FSOhio production is TERRIBLE! (All CBJ broadcast kvetching here)

[Jeffrey99]

My only real problem with the broadcast is Rimer and Gare. Well mainly Gare. He's the biggest homer, with a stupid nickname for everyone. And I just love his little bingo, bango, whatever crap. He makes it sound like a middle school or high school game. Hell, I don't even think XFL would accept it.

Just thank god I pay for center ice already. I try to watch the other teams feeds, unless FSN Ohio is the only one in HD. Hell the Red Wings game the awhile back, the Wings crew spent a good 5-10 mins talking about what the Jackets need to make the playoffs and how it can be accomplished this season. Made it feel like I was watching less of Homervision and watching more of neutral telecast.

 

[Tafkak]

You guys don't have it nearly as bad. The last 2 games there has been no sound on FSN HD and last night they cut out for a Buckeye commercial for the entire last minute of the game. Buckeye Cable is getting a nice letter from me in the next couple of days because I'm sick of this ****.

 

[DEF]

I have Directv and the sd feed is horrid, almost unwatchable. Can't wait till next year when it's all hd. The production and direction seem to be getting worse as the year goes on. As for Rimmer and Gare, they kind of grow on you. They are homers and aren't afraid to admit it. If I want to hear PC crap, I'll listen to the other teams feed or NPR.

 

[Swade016]

I wish they'd just fire everyone but the guy who does the main game camera and whoever is in charge of making sure it's plugged into the truck. No announcers, no "Pan left to watch Nash look at hangnail during 5 on 5 fight", none of the mindless banter. Oh, and only HD. Besides that, it's awesome....

 

[JACKETfan]

Thanks Skraut for the insight into why sometimes things go wrong with a sports broadcast. Let's also add that maybe some things would be better if hockey broadcasts made more money.

I now watch the games online at nhl.com since I've moved out of state, (Can't get a satellite dish where I'm currently living), and the quality suffers greatly. About half of the away game announcers are what we used to call B-O-R-I-N-G. When I can't listen to Rims and Gare, I turn on George and Bill (the ultimate homer).

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

You guys don't have it nearly as bad. The last 2 games there has been no sound on FSN HD and last night they cut out for a Buckeye commercial for the entire last minute of the game. Buckeye Cable is getting a nice letter from me in the next couple of days because I'm sick of this ****.

Dude, Buckeye Cable is abjectly worthless. I make it a point to keep an atdhe.net feed open on my computer even when the crackaliers aren't playing and we actually get the games on tv, because they randomly cut out for one minute capitalism blocks in every single game. I know for a fact it isn't just pre-programmed because (surprise, surprise) it NEVER happens during a commercial, ever. It is ALWAYS during the game, or pregame (or postgame). I practically got sick to my stomach the other day when they were doing that pregame segment about the pediatric cancer kids in Columbus, when it cut away for a mother****ing Chet and Matt's commercial. It's like seriously? Really?

 

[Skraut]

a mother****ing Chet and Matt's commercial. It's like seriously? Really?

Doh, I really miss Chet and Matt's. Cleveland just doesn't have proper Sauerkraut pizza.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Doh, I really miss Chet and Matt's. Cleveland just doesn't have proper Sauerkraut pizza.

I hate their pizza almost as much as their stupid ****ing commericals.


But then perhaps they're both an acquired taste

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

*whoops*

 

[Tafkak]

Buckeye (and their prices) are absurdly disgusting, I know a letter won't do much but it's worth a shot I guess.

 

[Fremitus Borealis]

Buckeye (and their prices) are absurdly disgusting, I know a letter won't do much but it's worth a shot I guess.

I called them once about a year ago when we actually had TWO FSN Ohio channels for some reason for a few months... I was hoping that meant as soon as stupid basketball season started the Jackets would get one channel and the dumbasses would get the other channel.... no dice. The latter got both channels for a few weeks, then the other FSN magically disappeared. I called Buckeye Cable about it and they had no ****ing idea what I was talking about. When I lightheartedly suggested perhaps they should listen to what some of their customers say since we're paying to keep their lights on for them, the guy got all nasty and said that if I didn't like their [****tty] service I "should get another cable service. Oh wait, you can't, we're all you got. Bummer."

I called back and pretended I was somebody else and asked to talk to the manager... got the same trailer park hillbilly, and he claimed he WAS in fact the manager. Glad to know where our money's going every month.

 

[Andrew B]

Their knowledge of opposing teams is also horrendous.

"The reason the Oilers & The flames have such great home records is cause they get a little help"

huh? 11-8-3 is a great home record?

They blow everything that doesn't get called out of proportion, and any call they do get is "Great call by the referee".

This is actually one of the worst broadcasts teams I have ever seen.

"The score keeping staff in Columbus is way faster at getting us information, the people in Calgary are really slow or just forgot there is another broadcast"


I had to laugh.

 

[Moo]

Tonight... well, Andrew B hit on a couple of things, but yeah, tonight's broadcast was bad. Skipping scrums again, mistakes, the same old stuff.

Skraut, I respect your opinions, but all of these mistakes on a consistent basis is just inexcusable. I don't care what the TV contract is worth, they should give a damn and try to do their best and they're not. We're not asking for much when we want things to be spelled right and not cut away from scrums, yet they keep committing those errors. Do the people who produce these games not know hockey?

 

[JACKETfan]

Optimus, you need to re-read Skraut's point: The director/producer is working with an "away" crew, not his own. And they are beholden to feeds provided by the local operators, and rented equipment. No wonder the coverage can change game to game.

As far as what our announcers say, I challenge you to sit and call an intelligible mistake-free game for 60 minutes. Try it next time you are way up in "C" deck at the Nat, with someone talking in your ear, and an 11" monitor in front of you. Trying to follow, understand and RELATE everything that's going on in this fast moving game, AND trying to provide color commentary is a tough job.

Interesting phenomenon:
As mentioned, I watch on gamecenter.nhl.com --and when we're away, you can only get the Home team's broadcasters, so I switch to the Away radio option to hear Bill and George. But the radio broadcast is about 20 seconds BEHIND the video feed. It's annoying, but it's also funny.... It's like George and Bill are calling a different game.

 

[Handyy]

As far as what our announcers say, I challenge you to sit and call an intelligible mistake-free game for 60 minutes. Try it next time you are way up in "C" deck at the Nat, with someone talking in your ear, and an 11" monitor in front of you. Trying to follow, understand and RELATE everything that's going on in this fast moving game, AND trying to provide color commentary is a tough job.

Most of the other announcers get it just right all the time. Jackets announcer are constantly way off, which makes it frustrating to watch.

 

[ca5150]

I don't mind Rimmer and Gare, they are fine, my biggest problem and it makes me mental is when they cut away from the scrums and fights or are slow to cut to them. They go to replays and commercials all the time when a scrum or fight develops and they are the only FSN that does that. I watch FS Detroit all the time and they never do that, nor do the other teams that I catch on CI. The least they could do is replay the fight/scrum after they come back from break and they never do. Very annoying and disappointing...

 

[BlueJackets39]

As somebody who used to work on production crews, let me tell you, it's a tough gig. Chances are we got Edmonton's Away Team Crew last night.

FSN-OH took probably the director, a producer, and maybe a technician. Everybody else from the Chyron op (do they still call it that, I'm not sure Chyron is still in business, anyway the guy/gal who puts the text on the screen) to the TD (the guy pushing the buttons) to the VTR guys (The guys Gare is yelling at when he says, Go ahead, stop here, now speed up, slow it down) to the Sound board operator, to the video engineer (the guy adjusting the cameras so they have all the same color balance) to the individual camera operators are all locals from Edmonton.

Having been on the Away Team Crew for Cleveland sports, it's tough because Every team that comes in has a different director, a different style. Every director calls shots differently, uses tapes differently. Directors get in rhythms, and if you work with a director long enough, you get a feeling for the shot he's going to call next. Away Team Crews don't have that advantage. The graphics packages are different for the Chyron-op, I'm sure that person has to deal with packages from FSN, Altitude, CBC, Rogers, VS, etc. Every package is different, the fonts are different, the placements of words are different.

It's live sports. There's no do-overs. Mistakes happen in every job, but with live TV you can't say "Cut, take it from the top" You just go on.

I'm not making excuses for the people who are doing it, I'm just explaining that there's more that goes on behind the scenes that people aren't aware of. If FSN paid to fly the entire crew out to every game, they couldn't afford to put any games on TV. We would have gotten the same people if the game was broadcast on Sportstime Ohio.

Bowl games on the other hand there's no excuses for. The networks bring in their "best" for the games, and the crew usually travels to all the big events. Some can be said for spreading your talent thinly to cover all the events on the same day, but generally the production team travels together and works together. NBC brings everybody, Fox brings most and uses local cameramen.

I'm sure it was EDM's away crew. I'll agree with Skraut. There is a TON that goes on behind the scenes that may cause a director to get to a shot late, or whatnot. It's usually Christian Roberts, I think that directs Jackets games. I think Matt Sigafoose (sp) produces them. They work Reds games as well. I've worked some Reds games for FSN and I know how tough this can be. The good thing is, that it's live TV. Once it's happened...it's happened, you can't go back and do it over.

And somewhat OT, here is a clip, to provide insight of how tough directing live sports can be. This is from a baseball game, and the guys on videotape (replays) are bringing the whole show down, causing the director to blow a gasket. It's classic. Heavy language...be warned.

http://www.thetvdirectors.com/uploads/Baseball.mp3

There is a short pause in the middle. Don't give up on it!

 

[Moo]

Optimus, you need to re-read Skraut's point: The director/producer is working with an "away" crew, not his own. And they are beholden to feeds provided by the local operators, and rented equipment. No wonder the coverage can change game to game.

As far as what our announcers say, I challenge you to sit and call an intelligible mistake-free game for 60 minutes. Try it next time you are way up in "C" deck at the Nat, with someone talking in your ear, and an 11" monitor in front of you. Trying to follow, understand and RELATE everything that's going on in this fast moving game, AND trying to provide color commentary is a tough job.

Interesting phenomenon:
As mentioned, I watch on gamecenter.nhl.com --and when we're away, you can only get the Home team's broadcasters, so I switch to the Away radio option to hear Bill and George. But the radio broadcast is about 20 seconds BEHIND the video feed. It's annoying, but it's also funny.... It's like George and Bill are calling a different game.

JACKETfan,

Trust me, I have experience in the general field. Not at the pro level, but experience and familiarity nonetheless. But I don't care who you are, there's NO EXCUSE for the minor errors that go on CONSISTENTLY.

If there's a flub of a name on-air or a minor typo, okay, fine, but when the same name is butchered, when the same mistakes are on air, sorry, but there has to be a sense of accountability.

In my job, which is different from live TV, if I screw up, I hear about it and I'm held accountable. I make darn sure not to make the same mistakes again.

It's naive to expect 100 percent perfection in a fast-paced game, but some things can be done better, and for people covering hockey on a regular basis, they should be done better. I think we deserve better than that. I don't care what the cost of the production is or the nature of the TV contract or whatever, there should be a sense of pride to do the job right. I don't care if it's the B-team on the road producing the game, it should be done right. And some of the stuff that has consistently gone on and hasn't been fixed? It goes from being just a rare mistake to no one gives a damn about making a good quality broadcast.

 

[JACKETfan]

'Names butchered'???
YOU OBVIOUSLY don't listen-watch CI. ...Chimmer-a, Mahotra, etc.

But I agree, -there's room for improvement, ...especially in camera coverage and signal quality (not to mention refereeing)!

 

[Skraut]

And somewhat OT, here is a clip, to provide insight of how tough directing live sports can be. This is from a baseball game, and the guys on videotape (replays) are bringing the whole show down, causing the director to blow a gasket. It's classic. Heavy language...be warned.

http://www.thetvdirectors.com/uploads/Baseball.mp3

There is a short pause in the middle. Don't give up on it!

Wow, that brings back some memories. That's actually mild compared to a few I heard live on the headsets. I'll have to keep that for the next time somebody says "That sounds like fun, why did you quit" Show up at Noon for a 7:00pm game, set up for 20 minutes, sit on your butt doing nothing for 6 hours (but have to set up early "Just in case" and yes it's been necessary before) Followed by 3 hours intense intense action, and an hour + of teardown.

Yeah it was fun at times, and I got to go a lot of places and see a lot of things that not many will ever see, but it was also a tough job, and one that's very tough to support a family on due to the inconsistency of sports schedules.

Yes, the director is the one ultimately responsible, but he can only put up what his crew members give him

I agree we could use some better packages profiling "Our" players instead of seeing stuff about Phaneuf because it's easy. I'd also really like to see lines shown at the start of the game. I know Hitch switches them 1 minute into the game, but at least show them to us at they start. Rims could also do a better job telling us who's out there. Yeah big hockey fans know, but I was watching the game with my Father the other day who doesn't watch hockey ever. I told him to watch for when Rick Nash comes out, and my father never knew he was out there if he didn't have the puck.

 

[JACKETfan]

Maybe they could put a chip in the players that would show their name on the bottom of the screen

The prob with player names is the announcers have the worse-farthest seat in the house and tiny tv monitors.

 

[Paisano*]

With all the complaining on here, everyone must be just miserable! Maybe they should just stop broadcasting the games and relieve everyones pain!

I'm just glad we can watch the games, I have no problem with the broadcasts or the announcers.

 

[Handyy]

Maybe they should just stop broadcasting the games and relieve everyones pain!

Spot on! Then I'd have the away feeds more often, relieving the pain

 

[pete goegan]

I have Directv and the sd feed is horrid, almost unwatchable. Can't wait till next year when it's all hd. The production and direction seem to be getting worse as the year goes on. As for Rimmer and Gare, they kind of grow on you. They are homers and aren't afraid to admit it. If I want to hear PC crap, I'll listen to the other teams feed or NPR.

Looks like your av and mine should meet up for a drink, DEF. Remembering the two of them on the ice, though, it'd probably end up in a brawl!

 

[Moo]

Maybe they could put a chip in the players that would show their name on the bottom of the screen

The prob with player names is the announcers have the worse-farthest seat in the house and tiny tv monitors.

Then maybe all the FSNs can revive FoxTrax on a bigger and better level.