ICPC fans can get a look into the events here in Rapid City with coverage online at http://icpclive.com
ICPCLive, our live coverage of the world’s best competitive programming, has been expanding focus and coverage. What started as a broadcast in one country during the World Finals event is now a multi-national, world-wide event streamed globally.
We caught up with Lidia Perovskaya, who works with the ICPCNews broadcast. The ICPCLive team is busy year round, she said. The core group, who are mostly from Russia, work on the Live systems and broadcast regional competitions at the high school and college levels in Russia, year round.
Their goals are bigger than that. “We are improving the software that we use,” Perovskaya said. “Every region can set it up.” The idea is to have a sharable set up materials that would let any region broadcast their regional contest to the world.
ICPCLive takes a unique approach to broadcasting, using software and technology to enable a show with a much smaller group of staff than a typical broadcast. “Having the software engineered, we are just 3-5 high-powered laptops and the rest is just software.”
The ICPCLive audience grows each year. Perovskaya said the audience depends a lot on the timezone where the contest is held For example, when the contest was held in Thailand last year, “We had great participation from Japan and China.” But, she added, smiling, “If you are really cheering for your team, you are much more likely to follow the contest.
Like many ICPC staff, Perovskaya said that many on the ICPCLive team became involved during the contests held in Russia, but keep coming back because they found it such a rich experience. For example, she said, “That scene where every team touches the trophy is one of the magic moments.” She described the ICPCLive team as “a team of ICPC 2015 organizers who just can’t get enough of the World Finals.”
All of the Live staff have an IT or software development background. They also all have other jobs or are students.
She said “It’s a pet project that you love working on. “