyone who is willing to give live audio commentary on any AWL game should post here and I will set up the relay for that game.  If you are afraid that you aren't good enough to commentate, just sign up to commentate board 3 for practice.

Somewhere down the road there may be conflicts of multiple people wanting to commentate the same game, but probably not until the World Championship, so I won't work out a procedure for that just yet.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 15th, 2011, 11:19am
I might be up for the Nombril - Fritzlein game on Thursday (not certain yet). I'd obviously be happy to commentate alongside other player(s). Besides asking you to set up the radio relay Karl, is there something different compared to commentating last year?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 15th, 2011, 12:16pm

on 11/15/11 at 11:19:35, chessandgo wrote:
I might be up for the Nombril - Fritzlein game on Thursday (not certain yet). I'd obviously be happy to commentate alongside other player(s). Besides asking you to set up the radio relay Karl, is there something different compared to commentating last year?

There is nothing new for being a commentator.  Just show up in TeamSpeak and talk.  The only thing different is that I will be relaying TeamSpeak to the ArimaaRadio (hopefully successfully) so that folks can listen right in the game client without downloading or logging in to anything.  I will have to play the game on a different computer, though, because *all* sounds are relayed.  You would, for example, hear my clock ticking in real time, even if you didn't know why until later.  It seems well to avoid that confusion.

I have tentatively added you as a commentator for the Thursday game.  Let me know if you can't make it.

Anyone else feel free to jump in as a co-commentator or to volunteer for a different game.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 15th, 2011, 12:25pm
Hey, the gameroom's already mentions the commentary. Oh come on :)

Edit: beaten by Fritzlein. Ok, thanks!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 15th, 2011, 12:39pm

on 11/15/11 at 12:25:52, chessandgo wrote:
Hey, the gameroom's already mentions the commentary. Oh come on :)

Edit: beaten by Fritzlein. Ok, thanks!

Sorry, I realized your commitment was only tentative, so I changed the commentator to be "Jean Daligault maybe", but I could put in another commentator like "Jean Daligault possibly if he feels like it and has the time available"?  If you want me not to put in any commentator name yet, that's OK too.  :)
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 15th, 2011, 12:43pm
I have to leave at Sunday 10:30am, but that would give me 2 hours 15 minutes to commentate on aaaa-chessandgo.  If I can get a co-commentator to finish the game (if necessary) then I’m OK to do the beginning.

It will be the opposite problem on Thursday for Nombril-Fritzlein.  I’ll get home from work after the game has already started but I could offer to join approximately 30-45 minutes into the broadcast.  We'll see if my Ring of Fire bias kicks in.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 15th, 2011, 12:48pm

on 11/15/11 at 12:43:13, Adanac wrote:
I have to leave at Sunday 10:30am, but that would give me 2 hours 15 minutes to commentate on aaaa-chessandgo.  If I can get a co-commentator to finish the game (if necessary) then I’m OK to do the beginning.

Most games are over by move 65, so I'll just put you down as the commentator, and if the game drags on hopefully someone will jump in to fill the void.


Quote:
It will be the opposite problem on Thursday for Nombril-Fritzlein.  I’ll get home from work after the game has already started but I could offer to join approximately 30-45 minutes into the broadcast.  We'll see if my Ring of Fire bias kicks in.

In that case I'll change the commentator to "Jean Daligault (maybe) and/or Greg Magne (later)" and let folks who don't read the forum figure out what that means.  :-)

Thanks so much for volunteering to do commentary, guys.  It's a huge service to the community.  This is going to be fun!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 15th, 2011, 2:13pm

on 11/15/11 at 12:39:02, Fritzlein wrote:
Sorry, I realized your commitment was only tentative, so I changed the commentator to be "Jean Daligault maybe", but I could put in another commentator like "Jean Daligault possibly if he feels like it and has the time available"?  If you want me not to put in any commentator name yet, that's OK too.  :)


No, I'm just kidding :) Congrats for th reactivity :)
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 15th, 2011, 2:48pm

on 11/15/11 at 12:43:13, Adanac wrote:
It will be the opposite problem on Thursday for Nombril-Fritzlein.  I’ll get home from work after the game has already started but I could offer to join approximately 30-45 minutes into the broadcast.  We'll see if my Ring of Fire bias kicks in.


I'd be delighted!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Nombril on Nov 17th, 2011, 1:28pm
I can *probably* get up in time to give commentary on the novacat vs. woh game.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 17th, 2011, 2:52pm

on 11/17/11 at 13:28:43, Nombril wrote:
I can *probably* get up in time to give commentary on the novacat vs. woh game.

I have added you as the (probably) commentator.  Thanks for volunteering!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 18th, 2011, 4:50am
Where do we upload the audio files? I changed computers and lost the FTP settings.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 18th, 2011, 6:58am

on 11/18/11 at 04:50:23, chessandgo wrote:
Where do we upload the audio files? I changed computers and lost the FTP settings.

Does this still work? http://arimaa.com/arimaa/ftp/filemanager/filemanager.php

Thanks so much for recording as well as commentating!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 18th, 2011, 11:51am
Hmm I find an "upload button" but when I choose the file, nothing appears, and it doesn't seem to upload. Wasn't there a way to connect with a FTP client?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by megajester on Nov 18th, 2011, 12:02pm

on 11/18/11 at 11:51:11, chessandgo wrote:
Hmm I find an "upload button" but when I choose the file, nothing appears, and it doesn't seem to upload. Wasn't there a way to connect with a FTP client?

It does upload it just takes a while.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 18th, 2011, 1:10pm

on 11/18/11 at 11:51:11, chessandgo wrote:
Hmm I find an "upload button" but when I choose the file, nothing appears, and it doesn't seem to upload. Wasn't there a way to connect with a FTP client?

How big is your file?  My memory is of a raw capture ~1GB, which I compressed down to ~50MB before uploading.  But my memory gets more unreliable every year. :P
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 18th, 2011, 1:58pm
yes indeed, 1GB. How do you compress it?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 18th, 2011, 4:43pm
I honestly don't remember what I did, but I notice that I have Audacity 1.3.13 installed, and that seems to have the capability.  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
I encoded into mp3 format, and I think 128 bitrate was overkill (i.e. left the file unnecessarily big), but I am not sure what lower bitrate is good enough.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 18th, 2011, 5:10pm
Alright, thanks for the info. I used 92 (er 90-something), getting a 65 MB file.


on 11/18/11 at 12:02:31, megajester wrote:
It does upload it just takes a while.


I wasn't patient enough, thanks! (well, with a 1GB file I suppose I had to be uber-patient). The 65MB file did upload, it seems to be working ok! The very beginning sounds a bit weird, I was desperately trying to cut the radio feedback / TS "user joined channel" things, but overall I think it went alright (besides the ending which is a tiny bit dry ^^). I was very relieved when Greg joined!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 18th, 2011, 8:24pm
Thanks, Jean, for your persistence to get the encoding and upload.  I just finished listening to the whole recording: you and Greg make a great commentary team.  I particularly enjoyed hearing about all the tactics I missed, but it was by no means just dry analysis.  You both have a talent for making the game seem alive and engaging.  It is a treat for me to hear the commentary in retrospect, and I think a great treat for the community to hear live.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Arimabuff on Nov 19th, 2011, 2:12am
You can count on me as commentator for future games assuming that you are interested but not before the first week of December as I have a lot on my plate right now. Would that be helpful?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 19th, 2011, 5:23am
Thanks for the kind words! Btw, how do you prevent these annoying "channel switched" type sounds in TS? I still can't find how :(
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 19th, 2011, 8:15am

on 11/19/11 at 02:12:02, Arimabuff wrote:
You can count on me as commentator for future games assuming that you are interested but not before the first week of December as I have a lot on my plate right now. Would that be helpful?

Certainly that would be helpful.  That will include the last three weeks of the AWL season.  But I won't put you down for commentary arbitrarily; I'll wait for you to volunteer for a specific game.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 19th, 2011, 8:18am

on 11/19/11 at 05:23:50, chessandgo wrote:
Thanks for the kind words! Btw, how do you prevent these annoying "channel switched" type sounds in TS? I still can't find how :(

Yes, under Settings->Options->Notifications you can go in and uncheck everything.  It's a hassle to find which sounds correspond to the annoying noises, and I don't see a global option to not have any notifications at all, so I simply unchecked everything in sight.  (Obviously I need to do it on my relay computer too, or it won't do any good for you to disable your notifications.  :P)

[EDIT] Oh now I see that under sound pack there is an option for "sounds deactivated", so that's what I now have the relay set for.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 19th, 2011, 9:10am

on 11/17/11 at 13:28:43, Nombril wrote:
I can *probably* get up in time to give commentary on the novacat vs. woh game.

Well done Nombril!  It's no easy task filling the airwaves for a 57-move game when you are flying solo.  The fact that the peak of twelve listeners came late in the broadcast, after novacat was ahead by five pieces, is testament to your ability to keep things interesting.  A dozen listeners is a fantastic audience; I seem to recall talking to three or five for World Championship matches that weren't top board...
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 19th, 2011, 10:41am
I did uncheck everything I could think of and select the "sounds deactivated" things, to no avail. I'll give it another go.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 20th, 2011, 12:27pm
Thanks for the commentary, Adanac, and thanks for the video capture, megajester.  I just watched the flv: the sound and video quality are no problem at all.  Adanac, you were informative and entertaining as always.  I really like the concept of capturing the game room chat along with the audio and the board position, although this time there wasn't much chat about the game.  But in general the comments will often be on topics that a later viewer might appreciate, such as KingElephant asking what a frame is and getting an explanation on the spot.  That sort of thing can be a great bonus for viewers of the recording.

I think we have the technology down for running a great World Championship, or actually a great event of any sort, without requiring Omar's constant intervention.  I note that, although Omar was logged in, he didn't have to do anything this morning.  The infrastructure, community knowledge, and volunteer participation are all in place.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 21st, 2011, 6:57am
I like a lot the video with the chatroom below. I think this recording is pretty optimal!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by megajester on Nov 21st, 2011, 9:43am
For the record, I used a 579 x 603 (almost square) capture zone with BB Flashback Capture, and then used the built-in FLV exporter without changing any of the settings. The rest was just a case of resizing and arranging my chatroom and game windows.

A couple of tips for anybody trying to record this way:
  • You have to be around when the moves start to appear, because it rejigs the display mucking up your perfect arrangement. You will have to drag the game window again to where you want it.
  • Something strange was happening to both me and Adanac in that the window stopped following the moves for some strange reason. I think it was because I was clicking on the lastest move and then "Show." If you click on "last move" instead (the one with this written on it: ">|" ) it shouldn't give you any problems.

Only after you've done these two things can you risk walking away from it.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 21st, 2011, 10:57am

on 11/21/11 at 09:43:41, megajester wrote:
Something strange was happening to both me and Adanac in that the window stopped following the moves for some strange reason. I think it was because I was clicking on the lastest move and then "Show." If you click on "last move" instead (the one with this written on it: ">|" ) it shouldn't give you any problems.

I also had this problem, and on the same move that you and Adanac had it for the first time.  The fact that all three of us simultaneously witnessed our clients get out of synch suggests a server issue rather than anything any of us did on the client end.  I went to bed after that, so I didn't see the second glitch, but on the basis of limited evidence, I'm not sure if it is ever safe to walk away while recording.  :-/

Thanks for sharing your settings, though.  It doesn't sound too hard, and the result was spiffy!
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 21st, 2011, 12:18pm
One thing that I noticed is that the video and audio seemed to be synchronized well at the beginning of the file (aaaa-chessandgo) but towards the end there seemed to be about a 10 second lag between the move appearing on the screen and my audio commentary.  Is there a way to keep them in sync?  I’d guess that, because I’m using push-to-talk, every time that I let go of the key for a moment the audio falls further behind.  If so, is there any way to remove that glitch in the future?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by megajester on Nov 21st, 2011, 12:29pm

on 11/21/11 at 12:18:02, Adanac wrote:
One thing that I noticed is that the video and audio seemed to be synchronized well at the beginning of the file (aaaa-chessandgo) but towards the end there seemed to be about a 10 second lag between the move appearing on the screen and my audio commentary.  Is there a way to keep them in sync?  I’d guess that, because I’m using push-to-talk, every time that I let go of the key for a moment the audio falls further behind.  If so, is there any way to remove that glitch in the future?

The video was made live, ie. you hear and see what i heard and saw, as I heard and saw it. What you're talking about, lag because of using push-to-talk, only happens if you're recording audio using Teamspeak because Teamspeak stops recording when there's no sound.

If I remember correctly there was always a fairly big lag between the move and your commentary. 5-10 seconds I'd say. Arimaa radio's always a bit laggy. Next time I should probably listen to your commentary using Teamspeak and not Arimaa radio. My bad.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 21st, 2011, 1:04pm

on 11/21/11 at 12:29:04, megajester wrote:
The video was made live, ie. you hear and see what i heard and saw, as I heard and saw it. What you're talking about, lag because of using push-to-talk, only happens if you're recording audio using Teamspeak because Teamspeak stops recording when there's no sound.

If I remember correctly there was always a fairly big lag between the move and your commentary. 5-10 seconds I'd say. Arimaa radio's always a bit laggy. Next time I should probably listen to your commentary using Teamspeak and not Arimaa radio. My bad.


Great, thanks.  I'm glad there's an easy fix to that problem.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 21st, 2011, 3:27pm

on 11/21/11 at 12:18:02, Adanac wrote:
I’d guess that, because I’m using push-to-talk, every time that I let go of the key for a moment the audio falls further behind.

As megajester says, the ten-second delay is a constant of Arimaa Radio.  It is annoying, but obviously tolerable enough that the majority of people who listen to the broadcast would rather put up with it than download/use TeamSpeak to cut down the delay to a second or so.  But I guess anyone who is going through the hassle of recording and uploading might as well go through a tiny bit more hassle for a better final product.

There were some comments too that the sound quality was better via TeamSpeak than via the radio, but I didn't experience that at all.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 22nd, 2011, 10:27am
For Round 3, I won't be able to relay commentary for Nombril vs. woh because I will be on the road Friday.  Any Saturday or Sunday games should be doable, though, given advance notice.  Indeed, the Adanac vs. chessandgo pairing Sunday morning is so irresistible that I'll probably have to get up early and give commentary myself.  
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Dolus on Nov 22nd, 2011, 11:00am

on 11/22/11 at 10:27:09, Fritzlein wrote:
For Round 3, I won't be able to relay commentary for Nombril vs. woh because I will be on the road Friday.  Any Saturday or Sunday games should be doable, though, given advance notice.  Indeed, the Adanac vs. chessandgo pairing Sunday morning is so irresistible that I'll probably have to get up early and give commentary myself.  

Yikes. 5am for me. I might have to watch the recorded game. I'm not sure my wife would like me waking her up at 5am just so I can watch a game of Arimaa. ;P
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 22nd, 2011, 12:15pm

on 11/22/11 at 11:00:44, Dolus wrote:
Yikes. 5am for me. I might have to watch the recorded game. I'm not sure my wife would like me waking her up at 5am just so I can watch a game of Arimaa. ;P


Only 5:15 because there's a 15 minute delay in the broadcast :)

I can ask chessandgo if he wants to reschedule for a more fan-friendly time slot.  To be honest, I wanted to change my time preferences this morning but the link

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/events/reg.cgi?e=2011awl

said I wasn't registered and I couldn't figure out how to change my time slots.  Then I came back from lunch and the pairings were already made.

It's no big deal for me because I got a convenient time.  However, from a global perspective there probably isn't a worse audience time slot than 8am EST, other than maybe 7am EST.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Dolus on Nov 22nd, 2011, 12:26pm

on 11/22/11 at 12:15:34, Adanac wrote:
Only 5:15 because there's a 15 minute delay in the broadcast :)

*phew* I can sleep in.

I'm normally up sometime before 6 anyways, so it's not too much earlier for my usual schedule...
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 22nd, 2011, 2:04pm
Oh. Sunday is the least convenient day for me, I fear I can't play later than the actual game time. Saturday's slightly better, I can play 1 or 2 hours later than the game time (3 if need be). Week days are much better, if you can play at a reasonably-not-too-late European time it should be fine with me.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by chessandgo on Nov 22nd, 2011, 2:06pm

on 11/22/11 at 12:15:34, Adanac wrote:
Only 5:15 because there's a 15 minute delay in the broadcast :)

I can ask chessandgo if he wants to reschedule for a more fan-friendly time slot.  To be honest, I wanted to change my time preferences this morning but the link

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/events/reg.cgi?e=2011awl

said I wasn't registered and I couldn't figure out how to change my time slots.  Then I came back from lunch and the pairings were already made.

It's no big deal for me because I got a convenient time.  However, from a global perspective there probably isn't a worse audience time slot than 8am EST, other than maybe 7am EST.


Were you logged in the gameroom?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 22nd, 2011, 2:46pm

on 11/22/11 at 14:04:25, chessandgo wrote:
Oh. Sunday is the least convenient day for me, I fear I can't play later than the actual game time. Saturday's slightly better, I can play 1 or 2 hours later than the game time (3 if need be). Week days are much better, if you can play at a reasonably-not-too-late European time it should be fine with me.


I have a bit of time off work in the next few days.  Late Friday afternoon would be OK for me but we'd lose Fritzlein as a commentator.  How about Thursday?  I previously booked a vacation day so if you suggest a good time it should work for me.  My schedule is very flexible on Thursday.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by ocmiente on Nov 22nd, 2011, 2:58pm
Thursday might be worse for the audience in the United States.  Many people will be stuffed with turkey looking for a place to take a nap.  
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 22nd, 2011, 3:10pm

on 11/22/11 at 14:58:27, ocmiente wrote:
Thursday might be worse for the audience in the United States.  Many people will be stuffed with turkey looking for a place to take a nap.  


The game would likely be in the morning or very early afternoon, though, because Jean is in Europe.  But you're right that if we do stick with our current time slot it might not be so bad for spectators.  It's something to consider.

EDIT:  Oh yes, and there's also the 12:30 EST Packers-Lions game to consider.  But Thursday morning still works perfectly fine for me.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 22nd, 2011, 3:53pm

on 11/22/11 at 15:10:12, Adanac wrote:
But Thursday morning still works perfectly fine for me.

I can't commentate on Thursday, but it might be a better day for spectators anyway.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Adanac on Nov 22nd, 2011, 4:00pm

on 11/22/11 at 15:53:52, Fritzlein wrote:
I can't commentate on Thursday, but it might be a better day for spectators anyway.


In that case, we should probably keep the current Sunday time slot.  Having your commentary will make it more exciting for the spectators.  Also I'm not sure how many west coast spectators we'd lose but Dolus would only miss about the first 20 moves based upon his 6am wakeup time.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 27th, 2011, 8:26am

on 11/22/11 at 16:00:26, Adanac wrote:
In that case, we should probably keep the current Sunday time slot.  Having your commentary will make it more exciting for the spectators.  Also I'm not sure how many west coast spectators we'd lose but Dolus would only miss about the first 20 moves based upon his 6am wakeup time.

17 peak listeners was a fine audience, even though presumably some on the west coast couldn't get up in time.

After having taken a turn giving commentary again, I remember how stressful and draining it is, so I want to give another big thank you to everyone who has volunteered so far.  At the same time it is a lot of fun to try to spin out strategic ideas and see whether I can anticipate what the players are going to do next.  Arimaa is a great game to participate in from many different angles: playing, watching, commentating, listening, chatting, etc.

I encourage anyone who has been at all interested in giving commentary to give it a whirl.  Next week is the last week of classes for me, followed by finals the week after, so I won't be giving any commentary myself, but I will at least set up the relay for anyone else who volunteers.  If you have never tried it, this is your chance to heighten your Arimaa experience to a new level.  ;D
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Jacka on Nov 28th, 2011, 11:09pm
As a West-coaster, I was one of those who missed the broadcast.  Is it archived somewhere?
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Nov 29th, 2011, 7:39am

on 11/28/11 at 23:09:40, Jacka wrote:
As a West-coaster, I was one of those who missed the broadcast.  Is it archived somewhere?

Omar said in chat that when he tried to capture the video, he somehow failed to capture the sound!  Hopefully we'll get the kinks worked out in time for the World Championship, though.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Arimabuff on Dec 2nd, 2011, 1:53pm

on 11/29/11 at 07:39:28, Fritzlein wrote:
Omar said in chat that when he tried to capture the video, he somehow failed to capture the sound!  Hopefully we'll get the kinks worked out in time for the World Championship, though.

That's unfortunate.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by froody on Dec 17th, 2011, 11:41pm
Anyone commentating on AWL woh vs Adanac, or radicheta vs ginrunner today? I might have a go if there is time to get things setup.

I have teamspeak but I haven't tested it yet.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 18th, 2011, 10:42am

on 12/17/11 at 23:41:57, froody wrote:
Anyone commentating on AWL woh vs Adanac, or radicheta vs ginrunner today? I might have a go if there is time to get things setup.

Thanks for the great commentary froody and Adanac!  I'm sorry I didn't log in soon enough to get it all relayed, but once we got going the radicheta vs. ginrunner commentary was great.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by ginrunner on Dec 18th, 2011, 10:44pm
Wait so will my game today be available for me? I would be interested in hearing the commentary on it.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by froody on Dec 19th, 2011, 2:52am
It was fun. 8)

How does the relaying work, exactly?

Was my sound quality OK? Any room for improvement? (I may have a better mic somewhere). ((Could you guess where I'm from? (always interesting to know if foreigners can tell the difference between north English and south English)))

ginrunner: I'm not sure if anyone recorded it :-/. I think the strongest move you missed was on 26s where we both wanted to see the dog get behind the c3 trap. I'm not sure what you accomplished with your 26s, but I haven't looked at it deeply.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 19th, 2011, 7:15am
Ginrunner, I'm pretty sure nobody recorded it; the odds for that are better when the commentary is planned (and announced) in advance.

I don't how "exactly" the relay works, but it is done with Edcast.  All the sounds on my computer are forwarded to the arimaa.com radio server, which then broadcasts them.  All the sounds: this includes the sound of hanzack inviting me to a game even though my flag was off.  (You wouldn't have heard this since you were in Teamspeak, but radio listeners heard it.  I may have to log out of the game room to prevent that sound from intruding.)

You sounded fine in Teamspeak, but I can't tell you how you sounded after being relayed.  I can't listen to the radio myself, because then that would be relayed, etc., in an infinite loop.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by froody on Dec 20th, 2011, 3:22pm
Anyone doing commentary for the AWL playoff games? I don't know where I'll be but I'll try to do something for at least one of the games.

Is this sponsors section up to date? http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Radio_Commentary_Notes
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Fritzlein on Dec 20th, 2011, 6:24pm
Those are last year's sponsors; don't mention them unless they contribute to the prize pool again!

As I mentioned in another thread, I can't relay commentary, so any listeners will have to gather in TeamSpeak.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by froody on Dec 22nd, 2011, 2:07am
So I've been watching the 2011 commentary videos. Great stuff. I am learning a lot.

Listening to Adanac describe the options in detail is very entertaining for me, but I was thinking it might be very confusing for spectators listening live. I normally have to pause the video to think about which squares he's talking about. So I imagine spectators that are not strong players will struggle to keep up. It could be very confusing for them to hear a string of squares and ideas. You hear 'horse on b5' then it takes the brain a while to find that horse, by which time Adanac has mentioned several more squares and ideas! This is great for me, because the detail is very important and now I'm getting much better at knowing where the squares are and guessing what might happen, but I think it will be too hard to follow for people that don't play a lot of Arimaa.

So what about instead of giving the coordinates of the squares we give them names and colours? We have red, green, blue, black trap. Each quarter of the board is called red zone, green zone, blue zone, black zone. And instead of talking about b6, f7.. etc we say 'wide of red trap'. or 'behind yellow trap' or 'corner of green zone'?

We could even continue the animal/nature theme by calling them jungle zone, desert zone, tundra zone ... and ... swamp zone.. ?

(this makes me think of crazy new variations where the camel gets a bonus for being in the desert :) etc, but my main idea is to make it easier for spectators to follow)
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by froody on Dec 22nd, 2011, 4:40am
ohh. We could also give the cats hats. So we can say red hat gold cat, blue hat gold cat....
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by megajester on Dec 22nd, 2011, 8:15am
I like the idea of colour coding...

However even if that idea doesn't fly I do think that using terms such as NW NE SW SE is a little bit easier to follow for the uninitiated.

In fact, I personally think the best way to go with what we have at present is to use "top" "bottom" "left" "right". Of course this requires that you remember to say "with gold at the bottom of the screen" every so often. But it makes for a lot of flexibility. You can talk about "gold's left hand trap" for instance.

"gold's e2 rabbit" = "gold's rabbit to the bottom left of his right hand trap/the south east trap"

The other thing you could do is write the code of each square in its top left or top right corner. That way when you talk about "gold's e2 rabbit" your listeners don't have to count ranks and files.
Title: Re: Radio Czar Wanted!
Post by Boo on Dec 22nd, 2011, 11:26am
For the players having chess background coordinates are much easier to understand than

"gold's rabbit to the bottom left of his right hand trap/the south east trap".

Most chess sites and programs have an option to add coordinates at the bottom and one side. Would be nice to have such feature here :)


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