A solution to collisions with judges

[DCIroxx]

NFL stadiums like Lucas Oil already have the field cam cables suspended over the field. They should attach the battery judge via harness where the field cam is normally attached. It would another source of entertainment, just as enjoyable as watching the judge try to dodge drill on the field.

[skevinp]

If you find a drone has wandered away from the competition and is continually hovering just above your seat, you may have said some things on DCP...

[Runitagain]

Stadiums have the anchor points they don't supply the cable or cameras that is supplied by the broadcasting company covering the game.

[charlie1223]

There should definitely be a pit judge nowadays....

[ibexpercussion]

There should definitely be a pit judge nowadays....

Agreed.

[charlie1223]

Here's how it ends up breaking down for a percussion judge (based on Jeff Prosperie's tape of Cadets Finals performance.) Based on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7iRbYRt3aM

A rough overview of the tape:

Battery - 1:56 - 4:20 ----- 2:24

Pit - 4:20 - 4:56 ----------- 0:36

Battery - 4:56 - 5:15 ----- 0:19

Pit - 5:15 - 5:40 ---------- 0:25

Transition ----------------- 0:09

Battery 5:49 - 7:05 ------ 1:16

Transition ------------------ 0:10

Pit - 7:15 - 9:30 ---------- 2:15

Transition - 9:30 --------- 0:20

Battery - 9:50 - 13:10 --- 3:20

Battery Total ------------- 7:19 = 59.9%

Pit Total ------------------- 4:16 = 34.9%

Transition ----------------- 0:39 = 5.3%

Total ----------------------- 12:14

So immedietly we can confirm that the pit does not get sampled as often as the battery and transitioning from section to section eats up about 5% of the evaluation time.

Now on top of that if we know the battery didn't play anything in the ballad and we can assume that the pit was doing something that could be judged for the entire performance so we can look at how much their total contribuition was actually judged based on how much they played. Really, just subtracting the ballad from the Battery's total even though we know they rested for longer periods of times during the other movements. But you can notice that a lot of the times when the pit was evaluated outside of the ballad the battery was also not playing thus increasing the concervative percentage of the battery's evaluated material.

Percentage of total material actually evaluated:

Pit = 34.9%

Battery = 77.2%+

Now the real discrepency is seen. Even though the pit objectively plays more often in the show, they are judged less! The Pit was only judged for 2 out of the 4 movements they played. While the battery was judged for all 3 movements in which they played including getting sampled for the ENTIRE 1st and 4th movements without pause. The pit was only evaluated for a portion of the second and not even the entirety of the third movement because of transition time. The judged missing out on the opener and Medea, the fastest part of the show.)

Jeff is perhaps one of the best, if not THE best, percussion judge we have in DCI and he did do a tremendous job that evening but you can see that there still is a major discrepency in how often the pit is sampled and as a result their contribution to final score. On the tape Jeff even acknowledges: "The harmonic motion things in the pit, which I don't think I heard before till tonight..." shows how much he is actually missing in the front ensemble even with a TOP proffessional.

We need to get away from the culture that says we can't miss anything the battery is doing because the pit is getting the short straw. It will never be perfect, but I definetly believe it can be way way better...

Edited December 12, 2013 by charlie1223

[Jeff Ream]

to do it right would require a second judge. removing the judge from the field, in a dome, is a disaster.

[IllianaLancerContra]

to do it right would require a second judge. removing the judge from the field, in a dome, is a disaster.

Or, you could remove the dome.

[Michael Boo]

Two concerns with this idea:

1. If the Blimp develops a small leak or worse a tear in it there is a possibility that the subsequent sound will appear on APDs and finals recordings. No one wants to hear whistling during a corps performance or worse yet, a sound equivalent to what happens when eating too much cabbage.

2. Even tethers can break. It would be quite something if a judge suddenly ended up around the rafters during finals. Would substitute judges be on standby to fill in for a particular caption in time for the next corps on the field?

If the sound was on the recordings, people would just assume it was me.

Think of the substitute judges as alternate jurors. They've be ready to step in to provide their own ruling on the performing corps. The judges up around the rafters could be salvaged in between corps. Every judge in a Judge-O-Blimp would be equipped with a parasail. I've thought this out.

[Michael Boo]

Would the presence of Judge-O-Blimps interfere with my idea for a rule change that would allow corps members to be lowered to the field by cables from the dome catwalks? I have no objection to the Judge-O-Blimps, but I just want to make sure these things can coexist.

Co-existing is highly overrated. Remember...to lower the members from the catwalks, you'd have to get them up there first. In doing so, the element of surprise is gone.