Sorry I didn't see this sooner.
The video project is underway. I am not involved in it, but the people that are, are highly competent. There are a lot of changes coming, including, obviously, HD. The production will, I believe, be student run, so they'll take a while to get up to speed, but I have high hopes that the quality of both in-house and the external-feed will improve as the workload is spread to more people.
One of the reasons coverage in the carlson is such a problem is actually the angles involved. The main camera must be positioned either on the 2nd floor balcony, or the first floor behind the seats. Both locations are very close to the ice, forcing the camera operator to make extreme angle changes to go from net-to-net. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is very difficult and extremely tiring to an operator, as the operator must physically move to manage the angles properly. I have done this a few times and was myself surprised. I've also shot in the sullivan higher in the seats, which is MUCH easier to pan net-to-net because the angles aren't nearly as sharp. That's not to say that a competent shot isn't possible, but it requires more skill than average, and importantly, the operator can't be lazy as it'll show.
The new equipment coming is state of the art. The only thing I'm not sure about is they've only got 3 cameras initially, and I don't know if they'll have 2 co-located up top. To me, that's extremely important as you don't want cam1 (the main cam) deciding to go tight at the wrong time. In typical hockey productions, cam1 is wide, cam2 is tight. Cam1 concentrates on keeping a good wide shot at all times so that "adventurous" shots on 2 and the side-cams can be taken with the ability to back to 1 on a moments notice, without informing the operator that they need to arrange a shot.
