Anyone else finding the lack of a weekly 'Grandstand' is showing through with these games? The precision of switching between sports that Grandstand was so expert at seems to be lacking in my opinion.
It's missing the "Olympic Grandstand" branding too - "Olympics 2008" just doesn't have the same authority.
Does anyone know if there are 3DTV tests going on in the Bird's Nest? If you look at the final straight tracking rail 'train' there are TWO identical cameras situated on it set apart.
Anyone else finding the lack of a weekly 'Grandstand' is showing through with these games? The precision of switching between sports that Grandstand was so expert at seems to be lacking in my opinion.
Not at all. It is pretty much the same production team, the same editorial team, the same technical team etc. who did Athens and Sydney... Sue, Hazel, Clare etc. are all Grandstand experienced, and the production team contain a lot of people who do Saturday sport - whether branded Grandstand or not - and seem to be doing as good a job now as ever.
Jake is new to this though - and that probably shows a bit.
What HAS changed this time is that there are more live feeds than ever before - so more possibilities of things to show - and just as importantly there are more British prospects for medals than in previous years - so they are having to do more "production" (i.e. lots of replays, medal ceremonies, live interviews, highlights etc.) than in previous years - and can't just pump out the host broadcast feed of a single event for an hour or two.
This year's coverage has felt more - rather than less - polished in my opinion - with far more "production".
The other major difference is that the interactive TV streams are more polished than in previous years.
Does anyone know if there are 3DTV tests going on in the Bird's Nest? If you look at the final straight tracking rail 'train' there are TWO identical cameras situated on it set apart.
C.
When you have rail cams you often mount two cameras on them - so you can get a wide and a close-up tracking shot at the same time. This is common in both entertainment and sport (I've seen it used a lot on music shows)
If you watch the swimming coverage - the poolside railcam also carries two cameras - allowing the same flexibility.
Here are the opening titels of the German television channels that are broadcasting the Olympics in Germany: ARD (First German Television, public service) and the ZDF (Second German Television, public service as well, but to totally different broadcasters)
And yes, both are using the same studio as they split the operation between both to save resources. One day it's the ARD, the next one the ZDF that is broadcasting the olympics. Additionally, both channels offer 12 hours live broadcasting of the olympics on their digital channels Eins Extra & EinsPlus and ZDF info & ZDF doku =)
If you want I get post some stills of the presentations an graphics.
The studio is in Beijng as they've got athletes winning medals at the olympics in the studio for interviews. It's a bit unrealistic that they fly from Beijing to Germany in 30 minutes
In Germany we're used to the splitting of sports coverage. Football World Cup for example is always split between both broadcasters as they buy the rights together (even though ZDF is a lot smaller than the ARD). Sometimes it can be quite confusing but this way you have different coverages of sporting events due to different presenters and experts
Havent seen the NBC titles, the only thing I know is that they are the reason why many finals have been shiftet to the morning in Beijing to ensure prime time coverage in the US... all cos of the money...
In Germany we're used to the splitting of sports coverage. Football World Cup for example is always split between both broadcasters as they buy the rights together (even though ZDF is a lot smaller than the ARD). Sometimes it can be quite confusing but this way you have different coverages of sporting events due to different presenters and experts
When I was working at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics in 1994, ARD and ZDF actually shared the pres studio, and much of the production facilities. Not unusual at all in those days. Not sure if it's the same now ?
