[BC] Super bowl audio

[Bernie Courtney]

>From a production standpoint it was probably one of the sloppiest games NBC
has done all season.  I've watched all 19 (including the SB) games on NBC
this season with the same two people.  One who works in the industry as
well, and one who's just a casual observer, but probably somewhat jaded from
spending too much time with us.  We all unanimously agreed on the fact it
was sloppy.

-The surround mix was probably once of the worst all season for NBC.  I'm
not sure what Willy was hearing on the stereo mix, but on a very good 5.1
setup in my home it was very flat with especially the rear channels
neglected for most of the game.  Also seemed like they were cutting the lows
end out of many of the mics, as what surround audio existed sounded very
hollow.

-The choice of using handheld mics for the desk talent during stadium
pregame/halftime/postgame shows was quite odd.  Most of the outside the
stadium pre-game desk talent all used headsets that placed the mic element
right in front of one's mouth, and did a great job at rejecting background
noise.  However when the show moved inside to a set in the middle of 70,000
screaming fans they decided to open up 6 stick mics.  This wasn't made any
better by the fact their team consisted of a number of currently un-employed
NFL coaches who were make their first TV debut and were not used to holding
a mic up and speaking directly into it.  This decision seemed mind boggling
to me, and just looked tacky on air.

-Halftime performance audio had all the vocals burried more then I would
have liked, but that is a seperate truck and sperate audio mixer, so I'm
willing to concede thats is how Springsteen and Co. wanted it to sound.  On
the video side the director cut to a camera that obviously wasn't ready and
was pointed at the floor and shouldres of people in the crowd as the camera
op walked around.  The NFL Network crew (who also produced super sloppy
games all season) can be blamed for those items though.

- NBC made some graphics changes from their usual SNF compliemnt.  Most
noticable was their loosing the carbon fiber like mesh effect that used to
fill up the space between the bottom of their score bar and bottom of the
screen.  I liked this a lot better as you could see through it much easier,
and the HD encoders always seemed to have a rough time with all the fine
details in between that mesh on fast camera pans.  The had a few glitches
with graphics during the game though.  At one point the graphics operator
put the down and distance information into the score bar as "1st and 10"
when it shold have read "2nd and 7"; it was quickly effected out then back
in with the correct information.  Seems as the game got into the second half
their devices were having a hard time keeping up- as the down and distance
informationwould change and be effected in the clock would freeze for a few
seconds as it came in, and effect would freeze halfway (the 'revolving'
distance and down would stop half through a spin) then both start back up
again.  None are the end of the world, but not acceptable IMO for a
Superbowl telecast.

-replays (or lack thereof).  I have no idea what they were doing in that
truck, but it seemingly took forever for them to get replays cued up, and
when they were it was only from one or two angles- often missing shots that
would have been much more helpful.  During plays that were being reviewed it
took them minutes to zoom in on the play and get replay on-air. Their use of
a slow motion replay as the first to be shown after a roughing the passer
call was at best misleading, since it was the only one that made it look as
if it were a legitimate call.  The full speed replay showed the
contact occurred a fraction of a second after the ball was released.
-In the post-game segments, they had a camera that was showing wide shots of
the stadium that had some digital hash filling a few scan lines at the top
left of the video, just barely within title safety.  Likely some encoder (if
it was an RF cam) or frame-sync that went 'stupid' and needed a reboot.
 Unfortunately the only reason i mention this is because it hit air 2-3
times in the above mentioned state either without anybody in the truck
noticing or caring.

-On the positive side, I thought they made great use of the
SkyCam during the game.  It can provide some great shots if the director's
take it enough and it's operated by a good pilot and camera op combination.
 NBC (unlike other networks) utilizes a SkyCam on every one of their games,
and clearly their familiarity with the shots it provides and comfort in the
people running it made for some great shots at the right times.

The good news is that sports fans have two years of quality production from
CBS and Fox before NBC can either get their act together or butcher another
Superbowl :-)

B

-- 
Bernie Courtney
Metro Broadcast Services
bcourtney at metrobcast.com