I’d certainly like an option to Fasthockey.com. I watched the USA/Team West game and it was about as good as the worst hockey fight video done with a cell phone camera. You couldn’t see the numbers on the player’s backs. Forget following the puck. The play by play guy was worse than the camera guy. Total rip-off.
Yikes. I was hoping to catch MacKinnon play on Atlanatic tomorrow night but if the coverage is bush league I might abstain.
Watched the Ontario-Finland Exhibition game last night from Fasthockey. Good things: - The sportscaster and the commentator were good. Definitely knew what they were doing. - They had audio interviews during the intermissions. Something to improve: - The aspect ratio was 4:3. - Camera work was slightly off target at times and zooming was bad for a few times. Bad things about the arena: - Lighting wasn't ideal - It was a small arena, so the view angle of the camera was too low. - The camera was situated slightly right from the centre line, so the view to the other end was weaker. Final verdict: The game was played at MTS Iceplex, so broadcasts from that arena probably aren't going to improve significantly because of the conditions. These streams are better than nothing, but don't expect that you would get a good picture of the players.
Sure hope the MTS is better than Portage as I am prepaid for a few more. Logicaly it should be as they also do Moose games. The one last night only used the zoom when there was no play.
Just got done watching Team Quebec and Team Atlantic play in Portage and the game was decent. I watched a WHL game last night from NeuLion and I thought the quality of fasthockey.com was a bit better. There was a bit of frame loss when you blew the picture up, but at normal size it was pretty good. Could see the puck for the most part and jersey numbers were not a problem. No scoreboard, except the one in the arena. The announcers didn't know many of the players, which made it hard at times to know who was out there.
Its the Moose practice facility, not the downtown rink. And it is a nice facility, seats 1500 not 15000 like the MTS Centre