USCHO Fan Forum
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.
Frozen Four TV
- Thread starter elanman
- Start date
Semis are 5 and 8 eastern Friday.
brookyone
Deport Right Wing Nuts
Re: Frozen Four TV
I think the blame may be due CBS...who I believe purchased CSTV, who used to broadcast the FF semifinals and final, then immediately cancelled the semifinals broadcast...and ultimately the entire FF broadcast. Thanks so much to CBS...
I think the blame may be due CBS...who I believe purchased CSTV, who used to broadcast the FF semifinals and final, then immediately cancelled the semifinals broadcast...and ultimately the entire FF broadcast. Thanks so much to CBS...
Re: Frozen Four TV
I'm not in anyway defending CBS or any other broadcasting company, but can you imagine if you were an athlete at the national swimming, or wrestling, or field hockey championships, or the parents of said athlete...they are never broadcast ever, so I think we all will have to suck it up and realize hhat basketball rules the world! That said, I'll bet within 5 years, all of the D1 schools will broadcast their entire seasons and all playoffs via the web...by then all TV's will be hooked up to online and cable tv will be onl it's way out.....however until then.....we suffer
I'm not in anyway defending CBS or any other broadcasting company, but can you imagine if you were an athlete at the national swimming, or wrestling, or field hockey championships, or the parents of said athlete...they are never broadcast ever, so I think we all will have to suck it up and realize hhat basketball rules the world! That said, I'll bet within 5 years, all of the D1 schools will broadcast their entire seasons and all playoffs via the web...by then all TV's will be hooked up to online and cable tv will be onl it's way out.....however until then.....we suffer
Hux
Alfond to Ridder & rinks in between
Re: Frozen Four TV
They may well have done us a favor. It is a lot easier to find a web feed than it is to find CSTV unless you have a cable package with this tier and that tier. While the webcasts can be an iffy proposition during the season, I would suspect the NCAA would have a solid production crew in place for this event. (Though I heard the BU game pretty much sucked, so who knows)
I think the blame may be due CBS...who I believe purchased CSTV, who used to broadcast the FF semifinals and final, then immediately cancelled the semifinals broadcast...and ultimately the entire FF broadcast. Thanks so much to CBS...
They may well have done us a favor. It is a lot easier to find a web feed than it is to find CSTV unless you have a cable package with this tier and that tier. While the webcasts can be an iffy proposition during the season, I would suspect the NCAA would have a solid production crew in place for this event. (Though I heard the BU game pretty much sucked, so who knows)
videohockey
Registered User
Now that's a misinformed post on so many levels!
videohockey
Registered User
Re: Frozen Four TV
Unfortunately it's a hard sell to sponsors when you can't fill the stands in the venues, especially as the economy took a dive.
I think the blame may be due CBS...who I believe purchased CSTV, who used to broadcast the FF semifinals and final, then immediately cancelled the semifinals broadcast...and ultimately the entire FF broadcast. Thanks so much to CBS...
Unfortunately it's a hard sell to sponsors when you can't fill the stands in the venues, especially as the economy took a dive.
brookyone
Deport Right Wing Nuts
Re: Frozen Four TV
I hope you're right Hux...regarding access to a "quality" webstreamed video. The BC / Minnesota webcast I watched was fairly poor quality.
Yeah...but it sucks to move in a backwards direction so to speak. To have the coverage and then lose it...perhaps permanently. I understand the women's FF broadcast isn't going to generate revenue for CBS. I assume that's the reason behind CBS dropping coverage.
I hope you're right Hux...regarding access to a "quality" webstreamed video. The BC / Minnesota webcast I watched was fairly poor quality.
ManBehindTheCurtain
Great and powerful wizard
Re: Frozen Four TV
Video: Better than most regular season webcasts. I think I detected at least 3 cameras. However, definition was poor, very poor. Grade? Well, against the curve of regular season I guess I have to give a B based on multiple cameras. Against even the worst produced actual TV production I have ever seen though the extremely fuzzy picture means a grade of no better than a D.
Audio: Better than some but that's taking into consideration that some are pretty awful. It sounded like a student play-by-play announcer with a former player doing commentary. Although he at least understood the game the student does NOT have a future in broadcasting. He recognized where the puck was but almost never identified any of the players, either BC or Minnesota, in proximity to the puck. The former player was knowledgeable but not extremely polished. She was OK, he was substandard. Grade against other webcasts? C. Against the worst TV I have ever seen? D.
So there you go, about a low B or high C against other webcasts, an unsatisfactory against even the local cablecasts of high school games that I see on public access where I live.
Sorry, Hux, I don't think they have done us a favor by moving the games off even the most obscure tier of my cable package.
Here's my review of the BC-Minnesota webcast:
Video: Better than most regular season webcasts. I think I detected at least 3 cameras. However, definition was poor, very poor. Grade? Well, against the curve of regular season I guess I have to give a B based on multiple cameras. Against even the worst produced actual TV production I have ever seen though the extremely fuzzy picture means a grade of no better than a D.
Audio: Better than some but that's taking into consideration that some are pretty awful. It sounded like a student play-by-play announcer with a former player doing commentary. Although he at least understood the game the student does NOT have a future in broadcasting. He recognized where the puck was but almost never identified any of the players, either BC or Minnesota, in proximity to the puck. The former player was knowledgeable but not extremely polished. She was OK, he was substandard. Grade against other webcasts? C. Against the worst TV I have ever seen? D.
So there you go, about a low B or high C against other webcasts, an unsatisfactory against even the local cablecasts of high school games that I see on public access where I live.
Sorry, Hux, I don't think they have done us a favor by moving the games off even the most obscure tier of my cable package.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
Re: Frozen Four TV
I'd be tempted to turn off the sound and just use the video, but the quality on my computer is such that I can't see the puck much of the time. Give me the games on CBS College and I'll make do with Billy Jaffe, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, or whomever they wish to pass off as a women's hockey expert. At least I'll get production quality one would expect from a sports broadcast, even if I have to endure 50 updates an hour on what's going on in March Madness. My TV is designed for such purposes, my computer is better suited to exchanging witty banter with folks like you.
In that case, don't do me any more favors. Women's hockey broadcasts are always going to be at a disadvantage, because outside of Brian Schulz, the person behind the microphone for a national broadcast knows little about the sport. So they are constantly trying to relate a story from the men's game or something they saw in a basketball tournament. Okay, so you know nothing about the players, at least learn their names. If you can't pronounce them, there are people available for the teams who are willing to help you. When in doubt, go with what you learned in phonics. Seeler is not SELL-er, Schleper is not SHELL-per, and Pattenden is not pa-TEN-den. Some of the names are difficult; I'll give you that. Figure that out as soon as you look at the line chart. I constantly see public address and play-by-play announcers double-checking pronounciations with team personnel, because they are professionals. If you find yourself in front of a mic for a webcast, particularly for an NCAA tournament game, assume that people will be listening and act like you're a professional, too.
I'd be tempted to turn off the sound and just use the video, but the quality on my computer is such that I can't see the puck much of the time. Give me the games on CBS College and I'll make do with Billy Jaffe, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, or whomever they wish to pass off as a women's hockey expert. At least I'll get production quality one would expect from a sports broadcast, even if I have to endure 50 updates an hour on what's going on in March Madness. My TV is designed for such purposes, my computer is better suited to exchanging witty banter with folks like you.
JosephPSchmoe
I'll say it if you won't
Re: Frozen Four TV
I thought the BC/Minnesota webcast was acceptable for a free service. It was certainly heads and shoulders above the usual B2TV webcast. Having a former player as the "color man" was a good idea that didn't work very well. Maybe someone a little more chatty would've helped if that's what she was there for. I thought the play-by-play guy did a decent job even with the mispronounciation of several players' names, but then WCHA fans hear these names all season, so we notice the flubs. All in all it was better than nothing. And free stuff is always okay with me.
I know some teams already produce their own pay-per-view webcasts in-house. I wonder when that's going to become the norm and "services" like B2TV are no longer needed. Maybe as new arenas are built or current ones are upgraded (if that even happens), in-house video production will be standard. I know at Amsoil Arena in Duluth, for example, they dropped a cool $1 million just for a video scoreboard. During the games you're getting live video, slow-mo replays and they use several mobile cameras for things like crowd shots and the dreaded KissCam. If a school (or a donor like at PSU) is going to throw a huge pile of money at a new arena, I assume video production is on the shopping list. I don't know if UMD is going to start doing its own webcasts next season or not, but why spend all that money on a video system and crew and then pay someone like B2TV to webcast a crappy feed of the game?
I thought the BC/Minnesota webcast was acceptable for a free service. It was certainly heads and shoulders above the usual B2TV webcast. Having a former player as the "color man" was a good idea that didn't work very well. Maybe someone a little more chatty would've helped if that's what she was there for. I thought the play-by-play guy did a decent job even with the mispronounciation of several players' names, but then WCHA fans hear these names all season, so we notice the flubs. All in all it was better than nothing. And free stuff is always okay with me.
I know some teams already produce their own pay-per-view webcasts in-house. I wonder when that's going to become the norm and "services" like B2TV are no longer needed. Maybe as new arenas are built or current ones are upgraded (if that even happens), in-house video production will be standard. I know at Amsoil Arena in Duluth, for example, they dropped a cool $1 million just for a video scoreboard. During the games you're getting live video, slow-mo replays and they use several mobile cameras for things like crowd shots and the dreaded KissCam. If a school (or a donor like at PSU) is going to throw a huge pile of money at a new arena, I assume video production is on the shopping list. I don't know if UMD is going to start doing its own webcasts next season or not, but why spend all that money on a video system and crew and then pay someone like B2TV to webcast a crappy feed of the game?
Hockeydad4two
Registered User
Re: Frozen Four TV
I don't know which B2 broadcasts that you watch, but the one's I get are all local (student?) announcers and color commentators. I think that B2 just transmits what the schools broadcast. I've seen everything from great broadcasts (video and audio) to no sound and a camera placed at one end with no panning or audio.
I don't know which B2 broadcasts that you watch, but the one's I get are all local (student?) announcers and color commentators. I think that B2 just transmits what the schools broadcast. I've seen everything from great broadcasts (video and audio) to no sound and a camera placed at one end with no panning or audio.
Re: Frozen Four TV
If you listened to Brian's webcasts on USCHO, former players can work fine as color commentators. Certainly some were naturally better than others, and certainly some came on again and again and naturally got better at it. Obviously when you find one alum at the last minute who happens to be around, they're not going to be as good.
Of course A.J. Mleczko has done color for the Olympics, and Angela Ruggiero did color for the last few CSTV final broadcasts. Both had previously worked with Brian at some point, probably A.J. more than Angela.
I was happy with Doc Emrick when he did the Frozen Four during the lockout, and when he did the Olympics he made plenty of shout-outs to U.S. college hockey.
I would hope the quality of the Frozen Four webcasts would be far greater than the NCAA quarterfinal broadcasts, knowing that these are events that used to be televised, and we've known the FF would be in Erie for years, whereas BC couldn't be sure it was hosting a QF until the moment the selections were announced.
And finally, what made me most happy about the QF webcasts wasn't that they were free, it's that they ALL WORKED, which I can't say was true for the 4OT Harvard@Wisconsin 2007 NCAA quarterfinal.
If you listened to Brian's webcasts on USCHO, former players can work fine as color commentators. Certainly some were naturally better than others, and certainly some came on again and again and naturally got better at it. Obviously when you find one alum at the last minute who happens to be around, they're not going to be as good.
Of course A.J. Mleczko has done color for the Olympics, and Angela Ruggiero did color for the last few CSTV final broadcasts. Both had previously worked with Brian at some point, probably A.J. more than Angela.
I was happy with Doc Emrick when he did the Frozen Four during the lockout, and when he did the Olympics he made plenty of shout-outs to U.S. college hockey.
I would hope the quality of the Frozen Four webcasts would be far greater than the NCAA quarterfinal broadcasts, knowing that these are events that used to be televised, and we've known the FF would be in Erie for years, whereas BC couldn't be sure it was hosting a QF until the moment the selections were announced.
And finally, what made me most happy about the QF webcasts wasn't that they were free, it's that they ALL WORKED, which I can't say was true for the 4OT Harvard@Wisconsin 2007 NCAA quarterfinal.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
Re: Frozen Four TV
That's probably the difference in playing at the Kohl Center versus the Capitol Ice Arena. Any time the attempt is made to broadcast from a community rink from which games are seldom televised, the likelihood of technical difficulties will increase.
ArmedWithAStick
Registered User
Re: Frozen Four TV
If the ECAC women's championship game can be broadcast on the NHL network with only 48 hours lead time on where the game is being played, you would think the NCAA could figure it out with a couple years lead time???
If the ECAC women's championship game can be broadcast on the NHL network with only 48 hours lead time on where the game is being played, you would think the NCAA could figure it out with a couple years lead time???
DumbStruck
Registered User
Re: Frozen Four TV
All good debate on broadcast/streaming. Understand will only be streamed through NCAA.com. But, has anyone found an actual link/site to subscribe? found it listed under broadcast tab which lists all upcoming events...but no where to sign up/access. Thanks for any direction.
All good debate on broadcast/streaming. Understand will only be streamed through NCAA.com. But, has anyone found an actual link/site to subscribe? found it listed under broadcast tab which lists all upcoming events...but no where to sign up/access. Thanks for any direction.
ARM
Fan of chipmunk-like mascots.
Re: Frozen Four TV
You shouldn't have to subscribe. I watched the games last week w/o subscribing to anything.
Re: Frozen Four TV
Joe, I know that when UNH looked into the 4 sided video board, it was quoted that it would be an extra $1.3 million! Schools better get with it quick about TV/online coverage because why would an advertiser put money into the program via having their business insignia on the boards, if like at UNH, the local stations cut back there formats due to $$$ concerns, and drop their sports coverage!
Joe, I know that when UNH looked into the 4 sided video board, it was quoted that it would be an extra $1.3 million! Schools better get with it quick about TV/online coverage because why would an advertiser put money into the program via having their business insignia on the boards, if like at UNH, the local stations cut back there formats due to $$$ concerns, and drop their sports coverage!