Broadcast your event on
BBO
Thank you for your interest in presenting your tournament as a live
vugraph broadcast on BBO. The purpose of this document is to describe
what is involved in producing these broadcasts. If you have any
technical questions regarding BBO, please e-mail us at support@bridgebase.com.
Submit your request
Tournament organizers are encouraged to produce vugraph
broadcasts of their events on BBO.
There is no charge for our assistance. Here's how to get started:
- Please use our Vugraph request page to schedule a
new broadcast. Allow a day or two for approval from BBO.
- When the request is approved you'll be notified by email to
the address mentioned in the request form.
- Next, go to our Vugraph schedule page and log in with your BBO username
and password to view operator login information, and
update your event.
Prepare your broadcast
All tournament presenters are welcome to use the BBO software for
vugraph purposes. We do not charge a fee for the use of our software
(nor do we charge a fee to people who watch our broadcasts), but you
will be responsible for all arrangements and expenses. For example:
- Providing computer(s) with stable internet connection(s) at the playing site.
- Finding and training the required number of operators for each session.
- Paying operators' expenses and salaries (unless you are able to find volunteers).
Vugraph operators
Vugraph operators must log in using the Windows (old) version of the
BBO software (no web client for VG operators yet), but with
'privileged' user IDs that allow them to start live broadcasts, to
input the bidding and play for all 4 players, etc. Log in the vugraph
schedule page to access the vugraph operator IDs assigned to your
event. Please make sure that when your event starts the BBO profiles of
your vugraph IDs reflect the operators' real names and countries.
The most critical factor in determining the success of these broadcasts
is the quality of the operators. It is vital that these people become
familiar with the software before the actual broadcast takes place. The
software is easy to learn and it is subsequently easy to use, but
operators should spend at least a couple of hours practising before the
actual event. It is important that operators are invisible while
practising. However, they must be visible when the actual broadcast
begins.
You may also
need the Vugraph
Operator Manual. Click here
for the manual in
MS Word or PDF
format
You will need these sample files (right-click a link to save to your
PC)
Uploading deals into the software
Another important issue is making sure that the BBO software can read
the files of whatever software you use for board duplication. If you
have a choice of formats, we suggest you use .dup. A quick and easy way
to confirm that your hand data file will work OK is to try to open the
file from the BBO login screen, click through all the defaults, and
then when the summary of the boards comes up scroll through each board
and make sure it agrees to your hand record. We recommend that this be
done at least 24 hours before the presentation.
We also strongly recommend that the hand data files be split into
separate files for each segment of a multi-segment match or session. On
a number of occasions operators have accidentally redealt to a board
from the next session with consequential security implications. Hand
data files, particularly .dup files, can be easily split with a text
editor such as Notepad.
Setting up the vugraph transmission
For each table from which you broadcast live you will need one operator
and one computer with an internet connection. Broadband is best, of
course, but a dialup connection is also OK, as long as it is stable.
Vugraph of team matches is so much better if both tables are being
broadcast simultaneously. I strongly suggest that you try to arrange
this if at all possible.
Make sure that the banners are marked properly, e.g. which
segment/session you are about to broadcast. Then it will make it easy
for our viewers and other members to identify the sessions in our
vugraph archives. If you are broadcasting from more than one team match
at a time (or from more than one table in a pairs game), please make
sure that each team match has a unique segment name. For example, do
not name both segments of both matches 'Round Robin 4'. Instead use
'Round Robin 4A' and 'Round Robin 4B' (or similar). This will ensure
that our facility for creating log files will create a separate log
file for each match.
For team matches with eight boards or more per segment we recommend
that you let the open room start with the last two or three boards, the
closed room with board 1. This way the open room audience will get
comparisons when the operator circles back to board 1. Traditionally,
mainly because it is opened first, we always have many more spectators
in the open room, and they will appreciate as many comparisons as
possible.
Find commentators
It is possible to have voice commentary and typed commentary during your broadcast. Tournament
organisers have the option of contacting local experts and asking if
they would be willing to provide online commentary for some number of
sessions. This may be a particularly attractive option for smaller
tournaments. Local experts have the advantage of being familiar with
the players and the events, and the first-hand information and
anecdotes they are able to provide are always well received by the
online audience. If you make any such arrangements, please specify the
BBO usernames of commentators in the vugraph schedule page, so that
they will be given permission to speak during the broadcast.
If
you need help with finding commentators for your event, we will do our best to
assist you but please be aware that quite frequently several
tournaments are broadcast on the same day. In this event, it may be
difficult for us to provide you with commentators. We strongly suggest
you prepare your transmission in advance and find local experts willing
to commentate.
We recommend that new commentators read our Vugraph Commentator Guidelines before they start commenting.
Live vugraph at the playing site
The BBO software can also be used to present vugraph to a live audience
at the physical playing site (or anywhere else for that matter). If you
wish to use BBO for this purpose, please e-mail us at support@bridgebase.com in order to find out what is involved.
Results, participants, system cards
Finally, we suggest that you create a web site for the event, or use an
exisiting one, with all relevant information such as participating
teams/pairs, timetable, system cards and results.
We are happy to have your tournament on our comprehensive vugraph map.
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