jpswensen wrote:

ProvoAggie wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Does anyone have really old video footage from the Spectrum? I went and looked at what is available on here and it looks like it only goes back to 2010. I am hoping to find some footage of the decibel meter for the KickStarter promo video.

Despite not getting formal endorsement from the AD's office, I am going to see if I can get it funded and will donate it. Then it is in the hands of the AD's office and you can guarantee I will start publicizing that they have it so we can get pressure to actually install it.

We also have the 1998 game against Utah on here. I'm not sure if the Decibel meter is ever shown or not. I have a few other games that I still need to cap off of some VHS tapes that were sent to me but coming off of old VHS tapes the quality isn't that great. Here is that Utah game: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=36810&p=373715&hilit=Utah#p373715

Thanks! I hadn't gone through and looked at every page in the Downloads->Video section. I had just seen that it seemed like they were all in chronological order and didn't think to look for outliers.

I believe that is the only home basketball game we have right now that is older and it was added in the past year sometime. We also have the Ohio State NCAA Tournament game up there but that won't help you.

I would donate Kickstarter or not. Please keep us updated on progress and where and how to donate.

ProvoAggie wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Does anyone have really old video footage from the Spectrum? I went and looked at what is available on here and it looks like it only goes back to 2010. I am hoping to find some footage of the decibel meter for the KickStarter promo video.

Despite not getting formal endorsement from the AD's office, I am going to see if I can get it funded and will donate it. Then it is in the hands of the AD's office and you can guarantee I will start publicizing that they have it so we can get pressure to actually install it.

We also have the 1998 game against Utah on here. I'm not sure if the Decibel meter is ever shown or not. I have a few other games that I still need to cap off of some VHS tapes that were sent to me but coming off of old VHS tapes the quality isn't that great. Here is that Utah game: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=36810&p=373715&hilit=Utah#p373715

Thanks a ton for pointing this one out. There were a couple of 2-4 second clips near the end of the second half
36:35 to 36:39
38:07 to 38:09
40:22 to 40:26
that had readable shots of the decibel meter. Even one of them had the blue and white lights going off. I think the threshold must have been 105, not 100, because there were several >100 that didn't have the lights going off.

I saw the old decibel meter perform on many occasions. The two meters still hang in the Spectrum. They're just covered up with advertising now. The meter would record decibles up to 100 in blue numbers. When it his the magic "100" plus, it would flash white, then go red when it was 105 or over. Frankly, I was too interested in the games to look at it that much.

The original sponsors were Dominoes Pizza. They had a pizza store in the Spectrum where the bookstore clothing outlet now is. I think that after a while it was something that Dominoes said, "Is this really selling pizza for us?" The decided it was not, and quit paying for it. One of the meters had an electronics problem, and USU just turned them off, then covered them over/replaced them with advertising.

I personally think that if you're going to get all wound up about raising money for USU Basketball it ought to be for something that helps the players, or bring players. JMHO

AggiesForever wrote:I saw the old decibel meter perform on many occasions. The two meters still hang in the Spectrum. They're just covered up with advertising now. The meter would record decibles up to 100 in blue numbers. When it his the magic "100" plus, it would flash white, then go red when it was 105 or over. Frankly, I was too interested in the games to look at it that much.

The original sponsors were Dominoes Pizza. They had a pizza store in the Spectrum where the bookstore clothing outlet now is. I think that after a while it was something that Dominoes said, "Is this really selling pizza for us?" The decided it was not, and quit paying for it. One of the meters had an electronics problem, and USU just turned them off, then covered them over/replaced them with advertising.

I personally think that if you're going to get all wound up about raising money for USU Basketball it ought to be for something that helps the players, or bring players. JMHO

Getting the crowd fired up does help the players.


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2004AG wrote:

AggiesForever wrote:I saw the old decibel meter perform on many occasions. The two meters still hang in the Spectrum. They're just covered up with advertising now. The meter would record decibles up to 100 in blue numbers. When it his the magic "100" plus, it would flash white, then go red when it was 105 or over. Frankly, I was too interested in the games to look at it that much.

The original sponsors were Dominoes Pizza. They had a pizza store in the Spectrum where the bookstore clothing outlet now is. I think that after a while it was something that Dominoes said, "Is this really selling pizza for us?" The decided it was not, and quit paying for it. One of the meters had an electronics problem, and USU just turned them off, then covered them over/replaced them with advertising.

I personally think that if you're going to get all wound up about raising money for USU Basketball it ought to be for something that helps the players, or bring players. JMHO

Getting the crowd fired up does help the players.


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Touche. We need several things, one of them is the Spectrum.

AggiesForever wrote:I saw the old decibel meter perform on many occasions. The two meters still hang in the Spectrum. They're just covered up with advertising now. The meter would record decibles up to 100 in blue numbers. When it his the magic "100" plus, it would flash white, then go red when it was 105 or over. Frankly, I was too interested in the games to look at it that much.

The original sponsors were Dominoes Pizza. They had a pizza store in the Spectrum where the bookstore clothing outlet now is. I think that after a while it was something that Dominoes said, "Is this really selling pizza for us?" The decided it was not, and quit paying for it. One of the meters had an electronics problem, and USU just turned them off, then covered them over/replaced them with advertising.

I personally think that if you're going to get all wound up about raising money for USU Basketball it ought to be for something that helps the players, or bring players. JMHO

Hey, rather than just sit around and add to the list growing list of people complaining about stuff like "hey, we need to get us an aggressive big man" or "man, Duryea sure sucks" (stuff we have little to no control over), at least JP is trying to be proactive and contribute in a positive way to make things better. Not directed at you, AF, or anyone else in particular, but the easiest thing in the world to do is b1tch. I don't know if it will bring the house down or not, but one thing we need is the Spectrum. Technical or not, I say we bring back the rain of tissue too. I appreciate JP's effort.

AngusAg wrote:

AggiesForever wrote:I saw the old decibel meter perform on many occasions. The two meters still hang in the Spectrum. They're just covered up with advertising now. The meter would record decibles up to 100 in blue numbers. When it his the magic "100" plus, it would flash white, then go red when it was 105 or over. Frankly, I was too interested in the games to look at it that much.

The original sponsors were Dominoes Pizza. They had a pizza store in the Spectrum where the bookstore clothing outlet now is. I think that after a while it was something that Dominoes said, "Is this really selling pizza for us?" The decided it was not, and quit paying for it. One of the meters had an electronics problem, and USU just turned them off, then covered them over/replaced them with advertising.

I personally think that if you're going to get all wound up about raising money for USU Basketball it ought to be for something that helps the players, or bring players. JMHO

Hey, rather than just sit around and add to the list growing list of people complaining about stuff like "hey, we need to get us an aggressive big man" or "man, Duryea sure sucks" (stuff we have little to no control over), at least JP is trying to be proactive and contribute in a positive way to make things better. Not directed at you, AF, or anyone else in particular, but the easiest thing in the world to do is b1tch. I don't know if it will bring the house down or not, but one thing we need is the Spectrum. Technical or not, I say we bring back the rain of tissue too. I appreciate JP's effort.

+1000

I have one more request for someone who frequents the Spectrum. As I was watching the game tonight, I saw that AggiesForever was right and the meter is still there but covered with a U State logo. I can't get a good feel from the video about the height of the old meter. If someone who goes to lots of games could walk by it and give me a ballpark estimate (or feel free to sneak in a tape measure and get a real measurement), I would appreciate it.

In the KickStarter narrative, I am proposing two alternatives to the meter.

1) One would be a standard 3-digit 7-segment display in blue like you would see at a gas station (see https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 0.0.PIhlhc). These are about $1250 (includes all the drive electronics and controller, but not the shipping from China).

2) The other solution is to get a high brightness indoor LCD screen (like what you would see at a trade show or fast food restaurant). These have a lot higher brightness and better viewing angle than your typical LCD monitor. This would be the easiest to get up and running and could allow for some cool additions like having it cycle through a couple of different screens like a plot of the noise level during a game, keeping track of an all-time high decibel level, keeping track of the highest level in a single game, etc.

For both of them, they will be driven by a Raspberry Pi that is reading the OEM decibel meter and outputting the value. Either solution, I want know how high the characters were because it will let me know the number height needed and thus the height of either the 3-digit display or the LCD screen. This will also let me know a better idea of the cost for proposing two meters (as USUBlue pointed out that the new display blocks the old decibel meter location from a decent portion of the other side of the Spectrum).

Great idea!

I bet we could find a CS student that would help make the programming happen!

jpswensen wrote:I have one more request for someone who frequents the Spectrum. As I was watching the game tonight, I saw that AggiesForever was right and the meter is still there but covered with a U State logo. I can't get a good feel from the video about the height of the old meter. If someone who goes to lots of games could walk by it and give me a ballpark estimate (or feel free to sneak in a tape measure and get a real measurement), I would appreciate it.

In the KickStarter narrative, I am proposing two alternatives to the meter.

1) One would be a standard 3-digit 7-segment display in blue like you would see at a gas station (see https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 0.0.PIhlhc). These are about $1250 (includes all the drive electronics and controller, but not the shipping from China).

2) The other solution is to get a high brightness indoor LCD screen (like what you would see at a trade show or fast food restaurant). These have a lot higher brightness and better viewing angle than your typical LCD monitor. This would be the easiest to get up and running and could allow for some cool additions like having it cycle through a couple of different screens like a plot of the noise level during a game, keeping track of an all-time high decibel level, keeping track of the highest level in a single game, etc.

For both of them, they will be driven by a Raspberry Pi that is reading the OEM decibel meter and outputting the value. Either solution, I want know how high the characters were because it will let me know the number height needed and thus the height of either the 3-digit display or the LCD screen. This will also let me know a better idea of the cost for proposing two meters (as USUBlue pointed out that the new display blocks the old decibel meter location from a decent portion of the other side of the Spectrum).

I like the rugged, old school feel of option 1

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:I have one more request for someone who frequents the Spectrum. As I was watching the game tonight, I saw that AggiesForever was right and the meter is still there but covered with a U State logo. I can't get a good feel from the video about the height of the old meter. If someone who goes to lots of games could walk by it and give me a ballpark estimate (or feel free to sneak in a tape measure and get a real measurement), I would appreciate it.

In the KickStarter narrative, I am proposing two alternatives to the meter.

1) One would be a standard 3-digit 7-segment display in blue like you would see at a gas station (see https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 0.0.PIhlhc). These are about $1250 (includes all the drive electronics and controller, but not the shipping from China).

2) The other solution is to get a high brightness indoor LCD screen (like what you would see at a trade show or fast food restaurant). These have a lot higher brightness and better viewing angle than your typical LCD monitor. This would be the easiest to get up and running and could allow for some cool additions like having it cycle through a couple of different screens like a plot of the noise level during a game, keeping track of an all-time high decibel level, keeping track of the highest level in a single game, etc.

For both of them, they will be driven by a Raspberry Pi that is reading the OEM decibel meter and outputting the value. Either solution, I want know how high the characters were because it will let me know the number height needed and thus the height of either the 3-digit display or the LCD screen. This will also let me know a better idea of the cost for proposing two meters (as USUBlue pointed out that the new display blocks the old decibel meter location from a decent portion of the other side of the Spectrum).

I like the rugged, old school feel of option 1

Even if I do option 2, I will still use a 7-segment display font (see http://www.keshikan.net/fonts-e.html). From more than a few feet away I doubt you would be able to tell it isn't a real 7-segment display.

Just wondering but what ever happened to the previous attempts at resurrecting the decibel meter? It seems like 2 or 3 Athletic VP's tried to get this done and got no support from the AD or ran into similar road blocks.

Just 5 years ago Ry Bay took these ones down from The Spectrum to fix them. These aren't the original Domino's Pizza ones but he posted proof that he had them and they were going to be put back up that basketball season.


Here's that thread from 2011: Rumor has it

Aglicious wrote:Just wondering but what ever happened to the previous attempts at resurrecting the decibel meter? It seems like 2 or 3 Athletic VP's tried to get this done and got no support from the AD or ran into similar road blocks.

Just 5 years ago Ry Bay took these ones down from The Spectrum to fix them. These aren't the original Domino's Pizza ones but he posted proof that he had them and they were going to be put back up that basketball season.


Here's that thread from 2011: Rumor has it

I don't know what ever happened to that effort. When I was watching the game the other day, it sure looks like the meter is back up with the decibel portion covered by a U State logo. Does that mean it was repaired, they put it back up, and never started using it again?

I really don't know.

Is this it?

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ProvoAggie wrote:
Is this it?

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Sure looks like it. Looks like a UState logo has been put over the readout. hmmm....

Aglicious wrote:

ProvoAggie wrote:
Is this it?

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Sure looks like it. Looks like a UState logo has been put over the readout. hmmm....

That's the correct location. They did remove the blue police light that sat on top of it.

Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

Agreed. This was awesome. I actually think it may have been 110 that set it off because you notice at the start of the clip it was at 107 then 105 but was not alarming. Then in the following clip it cuts to the decibel meter already alarming at 105..> I assume it was 110 before that. It alarmed for a while after you hit the alarm point if I remember right. The way they had multiple police lights really drew attention to it.

treesap32 wrote:

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

Agreed. This was awesome. I actually think it may have been 110 that set it off because you notice at the start of the clip it was at 107 then 105 but was not alarming. Then in the following clip it cuts to the decibel meter already alarming at 105..> I assume it was 110 before that. It alarmed for a while after you hit the alarm point if I remember right. The way they had multiple police lights really drew attention to it.

It was 105 to my recollection; and I loved it.

USUBlue wrote:

treesap32 wrote:

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

Agreed. This was awesome. I actually think it may have been 110 that set it off because you notice at the start of the clip it was at 107 then 105 but was not alarming. Then in the following clip it cuts to the decibel meter already alarming at 105..> I assume it was 110 before that. It alarmed for a while after you hit the alarm point if I remember right. The way they had multiple police lights really drew attention to it.

It was 105 to my recollection; and I loved it.

As I mentioned, in the clip you can see it at 107 and 105 without going off... So it would've had to have been higher than that

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treesap32 wrote:

USUBlue wrote:

treesap32 wrote:

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

Agreed. This was awesome. I actually think it may have been 110 that set it off because you notice at the start of the clip it was at 107 then 105 but was not alarming. Then in the following clip it cuts to the decibel meter already alarming at 105..> I assume it was 110 before that. It alarmed for a while after you hit the alarm point if I remember right. The way they had multiple police lights really drew attention to it.

It was 105 to my recollection; and I loved it.

As I mentioned, in the clip you can see it at 107 and 105 without going off... So it would've had to have been higher than that

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Hmmm, the clip I was looking at it was at 105 and the blue light was flashing.

USUBlue wrote:

treesap32 wrote:

USUBlue wrote:

treesap32 wrote:

MetsJetsAggies wrote:

jpswensen wrote:Here are a few cut seconds from the 1998 USU-Utah game that ProvoAggie pointed me to. It is short, but shows how that blocked shot made the crowd erupt and drive the decibel meter above 105 and set off the blue lights.

http://swengames.com/misc/DecibelBlueLights.mp4

Sure looks like close to the same thing. The current sign up there (and the one shown from 2011 by RayBy) seem like it also has a clock on top.

This is awesome

Agreed. This was awesome. I actually think it may have been 110 that set it off because you notice at the start of the clip it was at 107 then 105 but was not alarming. Then in the following clip it cuts to the decibel meter already alarming at 105..> I assume it was 110 before that. It alarmed for a while after you hit the alarm point if I remember right. The way they had multiple police lights really drew attention to it.

It was 105 to my recollection; and I loved it.

As I mentioned, in the clip you can see it at 107 and 105 without going off... So it would've had to have been higher than that

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Hmmm, the clip I was looking at it was at 105 and the blue light was flashing.

Look at the very first couple of seconds. It's at 107 and not flashing, then 105, not flashing. Then they cut to it after the crowd goes insane and it's already flashing and at 105. I assume it hit 110, started flashing, and came down to 105 and that's when the video cut over to it. I remember it flashing for several seconds (maybe 15-30 or more) every time it was set off.

So I've had to do some research on similar things for my job. Here's some ideas I figured I could bring to the table.

First: Uplause is a company that specializes in arena decibel meters. They have a program that can easily be integrated into the displays all throughout the spectrum. It probably would be a little more spendy but a lot of their sample videos have sponsors right next to the meter. I think that would be more appealing to the AD and way more visible to the crowd (up to 6 screens, maybe 9 if you count courtside and the bottom ticker), however the downside is it isn't permanently visible so the ebb and flow depends on whoever is controlling the screens. As a quick side note, this is the company that does the crowd noise games in arenas if any of you have seen them. It is really fun and engaging. I'll post some sample clips.

First the decibel meter:
[youtube][/youtube]

And then the crowd games:
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

Second: If Uplause seems a little too lofty, I would think a display board (like https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 45311.html) hooked up to a decibel meter would be much easier on the wallet and easier to see.

Last: I thought the original decibel meter had a blue strobe effect more then a spinning police light? It should be easy to get a cheap DJ style strobe and put a blue gel over it and then hook it up to the Pi via DMX, but I'm not sure what the NCAA might think about that. There is every chance I'm just imagining the strobe though. (Edit: Just watched the old recording and it looks like two strobes encased in police cone style plastic)

This needs to happen. I wish RyBay and co had been able to get this done while I was still at USU, but better late than even.

corio wrote:So I've had to do some research on similar things for my job. Here's some ideas I figured I could bring to the table.

First: Uplause is a company that specializes in arena decibel meters. They have a program that can easily be integrated into the displays all throughout the spectrum. It probably would be a little more spendy but a lot of their sample videos have sponsors right next to the meter. I think that would be more appealing to the AD and way more visible to the crowd (up to 6 screens, maybe 9 if you count courtside and the bottom ticker), however the downside is it isn't permanently visible so the ebb and flow depends on whoever is controlling the screens. As a quick side note, this is the company that does the crowd noise games in arenas if any of you have seen them. It is really fun and engaging. I'll post some sample clips.

First the decibel meter:
[youtube][/youtube]

And then the crowd games:
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

Second: If Uplause seems a little too lofty, I would think a display board (like https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 45311.html) hooked up to a decibel meter would be much easier on the wallet and easier to see.

Last: I thought the original decibel meter had a blue strobe effect more then a spinning police light? It should be easy to get a cheap DJ style strobe and put a blue gel over it and then hook it up to the Pi via DMX, but I'm not sure what the NCAA might think about that. There is every chance I'm just imagining the strobe though. (Edit: Just watched the old recording and it looks like two strobes encased in police cone style plastic)

A couple of comments.

1) I contacted Uplause a while back and they require yearly contracts. They don't just sell the hardware and the means of hooking it into you video board system, they require you to re-license the software that talks to their meters and your video board each year. It makes sense as they see themselves as a service company, not a products company. Plus the up-front costs were >$5k. If the AD's office won't even give me a firm commitment to install it once it is done (maybe more bureaucracy about not being able to endorse a Kickstarter than lack of want) and state that the donation would need to have money for install and declaration of free ongoing technical support, I highly suspect that a yearly contract is a massive NO-GO.

2) I have been looking at various LED 7-segment solutions on AliExpress. If you have ever dealt with any of the companies on Alibaba, you will find that even if they say the price is $320-$350 and they say they sell in quantities as low as one, that price is actually their large quantity price. I suspect that in lots of 1-2, they would charge more than triple the stated price. That is why I like AliExpress better than Alibaba. They are related (I think they are the same company), but AliExpress offers a feature where your money is held in escrow until the product is delivered and the companies are required to provide the price at the quantity stated. I had posted a couple of 3 digit 7-segment displays with the accompanying drive electronics and the means to control the numbers from a microcontroller that were about $1250 for 24 inch numbers. One thing about some of these cheaper 7-segment displays is that they don't come with the drive electronics. Other times their drive electronics can only be controlled through a remote control, as they are mostly used for gas stations and other applications where they change infrequently. That being said, I still haven't decided whether to do the 7-segment display. For about the same money, you can get a similarly sized >1000nit high-resolution LED display. From more than a few feet away you probably can't tell the difference between the 7-segment display and the high-res LED display if you are using a font that looks like a 7-segment display. With the LED display you could do a lot more with tracking the all-time high, the in-game high, etc.

3) The plan has been to get some blue or blue/white emergency vehicle strobe lights to mount on the corners of the device.

Thanks for the input and the videos. I am working on the Kickstarter video now and have a section that talks about the effects of decibel meter and a TED talk on the psychology of gamification in society. I will probably use some short clips from those video to motivate the benefits of the decibel meter. The only other Youtube videos I had been able to find with decibel meters had been at Allen Fieldhouse. I have seen a lot of calls for proposal from DARPA lately about the gamification of various aspects of training and performance assessment. Essentially a decibel meter is exactly that. When you give someone a target to hit, they often elevate performance to meet the expectation and particularly in a social setting, like a basketball crowd, the in-group dynamics only help.

jpswensen wrote:

corio wrote:So I've had to do some research on similar things for my job. Here's some ideas I figured I could bring to the table.

First: Uplause is a company that specializes in arena decibel meters. They have a program that can easily be integrated into the displays all throughout the spectrum. It probably would be a little more spendy but a lot of their sample videos have sponsors right next to the meter. I think that would be more appealing to the AD and way more visible to the crowd (up to 6 screens, maybe 9 if you count courtside and the bottom ticker), however the downside is it isn't permanently visible so the ebb and flow depends on whoever is controlling the screens. As a quick side note, this is the company that does the crowd noise games in arenas if any of you have seen them. It is really fun and engaging. I'll post some sample clips.

First the decibel meter:
[youtube][/youtube]

And then the crowd games:
[youtube][/youtube]
[youtube][/youtube]

Second: If Uplause seems a little too lofty, I would think a display board (like https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 45311.html) hooked up to a decibel meter would be much easier on the wallet and easier to see.

Last: I thought the original decibel meter had a blue strobe effect more then a spinning police light? It should be easy to get a cheap DJ style strobe and put a blue gel over it and then hook it up to the Pi via DMX, but I'm not sure what the NCAA might think about that. There is every chance I'm just imagining the strobe though. (Edit: Just watched the old recording and it looks like two strobes encased in police cone style plastic)

A couple of comments.

1) I contacted Uplause a while back and they require yearly contracts. They don't just sell the hardware and the means of hooking it into you video board system, they require you to re-license the software that talks to their meters and your video board each year. It makes sense as they see themselves as a service company, not a products company. Plus the up-front costs were >$5k. If the AD's office won't even give me a firm commitment to install it once it is done (maybe more bureaucracy about not being able to endorse a Kickstarter than lack of want) and state that the donation would need to have money for install and declaration of free ongoing technical support, I highly suspect that a yearly contract is a massive NO-GO.

2) I have been looking at various LED 7-segment solutions on AliExpress. If you have ever dealt with any of the companies on Alibaba, you will find that even if they say the price is $320-$350 and they say they sell in quantities as low as one, that price is actually their large quantity price. I suspect that in lots of 1-2, they would charge more than triple the stated price. That is why I like AliExpress better than Alibaba. They are related (I think they are the same company), but AliExpress offers a feature where your money is held in escrow until the product is delivered and the companies are required to provide the price at the quantity stated. I had posted a couple of 3 digit 7-segment displays with the accompanying drive electronics and the means to control the numbers from a microcontroller that were about $1250 for 24 inch numbers. One thing about some of these cheaper 7-segment displays is that they don't come with the drive electronics. Other times their drive electronics can only be controlled through a remote control, as they are mostly used for gas stations and other applications where they change infrequently. That being said, I still haven't decided whether to do the 7-segment display. For about the same money, you can get a similarly sized >1000nit high-resolution LED display. From more than a few feet away you probably can't tell the difference between the 7-segment display and the high-res LED display if you are using a font that looks like a 7-segment display. With the LED display you could do a lot more with tracking the all-time high, the in-game high, etc.

3) The plan has been to get some blue or blue/white emergency vehicle strobe lights to mount on the corners of the device.

Thanks for the input and the videos. I am working on the Kickstarter video now and have a section that talks about the effects of decibel meter and a TED talk on the psychology of gamification in society. I will probably use some short clips from those video to motivate the benefits of the decibel meter. The only other Youtube videos I had been able to find with decibel meters had been at Allen Fieldhouse. I have seen a lot of calls for proposal from DARPA lately about the gamification of various aspects of training and performance assessment. Essentially a decibel meter is exactly that. When you give someone a target to hit, they often elevate performance to meet the expectation and particularly in a social setting, like a basketball crowd, the in-group dynamics only help.

I just realized my Tapatalk app only was showing two of the four pages in this thread and a lot that I talked about had already been touched on. Thanks for still making me feel special.


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jpswensen wrote: A couple of comments.

1) I contacted Uplause a while back and they require yearly contracts. They don't just sell the hardware and the means of hooking it into you video board system, they require you to re-license the software that talks to their meters and your video board each year. It makes sense as they see themselves as a service company, not a products company. Plus the up-front costs were >$5k. If the AD's office won't even give me a firm commitment to install it once it is done (maybe more bureaucracy about not being able to endorse a Kickstarter than lack of want) and state that the donation would need to have money for install and declaration of free ongoing technical support, I highly suspect that a yearly contract is a massive NO-GO.

2) I have been looking at various LED 7-segment solutions on AliExpress. If you have ever dealt with any of the companies on Alibaba, you will find that even if they say the price is $320-$350 and they say they sell in quantities as low as one, that price is actually their large quantity price. I suspect that in lots of 1-2, they would charge more than triple the stated price. That is why I like AliExpress better than Alibaba. They are related (I think they are the same company), but AliExpress offers a feature where your money is held in escrow until the product is delivered and the companies are required to provide the price at the quantity stated. I had posted a couple of 3 digit 7-segment displays with the accompanying drive electronics and the means to control the numbers from a microcontroller that were about $1250 for 24 inch numbers. One thing about some of these cheaper 7-segment displays is that they don't come with the drive electronics. Other times their drive electronics can only be controlled through a remote control, as they are mostly used for gas stations and other applications where they change infrequently. That being said, I still haven't decided whether to do the 7-segment display. For about the same money, you can get a similarly sized >1000nit high-resolution LED display. From more than a few feet away you probably can't tell the difference between the 7-segment display and the high-res LED display if you are using a font that looks like a 7-segment display. With the LED display you could do a lot more with tracking the all-time high, the in-game high, etc.

3) The plan has been to get some blue or blue/white emergency vehicle strobe lights to mount on the corners of the device.

Thanks for the input and the videos. I am working on the Kickstarter video now and have a section that talks about the effects of decibel meter and a TED talk on the psychology of gamification in society. I will probably use some short clips from those video to motivate the benefits of the decibel meter. The only other Youtube videos I had been able to find with decibel meters had been at Allen Fieldhouse. I have seen a lot of calls for proposal from DARPA lately about the gamification of various aspects of training and performance assessment. Essentially a decibel meter is exactly that. When you give someone a target to hit, they often elevate performance to meet the expectation and particularly in a social setting, like a basketball crowd, the in-group dynamics only help.

There is a decibel meter setup very similar to what we had in the Spectrum at George Mason University. Not sure if there are youtube clips of it or not. I've seen it in person.