Bt Coverage

[Star Lady]

If it is a limited budget - why two people in pits and two in booth? - at least one too many

Doesn't Steve Brandon also act as floor manager or whatever they are called at outdoor events? So I'm not sure which of the other three you could drop....although I know my preference

[jaykay2PT]

If Tatum and Pearson are two of those then there are two too many

I thought the chat between Nat and Kelvin was excellent and showed that they BOTH know their speedway, the other guy, seems to me, has verbal diarrhea,

 

for instance, why, in the space of 20 seconds, does he have to tell us TWICE ,it is in Manchester?

[Ben91]

Nothing wrong with the graphics, they showed who was in each heat and kept the scores up to date. If they can be improved great but not a big issue.

 

The issue was the camera following the leader and not the racing in a fair few heats, however that will hopefully be picked up on by those at BT and improved upon over time.

 

Sporting events run over, other than those that have a specific time frame, I.E. Football and Rugby, sports such as Tennis, Cricket and Darts can all run over time, or under if they reach their conclusion quickly. I didn't think the meeting was run that slowly, I've seen far worse for certain. Annoying if you're recording it for sure but that's the nature of the beast.

 

It's good to have racing back on TV and hope that it gets a big audience on BT each week.

[RobMcCaffery]

I was surprised at the camera work, especially the main home straight camera which was too wide and yet still managed to miss races for minor positions. I thought from flagrag's postings that this was going to be the same crew as from the Sky coverage, just smaller. I had this problem back in the eighties of teaching cameramen new to the sport that it wasn't just about the winner so it's nothing new, just a case for education.

 

I thought the commentary was a little less 'hard sell' than with Sky, which is the BT house style, as were the graphics. Judging coverage by its graphics does seem to be the same as voting for someone with the nicest clothes.....

 

As for over-running, I'm not familiar with the Sky boxes but on Virgin's Tivo any time you select a recording of a live event you are offered the chance to manually extend the recording by up to 3 hours. Equally, if you set up a series link you can manually add an over-run. The problem is not usually the broadcaster's but Sky or Virgin failing to update their programme guides which are what the recording timers work from. Just extend your recording or record the following programme. It isn't rocket science.

 

As for presentation Natalie Quirk and Steve Brandon were worlds away from the cute young girl, just doing speedway as a stepping stone to better things. Both know their stuff thoroughly and the final interview with Craig Cook, including his proud walk up to the interview poit with his trophy was superb.

 

Yes commentators and presenters make the odd slip in nearly three hours of live coverage. Yes they will repeat themselves occasionally. Apart from the usual cranks the fact that the main bitching is about mentioning Kyle Howarth's local origins perhaps tells all.

 

Significantly I see nobody's mentioning Pearson's repeated efforts to get people through the gates for next week's meeting at Poole, with frequent mentions of the under-11 concessions. Perhaps that doesn't suit their agenda?

 

The graphics were BT house style by the way....

 

It was a start but the bigger test will be with the league matches. I enjoy BT Sport's work generally , which I find much more like the BBC's authoritative coverage and wasn't let down last night. The camera work can be simply corrected.

 

Looking on from the sidelines it looks like this is a test sea\son on both sides, BSPA and BT and I hope it works because I do suspect that this is the 'last chance'. Hopefully it'll succeed and we'll get a long-term, full-season and financial commitment from BT. It's very much in the BSPA's hands. They have to work for the money.

 

It was good to have coverage that assumed the viewer could think for themselves instead of the relentless hard sell of Sky.

[SCB]

Heres a chance for you scb. Design up some quality graphics and email them to BT. They can only so no and might say yes. Worst case scenario is a waste of a few hours work.

BT in-house stuff. Wouldn't get a look in, sadly.

 

 

If it is a limited budget - why two people in pits and two in booth? - at least one too many

The two people in the pits and the commentary box are probably only a fraction of the cost. Equipment cost far more than people. They'll have also only been a small percentage of the people working on it.

[Grachan]

I saw nothing wrong with the graphics to be honest. Maybe they were basic, but they gave out the required information and that is all that is required.

 

Yes, so really good graphics might give a "wow" factor to the presentation if done well, but I'd rather have the basic information there than hae them try too hard and come up with some OTT graphics that become intrusive.

 

I thought the coverage was fine, with the only negative being the panning to the winner crossing the finishing line while there was still a race for minor placings.

 

Presentation was good. Much better to have knowledgeable interviewers than the Grand Prix interviewer who just asks everyone how they are feeling about whatever just happened.

[Al Stewart]

Recorded the event to watch when I got home from work and the frickin recording ended just before the final ???? FUMING!!!!

Surely it's obvious for a 22 race meeting that you need to record the following programme as well? I always do that.

[Grachan]

Surely it's obvious for a 22 race meeting that you need to record the following programme as well? I always do that.

 

No it wasn't. Normally, when a programme over-runs, so does the recording. Clearly BT Sport doesn't do this, so in future it's something to remember to do, but it wasn't obvious at all.

[DiamondGlory]

I only saw two problems with the coverage to be honest.

 

1. The camera work wasn't great, just focusing on the leader won't show if there's any passes by the 3rd and 4th rider which means if it's a great pass, no one at home saw it. If there was a way to show all 4 riders, that would be better than just 2.

 

2. The only problem I had with the graphics was that on two occasions the wrong rider name came up while they were at the tapes, which led to a bit of confusion. I recognised the rider kevlars, but for newer fans to the sport it would be harder for them to figure out. Other than that, it displayed the right stuff most of the time.

 

Overall though, the coverage was decent. I would rather have some coverage rather than none.

[bruno]

Mine taped the whole show including the interviews after, I've got BT on the sky platform, no understand why others had problems

[tigerowl]

That was the first speedway I have seen all season, live or otherwise, and I have to say I enjoyed it.

 

The coverage was as good as Sky and better in some instances.

 

Natalie Quirk is an excellent link and clearly knows her stuff. Some of the female presenters on Sky were very poor.

 

Steve Brandon is also very good and the sparse use of interviews was a good idea. The interviews with riders after each race that Sky did was boring - 'track is patchy' 'going to make some changes' and that was about it.

 

The worst thing for me was the number of times Nigel mentioned that 90% of the riders rode for at least two tracks. I think people watching the racing who don't usually go must have been impressed with the action but would have been confused and put off by the ridiculous notion that the winner rode for Belle Vue (and Workington) the runner-up rode for Belle Vue (and Newcastle) and the third placed rider rode for Ipswich (and Wolverhampton).

 

For me, this shows that speedway can be a wonderful sport, but is being absolutely destroyed by the promoters who have stripped it of any credibility it once had,

[Rob B]

Mine taped the whole show including the interviews after, I've got BT on the sky platform, no understand why others had problems

 

Same here, originally it was scheduled for 2 hours 30 mins but my sky box recorded for 3 hours so recorded everything.

[marko]

Agree with tigerowl, there is no need for Nigel to keep exposing the sport to viewers who already know who rides for who or those who don't know and frankly don't need to know.

In team events they shouldn't even mention riders who are guests, just say this is the teams.

 

The media should always exaggerate the positives and hide the negatives.

[Midland Red]

Overall, I thought the presentation was pretty good

Plus points: Natalie Quirke and Steve Brandon; fewer rider interviews between races

Minus points: Camera work as mentioned; Brando's time always seemed to be cut short, as if he hadn't quite finished; poor graphics; Pearson (not Pearce, Mr Shovlar!) still Sir Shoutalot

 

Graphics - found the digits difficult to read on some captions, small black numbers on brightly coloured backgrounds. And I do believe that they showed points for riders' 1-5 rides and finishing positions in 6th (semi-finals), without distinguishing between points and finishing position - could have been misleading for those who could read them clearly, and it only happened (obviously) on two occasions!

 

One final point - I would like to have seen the "dodgy starts" looked at in a bit more detail - although Kelvin Tatum thought otherwise, I felt that Barker's first start, which was allowed, was 100% fair - he didn't move till the tapes started to rise. Tatum was quick with his verdict, would like to have seen it checked

[Big Al]

One observation in addition. Occasionally slow to update riders positions during races.

 

Also no sign of Chris Louis (bad thing or good??) but was probably there in a different capacity so unable to take part in broadcast.

[Speedy swindon pete]

Never had a problem with a programme over running whilst recording on a Sky TV box, but having switched to BT on the YouView platform a couple of years ago, it stops recording on any programme that over runs, on any channel.

 

The box and system are so awful compared to sky, it's like comparing running windows 7 (or what ever incarnation it is these days) on a brand new modern PC, then trying to run the same thing on some machine from the 90's. Totally useless. The user interface is glacial. Can't wait to not have to use it when I move!

 

In short I don't think it's BT sport's fault....more a fault of their archaic system and box.

[Midland Red]

One observation in addition. Occasionally slow to update riders positions during races.

Also no sign of Chris Louis (bad thing or good??) but was probably there in a different capacity so unable to take part in broadcast.

TV showed him in conversation with Danny King

[PHILIPRISING]

TV showed him in conversation with Danny King

CHRIS is not part of the BT team.

[Whisperer]

Some of the folk on this thread had better smarten up, don't fret over how many cameras or who did the commentary, don't even compare the coverage to Sky. Just decide whether you want the sport on TV or not and then let the experts get on with managing their production and presentation over this first season. BT Sport love the GP series and dearly want the league coverage to be as well received and popular, that is what will encourage them to extend their interest beyond this season. I can tell you that the Sky production team started to believe some of the unfounded comments on this forum and whilst it will always be denied this forum is/was an indicator of some of the public opinion that did/can influence forthcoming decisions.

 

I'm not suggesting anyone sugarcoats their comments but do keep them balanced.

 

Pearson and Tatum ain't going anywhere soon so don't kill the constructive opinions on this thread with constant and facetious slagging of the duo. Philip makes the point about the budget - Sky eventually became like the Beeb and rocked up with lorry loads of cameras and equipment, catering trucks, a scanner full of bodies and it goes on but eventually their commitment to other sports meant huge cutbacks across the board.

 

BT took this product at the 11th hour having already committed their budget elsewhere but felt it had to be given a decent shot and whilst it would have been financially easier to have a year out went with a proposal of shared and reduced costs to maintain continuity of broadcast presence so that a qualified decision could be made on any future commitment. Philip may reveal how it is funded, I won't, but it would be nice for them to understand if their risk is worthwhile or not.

[OveFundinFan]

Well, I am supporting BT as much as I can in as much I signed up to have BT Infinity fast fibre and tv package in 2 rooms.

Trouble is, I ordered that off BT 9th March, given a start date of 29th March, well in time for the first Speedway GP at end of April, and I am still waiting for Openreach to complete the job of getting the fibre cable from literally across the road (on a "private" estate) to a connection box behind my garden shed, then into the house (partly done).

Excuse after excuse given by the poor bloke working for BT who faithfully rings me every week to report the progress. Informed last Friday that today, Tues 19th, an engineer from Openreach would be coming to sign off the job so the final connection can be made next week. I told him last Friday no engineers have been to dig up the road/my drive to get the fibre cable across the road up my drive to the box behind my shed. He assured me it had been done, I assured him there is no digging visible in the road nor my drive. Today he rings to say the connection is going ahead next week. I told him no inspection was made today. Poor guy, he just reading a computer screen no doubt.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting to start paying BT in return for their investment.