Flame Suit On: What about colored ice?

[illpucks]

Ok, so even more background on this idea. It took me a few minutes to find the info because I've heard about it but never saw images.

When color TV broadcasts were first introduced in the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL realized it had a problem. Big TV lights caused a glare off the ice, which saturated the TV screen and made the players and (especially) the puck disappear for viewers at home.

The solution: paint the ice blue instead of white.

Hockey Blog In Canada: On Painted Ice



Apparently the experiment only lasted 2 games and the Cup was awarded on white ice a week later. But it's true, the NHL actually has played games on blue ice for the specific purpose of creating a better TV viewing experience.

Looks way better.

Black ice white puck would be fun

 

[Seanaconda]

Does anyone know of a HD recording of a game on a non-white ice surface? I think it'd be pretty jarring, but am curious what it'd look like.

Most TV's today aren't designed to show hockey well. Asking a TV to show mostly white color with a small, high velocity moving black puck results in terrible picture quality and terrible motion quality. This is one of the reasons the infamous glowpuck was created. It's even true with players, as the dark jerseys/skates moving across an all-white background look muted in color, and light jerseys have different but similar issues. With an all-white background, you also notice artifacts like banding and other things a lot more. Basically, TV quality sucks for hockey compared to every other sport, primarily due to the white playing surface. I'm just really interested if this has been done before.

How do you like it when its zoomed in on the logos? Anyways with high def everything its not bad at all anymore

 

[Dustin]

Black ice and black puck. Using your vision is a crutch....

 

[triggrman]

I played on that yellow Preds rink. It was just for the gold announcement, but they let our league play a game on it.

 

[TheOtherOne]

That's actually not as horrible of an idea as it sounds.

I would like to look at a variety of colors. I think dull and somewhat dark would be good. Try something like a tennis green, a basketball court brown, a dull gray. Even black. Just to see.

Of course, all of them would be jarring to traditionalists so they would never gain any traction. If you somehow tricked the audience to stick with it for 5 years, nobody would notice or care anymore, and overall things would probably be better for it.

 

[Inglewood JACKets]

I think it would look terrible aesthetically, but I think green ice with a white puck would be the easiest to see. Of course you'd have to change the color of the boards and netting as well.

 

[dkhockey]

Does anyone know of a HD recording of a game on a non-white ice surface? I think it'd be pretty jarring, but am curious what it'd look like.

Most TV's today aren't designed to show hockey well. Asking a TV to show mostly white color with a small, high velocity moving black puck results in terrible picture quality and terrible motion quality. This is one of the reasons the infamous glowpuck was created. It's even true with players, as the dark jerseys/skates moving across an all-white background look muted in color, and light jerseys have different but similar issues. With an all-white background, you also notice artifacts like banding and other things a lot more. Basically, TV quality sucks for hockey compared to every other sport, primarily due to the white playing surface. I'm just really interested if this has been done before.

Agree, ice should be light blue or light green....like in video games. It's much easier on the eyes, both for TV audience and players

 

[Kranix]

Paint the ice Football turf green; the puck football brown with white stripes so it stands out that much better.

 

[jd22]

I could get behind light blue ice. No reason not to, in my opinion. Makes everything easier to see.

 

[Captain Bowie]

Paint the ice Football turf green; the puck football brown with white stripes so it stands out that much better.

Might need to make the puck bigger to make it more visible. Though if it gets too big, it would be to heavy and negatively impact the game. Maybe instead of solid rubber, it could be inflatable? Vulcanized rubber doesn't really inflate well, so maybe make it more out of a synthetic leather material? Of course physics dictate it would have to inflate in an elliptical shape, it wouldn't have flat sides and would be round instead.

At least the American fans would take to it more.

 

[hi]

Not going to lie, I'd watch ice dry

https://deadspin.com/5938901/the-to...raging-their-own-fans-to-watch-paint-dry-live

 

[Kranix]

Might need to make the puck bigger to make it more visible. Though if it gets too big, it would be to heavy and negatively impact the game. Maybe instead of solid rubber, it could be inflatable? Vulcanized rubber doesn't really inflate well, so maybe make it more out of a synthetic leather material? Of course physics dictate it would have to inflate in an elliptical shape, it wouldn't have flat sides and would be round instead.

At least the American fans would take to it more.

Indeed, indeed. Perhaps a large, inflated ring-like doughnut puck.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

Brown puck?

I hear that's how it all began.

 

[Kyndig]

Not going to lie, I'd watch ice dry

https://deadspin.com/5938901/the-to...raging-their-own-fans-to-watch-paint-dry-live

Watch ice dry? You might be watching for a while.

 

[JFleegs]

I've played on pink ice, something for breast cancer on a college rink.

 

[Pookie]

I’d wager that technology will change this for us.

You can paint lines and logos for a TV audience that the live audience never sees. (Eg. The NFL first down lines).

The ice itself could stay white but with that technology the hues could be altered to appease the eye for broadcasts.

 

[karnige]

just put a soft glow around the puck to follow it better

 

[AmericanDream]

that Lake Placid ice in 1980 had some blue in it...

 

[adsfan]

Some AHL team tried colored ice a few years ago. When they resurfaced the ice, the dye came out and it would not dry. They tried scraping a lot of the ice off to remove the dye and ended up postponing the game 24 hours to fix the problem. I think it was green for St Patrick's day.

Rockford has played at least one game on pink ice, January 26, 2018. They wore pink jerseys in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Rockford Peaches baseball team of "A League of Their Own" movie fame.

 

[DopeyFish]

It would look much better with matching boards and trims, different coloured lines and pucks.

Also probably needs the ice itself to be coloured that way, not just the undercoat so that way it is more crisp. Though not sure how to do that in a cost effective and eco friendly way... Also without screwing up the lines every flood.

Probably not going to be done until a new technology/synthetic ice replaces ice altogether

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Purple puck, orange ice

Freeze Fanta instead of water so we can have nice orange slushy after the game.

 

[Crosstraffic]

Long Beach Ice Dogs went with medium blue ice with yellow blue lines for a season or two as part of a branding deal with Jet Blue. Hated it. Couldn't follow the puck at all.

 

[Butch 19]

Might need to make the puck bigger to make it more visible. Though if it gets too big, it would be to heavy and negatively impact the game. Maybe instead of solid rubber, it could be inflatable? Vulcanized rubber doesn't really inflate well, so maybe make it more out of a synthetic leather material? Of course physics dictate it would have to inflate in an elliptical shape, it wouldn't have flat sides and would be round instead.

At least the American fans would take to it more.

I've read many stupid posts by Canadians.... - hey!

 

[Captain Bowie]

I've read many stupid posts by Canadians.... - hey!

It's almost as if it was a joke. I know, it was a very subtle one...

 

[Sleepy]

Thanks for the examples posted guys. Really interesting reading the history back in '05 and the '60s of similar thought processes. This forums hockey knowledge and research ability is phenomenal.