Araibira discontinuing youtube sumo broadcasts (or is he?)

[Kintamayama 42,781]

Major, major bad news for all of us- Araibira will not be doing his awesomely incredible videos anymore.

A gigantic thank you from all Sumo fans wherever they are-you made some major breakthroughs in bringing sumo to all fans worldwide and for that-respect!!

Here is his farewell video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wrj3kW7MsI

Edited September 10, 2012 by Kintamayama

[Dr.Radical 16]

Well this is a major bummer. Thanks so much, though, Araibira!

The Kyokai posting their own youtube videos would be fantastic but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Their live stream did get better this year, though, so I guess that's a step in the right direction.

My Japanese is poor, but I wouldn't mind sending an email to NSK asking for a youtube channel. Maybe if enough of us do it, they might take notice and become convinced it's a good idea. Even a form letter we could copy and paste written by someone with good Japanese writing skills might be a good idea.

Edited April 30, 2012 by Dr.Radical

[Andonishiki 165]

noooooooooooooooo !

I love your work araibira.

Your videos became a part of daily basho life.

gonna send u a private msg....

maybe.... you can rethink, team up with others and monetize ur work.

THANK YOU for every single second upload

You are a real hero

[Randomitsuki 2,681]

I was afraid that some day this was coming - the task of manually recording all those video is too Herculean to be done over longer stretches of time.

I cannot thank you enough, araibira! I never felt so close to the actual sumo proceedings as I did over the last few months. (I am not worthy...)

All the best for your new job!

[Naganoyama 5,696]

Good luck to you in your new career! If you apply yourself to that as well as you have applied yourself to the task of uploading Sumo videos over the past year, you deserve great success. :-)

[Bugman 381]

The effort involved must have been huge Araibira, thank you for the video's they were and are very much appreciated, i wish you the very best for the future in your new career.

[kedevash 36]

Thanks you for all you have done Araibira. This thanks come from France where your job was trully appreciate. With all your videos people now know that there is a lot fo rikishi who fight below the tv schedule. Now we can appreciate all the effort they do on every basho.

You will miss a lot of people and i hope your message for the nsk will be heard. In this hard days for sumo it can be a solution to democratise this sports.

Hope you will enjoy your new job !!!

Thanks again and again !

[Manekineko 200]

My thanks as well! Although I haven't been watching much sumo lately, I was glad to know I'd be able to see any bout I wanted whenever I felt like it.

[Bealzbob 0]

Oh no :-( Bad bad news. Good luck in the future Araibira. Hopefully you'll miss it and be back :-D Thanks for everything up to now. I guess I'm getting up nice and early for my footage now!!

[Jejima 1,126]

Many, many thanks. You have been my 'eyes' for the past few tournaments. Good luck with the future. :-) If you ever change your mind - we won't regret it!

But, hopefully the Nihon Kyokai will follow your suggestion....

[Raishu 195]

Thank you very much for your efforts!

I hope your channel stays on youtube because it is a great source for video material (almost like a video archive).

Best of luck to you!

[kuroimori 1,634]

Well this is a major bummer. Thanks so much, though, Araibira!

The Kyokai posting their own youtube videos would be fantastic but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Their live stream did get better this year, though, so I guess that's a step in the right direction.

My Japanese is poor, but I wouldn't mind sending an email to NSK asking for a youtube channel. Maybe if enough of us do it, they might take notice and become convinced it's a good idea. Even a form letter we could copy and paste written by someone with good Japanese writing skills might be a good idea.

Maybe the NSK will examine this "new technology" called YouTube and will have their own channel ready - in 2016... :-(

Call me a pessimist, but when I look at the NSK's current web presence, there isn't much to hope they will tackle other new media

But I still hope for a major surprise

[Dr.Radical 16]

I just sent a message in English to the Kyokai on this page: http://sumo.goo.ne.jp/eng/toko/index.html

Mods, do you think we could have a thread specifically for this? I really think we should at least try to get this going so we can have someone to fill the huge Araibira shaped void on Youtube. It would benefit us all!

[Gusoyama 70]

Its a shame that you are no longer doing the videos, but I completely understand, that was an astoundingly large task for one person to undertake. The individual efforts of the members of this forum are far beyond anything that the NSK or even the Kyokai are doing to promote the sport in the hypertechnological age we live in.

That said, I think that a combined effort from the forum members would be good, but the NHK/Kyokai care little to none about a couple hundred fans that are mostly in other countries.

[Kyokuhagyo 528]

Many thanks from me as well. Especially with the integration into Sumo Reference it's been a great service.

I'm not sure whether there's anything going on behind the scenes already, but here are some of my thoughts and ramblings:

It seems to me that the only part that can't really be automated is determining the start and end times of each single bout. It shouldn't be hard to write a simple program allowing to log the start and end time (in, say, JST or UTC) of a bout by a simple button press at the appropriate time each.

Are there people who are watching the stream live, especially lower divisions, and would be willing to do the logging? In that case I could write such a program.

Assuming we have this data (i.e., for each division at least someone logging the start and end times of the bouts), and someone else recording the entire stream (noting the starting time in JST or UTC again), then the video could automatically be split into single bouts, labelled, and the videos could be uploaded to youtube. (I assume latency differences are small enough that bouts wouldn't be cut off if there are a few seconds leeway before and after each bout.)

I've looked around a bit, and found a video editor with scripting support: http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

The most recent stream recording I have saved dates back to Hatsu 2011, i.e. before the improvement of the stream. So I can't test the program properly right now, for these streams however I haven't found a setting yet that produces videos without any artifacts.

For video uploading, I found this, haven't tested yet though as I don't have a youtube account: http://code.google.c...youtube-upload/

Edited May 1, 2012 by Kyokuhagyo

[Igordemorais 75]

What! If it wasn't for Araibira I wouldn't be a sumo fan today.

[Asashosakari 17,637]

It seems to me that the only part that can't really be automated is determining the start and end times of each single bout. It shouldn't be hard to write a simple program allowing to log the start and end time (in, say, JST or UTC) of a bout by a simple button press at the appropriate time each.

Are there people who are watching the stream live, especially lower divisions, and would be willing to do the logging? In that case I could write such a program.

Assuming we have this data (i.e., for each division at least someone logging the start and end times of the bouts), and someone else recording the entire stream (noting the starting time in JST or UTC again), then the video could automatically be split into single bouts, labelled, and the videos could be uploaded to youtube. (I assume latency differences are small enough that bouts wouldn't be cut off if there are a few seconds leeway before and after each bout.)

Latency isn't the issue, occasional dropouts in the stream are. As soon as the recording "jumps" ahead because it missed half a minute of data somewhere, all your pre-recorded timestamps become useless.

FWIW, even when my recordings go exceptionally well (i.e. I don't notice any major dropouts either on live and taped viewing), the recorded length is at least 2 to 3 minutes shorter than the actual time passed, which indicates to me that the streaming probably drops frames frequently even when it doesn't disconnect altogether, and across a 9 hour broadcast that just adds up.

I've looked around a bit, and found a video editor with scripting support: http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

The most recent stream recording I have saved dates back to Hatsu 2011, i.e. before the improvement of the stream. So I can't test the program properly right now, for these streams however I haven't found a setting yet that produces videos without any artifacts.

As far as I can tell it's still exactly the same type of stream (codec etc.), just with a higher bitrate. If you want to experiment further, I still have two recorded pieces laying around my Mediafire account, from Aki 2011 (Makuuchi Day 12):

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8n9r1rh45mbmyw9

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9ea7egyf4vgeo0s

Edited May 1, 2012 by Asashosakari

[Doitsuyama 1,161]

I have a very different suggestion how to make the videos accessible with not so much workload for a single person.

First off, I must say that I very rarely used the youtube website, but rather accessed the videos from Sumo Reference as I think the organization is much better here (finding bouts by day, by rikishi etc.). So in my opinion there is no real need to make thousands of single bout videos, label them and upload every single bout to youtube. My proposal is uploading the entire stream in chunks to youtube, maybe an hour per part, but this really is arbitrary (a single bout shouldn't be broken apart though). Then the links to the single bouts can be made in Sumo Reference, addressing the youtube video with a two part code of the (eleven letter) youtube ID and the starting point of the bout (in seconds within the video). Actually all mae-zumo bouts are already linked this way from Sumo Reference as Asashosakari uploaded each day as a single video.

I would add an interface in Sumo Reference so that anyone can add the needed data for each bout, so this part of the work can easily be shared. Uploading the hour long stream parts to youtube also can be shared as it isn't even necessary that all videos are in the same account.

What would be lost is the availability of single bout videos within minutes of the actual bout - but this was really superhuman and in the long view isn't the most important part I think.

So to start this off, I would like to ask who would be able to do the stream recording and uploading to youtube parts?

[Fay 1,677]

Maybe it's possible to share the work. I could do Day 1 for sure, 2-3 with delay, cause I can upload them not before the evening.

[Fay 1,677]

As for youtube my account is activated for videos longer than 15 minutes. I could at least make a try this evening.

[Asashosakari 17,637]

My proposal is uploading the entire stream in chunks to youtube, maybe an hour per part, but this really is arbitrary (a single bout shouldn't be broken apart though). Then the links to the single bouts can be made in Sumo Reference, addressing the youtube video with a two part code of the (eleven letter) youtube ID and the starting point of the bout (in seconds within the video). Actually all mae-zumo bouts are already linked this way from Sumo Reference as Asashosakari uploaded each day as a single video.

FWIW, for my local viewing I'm cutting the recording at the shimpan breaks, which currently means about 80 minutes for each of the four lower-division sections, about an hour for juryo, and twice 50 minutes for makuuchi. That works pretty well, especially as it makes it impossible to cut through a bout.

Issues:

- My line isn't fast enough to facilitate uploading all of that every day unless I'm in the fortunate position of not leaving for work until the broadcast has finished so I can leave it running unattended for the 4 or so hours needed. (More likely when DST is not in effect and the broadcast finishes earlier.) Uploading early parts during the broadcast is of limited use since it chokes off my DSL downstream unless I limit the upload speed to 50% or less of capacity, which doubles the time needed.

- Coordinating the uploads between multiple people could be tricky.

- I'm a bit concerned about the legality (in the eyes of the Kyokai) of making such full-sized recordings available.

- I wonder a bit if sufficient numbers of people would actually go in and tag the lower-division bouts day after day.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Asashosakari

[araibira 682]

Maybe it's possible to share the work.

This idea is very favorable in my opinion.

[Doitsuyama 1,161]

FWIW, for my local viewing I'm cutting the recording at the shimpan breaks, which currently means about 80 minutes for each of the four lower-division sections, about an hour for juryo, and twice 50 minutes for makuuchi. That works pretty well, especially as it makes it impossible to cut through a bout.

This sounds like a good idea, also as reference points to share the uploads between more people.

- My line isn't fast enough to facilitate uploading all of that every day unless I'm in the fortunate position of not leaving for work until the broadcast has finished so I can leave it running unattended for the 4 or so hours needed. (More likely when DST is not in effect and the broadcast finishes earlier.) Uploading early parts during the broadcast is of limited use since it chokes off my DSL downstream unless I limit the upload speed to 50% or less of capacity, which doubles the time needed.

Ok, these are technical problems which could cause lags in making bouts available if no other people are able to jump in. But in the end its better to have them later then never, or? In fact we could jump start the process with uploading some sections from the past basho where araibira wasn't able to make his uploads (if you have them still saved of course). I will make the interface ready on Sumo Reference (something I wanted to do soon anyway to enable everyone to link bout videos from older basho) and we can see how this works out.

- Coordinating the uploads between multiple people could be tricky.

True, but the usual video thread on this forum provides a good starting point to coordinate this in advance I think.

- I'm a bit concerned about the legality (in the eyes of the Kyokai) of making such full-sized recordings available.

Well, my guess would be that the Kyokai won't do anything like it did so far. I think the risk of action from them is not much increased compared to uploading thousands of single bout videos like araibira did.

- I wonder a bit if sufficient numbers of people would actually go in and tag the lower-division bouts day after day.

I suppose this is not the biggest obstacle. Again, my guess is that this will work out well.

[Asashosakari 17,637]

I like this idea wholeheartedly for the sumo reference and sumo forum sites, however, individual bouts accessed through youtube will be accessed to a larger demographic through other social networking platforms i.e. twitter, Facebook, etc--not simply by sumo enthusiasts who are accustomed to the sumo reference site. Also, in order to upload videos which are longer than 10 minutes on youtube, the user of the account must meet a certain quota of number of views the channel receives and number of videos that are uploaded on the channel. When the sumo reference youtube page is able to meet those quotas, then it will be able to upload the videos in whichever format it sees fit.

FWIW, nowadays the (15 minute) time-limit is effective only on accounts that were hit by the copyright police in the past, everybody else should be able to upload unlimited-length files. Well, perhaps not to completely new accounts...I don't feel like registering yet another account just for test purposes, so maybe somebody else wants to give it a try.

[nomadwolf 8]

- I wonder a bit if sufficient numbers of people would actually go in and tag the lower-division bouts day after day.

I suppose this is not the biggest obstacle. Again, my guess is that this will work out well.

Here I go volunteering other people's work, but to avoid duplication in the Makuuchi realm, Kintamayama is already putting a lot of work in his summaries. If he's willing & able to provide the start & stop times for each bout, it could save work on that end.

If it's not as simple as I propose, then the original way obviously still works.

Just my NT$2.