2018 Futures Championships – Rochester
- August 2-5, 2018
- Rochester, MN
- LCM
- Meet Page
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
The 2018 Midwest Futures Championships will take place in Rochester, Minnesota this year, with the meet getting underway on Thursday and carrying on through the weekend.
Rochester Swimming, Inc. has really upped their game, installing three large 4K video walls and satellite displays around the venue via Visionary Display Systems. Take a look at them below:
By Jeff Chida, Visionary Display Systems
Jeff Chida has also told us there will be a high-definition webcast of the meet, which can be found here.
Their new video board was dedicated to the late Heidi Shaughnessy, wife of one of the founders of Rochester Swimming, Inc Bill Shaughnessy, who recently died after a long battle with cancer. You can read more on that story here.
When an innovative component of a swim meet enhances the experience of the Big 3…swimmer, coach and spectators…it’s a big deal. The clarity, flexibility and content of this system was outstanding…best I’ve ever witnessed at a meet. Well done, Jeff, and the Visionary Team!
The Shaughnessy family has made a very solid decision, taking the club they care for so dearly, and taking them into the next generation of technology. These boards are state of the art and with the ability to do so much more than simply a standard scoreboard. Think of all the possibilities as computer can provide rather than a single focused machine. Keep up the good work visionary!
Overall this was a really well run meet. The deck space was functional and my athletes had zero issues with warm-up/cool-down space. The technology in use throughout the facility was really incredible. It takes a lot of effort on the front end and during a meet like this to have everything go as well as it is. A big thanks to all involved with this meet!
I am so impressed and proud of the work that my Dad and his cohorts did for this! Even more impressed by Bill Shaugnessy and Dale Magnuson for keeping the old grunt on task in setting up such a great display/scoring/timing system! It was pretty cool to be able to tune into the live feed from Okinawa and watch a meet take place where I swam so often as a kid. Well done guys! Very nice and well deserved article.
My only criticism is for swimswam…It’s nitpicky, but the picture at the title, is not of the rec center, or a scoreboard done by Visionary. Would have been nice to see that instead of a Georgia Board.
Just an FYI Update to the Swimmers, Parents, and Coaches of the 2018 Midwest Futures Meet.
We have digitized the LiveStream sessions and they are in the Replay Section of the live stream link above.
Also if you go to the the Day 1 session and slide to the 11:30 time index mark you will see a two minute segement of the 4k camera
capability and close-up view of the production command center and 4k video displays and satellites.
Hope you enjoyed the meet and the content Rochester Swimming has provided for you.
PS: the Sponsor Adds will be MUCH smaller in future live stream events.
Jeff – understanding the facility’s limitations, I thought you guys did a great job of hosting this meet. Despite its age and look, my kids have had some of their best swims at the RecCenter, regardless of the course, and especially since the new pool was installed. This weekend was certainly no exception. The use of technology was great and it has been cool to go and re-watch some of the swims.
A bad pool to have a big meet at. There is barely any walk room. Also the announcer does not stop talking. Ever. The warm down pool is four lanes and short course. Seems like some people sacrificed functionality for technology.
I agree with the size of the facility and the dj. However our kids have been talking about what an unforgettable experience this has been with the technology in the building since it is only available at college level or higher typically. Thank you for allowing us to let the kids have this experience!
I’m sorry but that really was a trollish comment.
The announcer is doing his best and we relayed the comments. Hopefully a change was noticed.
In regards to the warmup pool, we asked for an additional six lane 50m pool in recent renovation but the powers that be said No! Go figure…
Also just as an FYI in the recent renovation the Pool contractor “screwed up” on initial gutter design forcing us to go with deck level gutter which caused us to loose 14″ of deck space all around the pool.
That in turn caused us a major PITA in replacing our Diving stands and starting which would be now 10″ lower
Hello Jeff,
Please adhere to the swimswam commenting rules by not using multiple usernames in the same comment thread. Thank you.
Sorry was letting some parents post from my phone…They will repost this evening.
I don’t believe there are many pool rec centers (if any at all) that have both a 50m competition pool AND a 50m warm down pool. I don’t even think there are any division 1 colleges that have 2x 50m pools and many of those could be considered some of the best pools in the entire world! Besides does it really matter how long the warm up/ warm down pool is?
Unfortunately the warm down pool was left at temperature for the crabby old water aerobics ladies and the little kids swim school….Our mistake.
We also did not have time, because of circumstances, to get holes cored for an “Official Path” rather than using the bike rakes as a barrier. Thank you Jason Schrader above to the positive comment about our display technology!
It’s really great but the commentator/DJ needs to stop talking so much
I wouldn’t say it’s really great. Mediocrity at best. They are definitely trying their best with what they have but definitely questioning who approved this pool.
USA Swimming asked Rochester Swimming to host this meet after we ran such a successful Zone meet last year. And we haveadded more enhancements since then with more to come.
Doing the best we can with a 50 year old facility.
Just to be fair the Announcer comes from a broadcast environment where “dead air” is bad! Part of them problem was Visionary’s as we enhanced the announcer audio over the ambient background so the live stream had more clarity…We also had to change to 720p broadcast in live stream because of people with ANCIENT iPhones!
It’s a really cool system! Everything is super clear and you can be seen anywhere in the venue.
Thanks Swim Fan!
The only regret we have at Visionary for the RecCenter display setup are the two mid pillar 75″ commercial displays that we thought would adequately service the coaches and swimmers sitting on the matrix display side of the pool.
Unfortunately, they are just too small for Coaches or Me with old aging eyes.
By 2019 Speedo Sectionals they will be replaced with two 2×2 4K matrix displays each providing a 110″ diagonal screen.
We are learning as we go…