Do you folks still get actual judges tapes?  And I mean the actual cassette tape.

I'm just curious what everyone else is doing.  We are still stuck in the 80's here and still have to purchase tapes for our hosted competition.  They are getting very hard to come by when it comes time to purchase.

What does your marching band judges use in your state?  What does DCI or WGI use?

I still get them from my local marching band circuit and DCA shows...

WGI and my local winter circuit went to MP3's a few years ago.  Turn in an MP3 player/flash drive before the show, and they load the recordings on them for you.

I can't remember off the top of my head if DCI was doing this as well, or was burning CDs?

Our indoor circuit uses tapes, outdoor circuit uses mp3 files on a thumb drive.

As bizarre as it sounds, I think the tapes are less of a hassle. No extra staff member sitting around, copying the files from the judges recorders, renaming the files, putting them on your thumb drive, turn on computer, turn up internal speakers so that everyone can hear, let other staffs hear your loud laptop etc...

With tapes its just collect tapes, distribute tapes, staff sits in my 1985 Datsun that I bought just to listen to tapes at shows.


It runs like a beast.

Last summer, DCI had a few shows where they were trying out the MP3 method. Guys were bringing their computers after the show and passing around thumb drives to different staff members which was actually a pain.

It seems to me like it'd be easier if the tabulator/sponsor distributed each group's MP3s to a web-based location. From there, any staff members with a web-enabled mobile device (cell phone, iPhone, iPad, laptop) could log in to their group's private space, and access any of those recordings as soon as they're available. With more people having this sort of mobile web access on the go, it might be more efficient.

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=3659.msg19249#msg19249 date=1274477236]
It seems to me like it'd be easier if the tabulator/sponsor distributed each group's MP3s to a web-based location. From there, any staff members with a web-enabled mobile device (cell phone, iPhone, iPad, laptop) could log in to their group's private space, and access any of those recordings as soon as they're available.
[/quote]

Dropbox.com! In reality, it wouldn't be the most powerful way to do that sort of thing, but perhaps it would suffice.

What might be more practical would be a log-in situation (like you suggested, Jim) where you could either listen straight from the website/server or could just download directly to your mobile device. Then once you were on the bus headed to the next show, you wouldn't have to rely on what might be a non-existent WiFi or 3g/4g network situation.