SCRC Arena Upgrades 2017

[Travis7s]

Its safe to say the floor will be the same for September.

Scott: If we have accent lighting, maybe the arena could change to yellow or orange or something when countdown activates? Locking out the countdown in the final seconds seems fine.

[FingerTech]

I'm happy to try that if it means not repainting everything every year!  Does anyone have an 'in' with a paint shop?  Maybe Dennis with your racing stuff?  Or even just an idea who might be a good place to ask?

9. Paint - I wonder if we could get a deal with a local paint shop to do the entire metal part of the arena? I've been fighting with paint quality and specs at work (street sweepers are a rust nightmare) and what I've found is that preventing rust is really just a matter of a quality prep job, which I'm not sure we've ever done. We strip all the non-metal bits and then get it blasted, primed, and painted black. At least in Winnipeg, most paint shops do a black paint run 2-4 times a week, and we don't care which "black" we get. We'd still have to touch up the floor (unless stainless) but that should keep the tubes looking nice for much longer.

[FingerTech]

We might?  If we did it that way, how can we mount TVs up there?

Do we have any old lexan left to use on the roof so that the new lights can stay on the outside of the arena?

[FingerTech]

We had spoken about RGB strips and I think that's a good idea. (Updated original post #5.) Have "neopixels" come down in price?  I would have thought they were prohibitively expensive.  The RGB strips were intended to be separately controlled, and possibly even splitting them in half lengthwise so we could light up quarters or the ceiling.
For creative fun, what kind of cool things could/would we do with an individually addressable RGB LED ceiling?

Adding the judging tablets as #17 to the original post.  What is the cheapest we could get three tablets?

17. Rather than simple white 12V LED strips, we could go with addressable RGB LED strips that could be animated to attract attention in the parade, or just before a round of fights is starting at a busy and loud event like Nationals.  These lights could possibly be used on the inside and outside of the arena, and can actually provide a significant level of white illumination during fights for an economical price.  This could also drastically cut our power consumption compared to halogens, and alleviate the breaker tripping problem.  (also that pesky electrical code/CSA issue of mains powered lighting, if we care about that).
18. Scott suggested a web-app on 3 tablets/phones dedicated to judging, tied into the main system.  It would have the fight details, and could automatically gather and log all scoring data.  It could also be used by a judge/ref to trigger the automatic KO count down timer.  I have already volunteered to work on this if we figure this is something we want to go forward with.

[FingerTech]

I know a number of English people if we wanted some fancy custom cues. 
Also, you can hire someone on Fiverr that will do English accent robotic-synthed voice acting for a reasonable rate.

Thanks Nathan... I was already formulating my reply before I read yours.  Yes, the judging tablets could certainly trigger the "show motion" countdown.  Maybe it could be a two of three situation.  Do we need another "shot clock"? or would audio cues be cool for this?  Can we hire Allison Smith to do all our audio voicing?

[FingerTech]

I'm not writing off a stainless floor.  I'm curious what the cost would be.  Where could we get an estimate?
I would think we take off the top layer of steel and put the stainless onto the bottom layer.  Any reason to keep the extra layer in there?

Stainless floor idea is kind of a joke, we would definitely need to club vote on making changes to the floor. But if I had my way it would be just stainless (i.e. not very magnetic). Other problems is cost and even finding an non standard size sheet (8x6)

[FingerTech]

Dunno, would it?  I've never hardened anything.  If that part is easy, it would save us from replacing the bearing blocks and pulleys in the hazard assembly.

Would hardening the hazard shafts be easier than embiggening them?

[FingerTech]

As I go through the videos from last weekend, I've decided to add "18. Audio recordings of the announcer and inside arena (camera sound is not good)"
Bad audio really suckifies the videos.

[Darkwynter9]

I can't promise they'd come out dead straight, but I could give my best shot at hardening the existing hazard shafts if the other option is just to scrap them anyway. Also, I'm still happy to donate my SM57 for the in arena mic.

[Travis7s]

I believe the shafts are 1018 steel from Princess Auto now. We could also look at getting a stronger steel from McMaster or something.

[rcjunky]

What do the hazard shafts look like? I'll start there before throwing out ideas.

[Travis7s]

Its just plain old keyed 3/4" rod.

[rcjunky]

so would 1045 keyed shafting from Mcmaster or similar work, then heat treat it?

[Travis7s]

2. Double stacking signs.

I'm thinking we glue magnets onto the signs and make some simple steel frames that screw into the existing 2x2s.

[Darkwynter9]

Not arena related, but just so it doesn't get lost on Facebook or forgotten - the official scale might be magnet damaged. It seemed to weigh about 1g heavy per lb which isn't necessarily a problem, but on one attempt to weigh Scary Thing it gave a reading 20g low.