I suggest we forbid the big media. Any video recorder larger than 20 cm diameter should be banned. Special lights should be banned. I just returned from Aachen Open 2009 and I found it ridiculous. They were distracting and annoying. These people don't know rules or don't care about them. Many times they got much closer to competitors than the required 1.50 meters, standing right in front or right behind them, sometimes filming "over their shoulders". Plus they had huge bright lights, I completely lost focus on my last 5x5 solve because one of them annoyed the hell out of me with that. Plus when they're standing in front of a competitor, they block the view for the cuber audience. And it's usually the camera man, his fat camera, and his colleague (sound recorder or instructor?). Multiply that by the number of camera crews. The only person I saw someone attempting to pick up a popped piece for a competitor (almost causing the disqualification of the the solve), was a camera man. Granted, this one seems the "nice thing to do", but it shows once more they don't know our rules and are a recipe for trouble. Smoking was forbidden inside the building, there were numerous good signs starting right at the building entrance. Most smokers went outside (although they left all doors open so their smoke went all the way up into the competition hall). The only person I saw smoke inside, and it was very close to the competition hall, was a camera man (another one, not the same as in the previous example). Shows once more they don't even care (about rules and about other people). So my wish is that they get banned. Or at least their ridiculous equipment, which would hopefully prevent them from coming.

I think it should be up to the organizers to make sure that the "big media" knows the regulations (at least the relevant parts to them) and follows them. The 1.5 meters is important. Any sort of large lighting should be disallowed (if a competitor finds it distracting). Especially the popped pieces should be mentioned to ANYONE who will be near the competitors. News pieces and articles are very helpful to our sport. Many people who do not frequent the internet have no idea that there is a competitive cubing scene. Media coverage can only help us. However, you're right that they should be required to follow the same rules as everyone else. Even stricter than everyone else, since we should favor the cubers over outside media. If they need a place to film from, they should plan ahead with the organizers to set up the competition area in a way that the cameras can film and the spectators can still watch.

[quote="blade740":1d4up5wp]Any sort of large lighting should be disallowed ([b:1d4up5wp]if a competitor finds it distracting[/b:1d4up5wp]).[/quote:1d4up5wp] Then it's already too late.

I don't think they should be banned (lots of people would probably be happy to give reasons for why the like/don't like them, I'll let them do that), but I agree that they should be controlled. How about we make them abide by a set of rules? We can even be funny like their waivers, and ask them to agree not to interfere with any WCA regulations, without doing the parsing for them. More practically right now, SF09 is next weekend. It is the most media-intensive competition in the US. I have to fit another media station near the front of this [url:10j1b8kb]http://caltech.cubingusa.com/sanfrancisco2009/files/SF09_floorplan.pdf[/url:10j1b8kb]. In the past, they used to be on the side, camouflaged by some plants, but now that's the entrance to the competitors area. Stefan, do you have any suggestions about how to allow them to film, without disturbing the competition? I'll try it and review how it went. At the very least, I will clearly ask them not to interfere with the competitor's solves, but I don't have many ideas about how they might not interpret that correctly.

[quote="Lucas":iv6im1tn]Stefan, do you have any suggestions about how to allow them to film, without disturbing the competition?[/quote:iv6im1tn] I'd say at the very least they should be at least three meters from the competitor, and have no own dynamic lighting. I'm ok with their lighting if it's not bad and if it's static during a whole round, but if they suddenly change the lighting a lot during an attempt (including inspection), that's just wrong. This time they even had a heavy duty light crane several meters long that they could extend to move the light over the row of competitors. I believe bright but non-glaring ambient lighting (hope you get the idea) is very good both for the competitors and the media. So if that can be arranged, maybe the media could actually help everyone with their lighting. But it really should be static, not moving around or being turned on and off during attempts.

I vote for no media cameras/lighting/any-equipment-at-all where people are competing. All interviews/filming of solves can be done out of the way, preferably out of the building. Of course the media can came in and watch and take notes, but none of their silly equipment and the like.

[quote="Dene":16rxerwz]I vote for no media cameras/lighting/any-equipment-at-all where people are competing. All interviews/filming of solves can be done out of the way, preferably out of the building. Of course the media can came in and watch and take notes, but none of their silly equipment and the like.[/quote:16rxerwz] so, no actual solve filmed? what if you get a NR/CR/WR time? wouldn't you want that media record it? interviews are boring for most of the non-cubing people, I think...they want to see more "action" media is good, as long as it doesn't disturb competitors, like Stefan said

[quote="StefanPochmann":31jme2bb][quote="blade740":31jme2bb]Any sort of large lighting should be disallowed ([b:31jme2bb]if a competitor finds it distracting[/b:31jme2bb]).[/quote:31jme2bb] Then it's already too late.[/quote:31jme2bb] I was thinking more of "I'm about to go on and I think those large lights will hurt my times." I think the best idea would be to just require that all media members should be required to agree to follow any orders of the main judge/WCA delegate or, failing that, will be asked to leave.

[quote="blade740":6doo4qf6]I was thinking more of [b:6doo4qf6]"I'm about to go on and I think those large lights will hurt my times."[/b:6doo4qf6][/quote:6doo4qf6] I don't understand. How are you going to think that way [b:6doo4qf6]before[/b:6doo4qf6] you even [b:6doo4qf6]know[/b:6doo4qf6] of those lights, when they get turned on [b:6doo4qf6]during[/b:6doo4qf6] your solve?

Turned on DURING the solve? Sorry, I misunderstood the situation from the start. That IS ridiculous.

The media doesn't need to actually record an official solve for the news. People can solve their cubes for the media outside of the competition location. It really doesn't matter to the general masses and unwashed if the solve on the TV is official or not. I agree with not allowing cameras, or at least cameras with lighting onto the competition floor.

[quote="blade740":rgdzrifa]Turned on DURING the solve? Sorry, I misunderstood the situation from the start. That IS ridiculous.[/quote:rgdzrifa] My fault, I notice now didn't make that clear earlier. It's what I meant with the dynamic vs static light. If it stays the same during a round, it's ok, I can just choose a good table. And most of the time it actually wasn't a problem for me because I chose a table with no cameraman nearby and I wasn't followed like Erik/Dennis/Michael/Robin, but during my last 5x5 solve one of them got me, turned the light on at me, then I asked to turn it off, which he did, but it was already the second change and I had to speak up and just lost it.

Just saw some pictures of the light crane I mentioned: http://cube.hackvalue.de/ao09/images/20 ... .jpeg.html http://cube.hackvalue.de/ao09/images/20 ... .jpeg.html

Media are a good thing. [quote="StefanPochmann":1be6x2sn]I suggest we forbid the big media. Any video recorder larger than 20 cm diameter should be banned. Special lights should be banned. I just returned from Aachen Open 2009 and I found it ridiculous. They were distracting and annoying. These people don't know rules or don't care about them.[/quote:1be6x2sn] If 7b, 7e or 7e have been violated, blame the organization team, they could have told them how to operate without interfering.

[quote="Gilles":2vdlde4m]Media are a good thing. [quote="StefanPochmann":2vdlde4m]I suggest we forbid the big media. Any video recorder larger than 20 cm diameter should be banned. Special lights should be banned. I just returned from Aachen Open 2009 and I found it ridiculous. They were distracting and annoying. These people don't know rules or don't care about them.[/quote:2vdlde4m] If 7b, 7e or 7e have been violated, blame the organization team, they could have told them how to operate without interfering.[/quote:2vdlde4m] Agreed. This is the fault of the organizers, who should have corrected the media's behavior. And this definitely violates those regulations (7b, [b:2vdlde4m]7c[/b:2vdlde4m], and 7e).

I think we should try to attract as much media as possible actually. Of course at Aachen open they were a bit ridicilous on how close they came and with the lights etc. At the finals where they were following me I just asked them to go stand a bit further from me and they instantly did that. I think at this particular competition the problems were just cause by: 1. a lot media 2. media not knowing the ' rules' 3. other people not telling the media the rules It's not just pointing a finger at the media and say they do everything wrong. I think at Aachen we (organisation plus competitors) lacked on informing them. Media [b:wwi658y1]can[/b:wwi658y1] be a good thing because they have the 'power' to bring the good words to the streets about cubing at places where a lot of people will look (TV, news papers, internet sites), sadly like in Aachen they can also bring trouble. Of course you'll always have the trouble of bad information showing on their articles. If articles I've seen are right then the following facts are/were true: - megaminx is a new prototype not on the market yet, BUT I'm already the world champion on it - aachen was a world championship with almost only german and dutch contestants - michael pohl is the best german (Kai is German champion) - I'm good at BLD, suck at explaining the cross, am world champion on the 3x3, am arrogant about my records - I'm rebelling against the presentor of a TV show - etc etc

Okay, it's been a year and a half since this was last spoken of, but the rules are pretty clear...1.5M of clearance surrounding the competitors, no additional lighting, etc. At the comp I organized, I was reminded of that by the WCA delegate when we had our media presence, but it left me with a bit of a dilemma, as the camera guy largely indicated that he wouldn't be doing it otherwise, so with that in mind, I ended up backing off (as opposed to the camera guy backing off). And to his credit, despite the very large news camera, he got some great shots without being a disruption (or at the very least, without any complaints of being disruptive), and we got a great news story out of it. And really, I should've definitely contacted the media to respectfully ask that they maintain a 1.5M distance from the competitors. That being said, news media are generally professionals and really don't like being told what to do (especially given their training and experience), and as it is, we aren't paying them to be there, so if we don't like what they're doing or they don't like the way we're handling them, they are free to leave. Considering that they are not under the employ of the WCA or even the competition organizers, we don't have a lot of license to dictate content or how we're portrayed by the media, although we can influence it a lot by how we choose to deal with them, and therefore influence the public's perception of us. So I ask...since the media is very a useful outlet for achieving the goals of any organization or business, has there been any official policy or least any guidelines created as to how competition organizers should be working with the media? I'm just wondering if informing the media outlet of our regulations is sufficient, or should there be any recommendations added to the current set of WCA rules and regulations.

I haven't read all the replies. I fully understand the situation Stefan, but I think your solution is too radical. As others have stated, it's the organization's team job to take care of this. Of course, part of the organization are even us, the competitors. If others have observed that the cameraman have interfere within the solve they should kindly ask them to stop and go away. Maybe you could have asked for an additional attempt too. At Romanian Open, when people got too close to the competitors while solving, we just took some cordons and placed them 1.5m in front of the tables. Fortunately we had these. (You can see what i mean, here: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_b5vMOyRWi6M/TDEK8 ... CF2757.JPG) Btw...cameramans have big zooms anyway