Bells webcast - let's give them a hand

[grazza]

I'm sitting here getting in trouble from her indoors for whinging about:

a) dumb webcasting, and
b) the appalling quality of some of the women's surfing

Seeing as I can't do anything about b) (Bevelaqua v. Donoughue QF being one of the most embarrassingly incompetant performances in pro sports history, IMHO) I thought we might have go at a) and see if we can give them a few pointers. You never know, they might even listen.

First, kudos for the tech side - bandwidth is reasonable, and vividas with the picture quality and replays is pretty darn nice.

But there's so many things they could do better. Here's one idea. Can't we have a replay feedback for each surfer? Then there's two surfers up at once, how hard can it be to have a cam on the second wave so we can see each wave fully on the replay?

[longbum]

as I have said in another thread, this is the worst webcast I have sat thru.

1. Sick of seeing cliffs and flags while someone is up on a wave.
2. Theres no catch up, so at times watching so called live footage with the following heat scores up ????
3. Can't see previous results or future heats while still in live screen.
4. Play more replays, better than watching guys bob up and down in the ocean or looking at commentators.

[wanto]

personally, i wouldn't sit through the webcast if i knew i would get a wave by wave wrap up of each heat at the end of the day. now, at bells you can watch any heat you want at the end of the day but you still have to sit through the cliff shots, groupie shots, washed up pro jibber jabber etc!??

a 30 minute heat can be summarised into 2 minutes max! 16 heats rolled into a 30 minute clip .. i haven't been bothered with watching bells so far because watching it live means mind numbing boredom, but i wouldn't miss a 30-40 minute wrap up if it were available.

the highlights on the news are too short, the 'best waves of the day' clips etc don't paint the full picture - you can't even tell who was up against who, there's nothing that fits this important niche. pay one vid editor $200 bucks for an hours work and bring daily happiness to the punters.

[boardscape avalon]

jibber - jabber... the surfers dont like being there either...

[Nick Carroll]

I'll give you an Uncle Nicky insight into one of the problems with the webcast commentary that might be going unnoticed.

It's that the webcast commentary is also the live on-beach commentary.

On-beach commentary is severely restricted, since the commentators must avoid any possibility of affecting the competitors' strategy, tactics or performance level. Thus, on-beach commentators can't:

a) fully explain priority and the chess games therein
b) criticise a surfer's judgement or performance
c) explain the lineup, set timing, all that gear
d) call out wayward judging
e) get deeper into a surfer's overall career, strengths and weaknesses, etc
f) really show any knowledge of what's actually happening.

Now you might be cruel and say "well this suits many of the commentators since they don't bloody know any of that stuff anyway" ... but truth is a good webcast is free of all those restrictions and allows the commentators to perform a more expert service, that's more tuned to the 'cast director's camera shifts and to engaging our understanding of the contest.

I do agree that the direction on this 'cast is pretty lame, it's hard to tell from the outside whether this is because the camera crew is semi crap and not being briefed well, or because the director isn't paying attention to what's happening, or a combination of the two. But you'll tell the difference with an expert director -- and with an event where the webcast commentary isn't having to do the on-beach stuff at the same time.

[mustkillmulloway]

luke munro just went a big wave...with priority . 2 mins go in heat..blew the drop...

didn't see any it....commentators are interviewing each other

for moc frocking sake

can't we just watch the surfing

^this pissed me off no end....i mean he still won but i was actually into the heat ( is it just me or the last 5 mins a heat the most exciting )

anyways....must let it goooooooo

a good webcast is free of all those restrictions and allows the commentators to perform a more expert service, that's more tuned to the 'cast director's camera shifts and to engaging our understanding of the contest.

.

well....that all makes good common sense so why the frocking MOC don't they do it

p.s quite clearly mexicans shouldn't be left in charge off anything

[pinhead]

I can't even get on to experience this crap camera work and commentry. Keeping getting timed out - may be they've underestimated demand and the servers aren't coping

[Dingus]

If you go to the Ripcurl home site and hover your cursor over the logo it say "RipCurl - The ultimate surfing company"

This must explain why I can't either get into the site or start up the video, or see the womens scores still or finally get video up and no sound, and the asp link isn't working at the moment. Is it my comp or are they still out somewhere being ultimate instead of looking after their commitments of a webcast?

[thermalben]

We're experiencing a complete power outage at the moment.. no scores.. internet.. commentary.. airconditioning.. nuthin'. Been like this for quite a while now (no idea what the problem is either). Parko and Willsy are just freesurfing while they fix the problem. Crowds on the beach don't seem to mind though.

[boardscape avalon]

its very frustrating...... i carnt get nuffin.....f.ck ripcurl idiots

[Dingus]

Maybe the white-out coming from the feed on the jetski camera overloaded the software, threw a spanner into the OS and it shut the system down, which, in a last gasp effort to stay online blew the overloaded powerboard and the whole thing flipped out.

[boardscape avalon]

i rekon there search "somewhere ", event will be awesome! if its anything like this webcast... i heard **** fellow tripped over the main power cord, after pulling a few cones with derek.. ah just like the good old days....

[TMC]

Bit aside, but does anyone remember the Hurley webcast from trestles last year

Now that was a professional affair that all surfers could be proud of.

There were replays of all waves, with a camera commited to each surfer for the entire heat (so as not to endure the common drudery of having two surfers up, whilst there is only one camera focussing on the water). There were commentators who actually knew wtf they were saying, and they didnt go on with mindless cliches. Although they did run adds when there was nothing going on in the water, this meant that there were no pathetically obvious plugs for chicko rolls worked into general conversation.

But the best part was at the end of the day there was thirty minute "made for tv" wrap up of the days events. Th9is included critical analysis of the better performances of the day, and interviews, where the commentators actually asked pertinent questions of the surfers rather than just "so what are you riding? / your really blew up on that wave" and other bullsh*t brown nosing.


Plug for Hurley/Rant over

[mustkillmulloway]

We're experiencing a complete power outage at the moment.. .

well serves rip curl right for sourcing power for the event from thailand

i can imagine a 1000 guys on bikes over there just worn out

p.s actually it's most likly a good thing....the webcast started crap...got worse...and now it's peaked for the finals

who's actually running this shit

[mustkillmulloway]

look i'm sorry rip curl...it's a really good webcast....great commentary...just teasing

now can u stop sooking and turn it back on

bloody hell....couple fair criticisms and they pack up and go home

does anyone know wats doing ...not that i care ...well mayb...just a little

[Lucky Al]

obviously fong is the biggest lover of pro surfing of them all and if we're not careful he'll destroy it with his big big love

[grazza]

Never understood why the director doesn't have a good idea of what sets are coming through so that the sense of anticipation and tactical challenge is amped up. Crikey, at Bells you can see the sets coming for a good minute or two before they get there. That way, they would never show an ad or an interview when something important is about to happen.

Also, personally I hate the water angle and the cliff angle. The only place you can properly see how a wave is being surfed is from the front. Use the other angles as replays or filler shots, but please, show us the front angle first.

I'm not too down on RC generally for all this - like I said technically it's pretty good, and they're trying harder. It just needs some broadcast professionalism. If it was done well, it would be interesting to watch the whole thing. Like this, it's just frustrating.

[wanto]

totally off topic, but i'm going to make a prediction: bruce irons will not do the tour (in full) next year.