Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => The Sporting Life => Topic started by: Dibdib on 29 July, 2012, 08:46:55 pm

Title: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: Dibdib on 29 July, 2012, 08:46:55 pm: Apparently the shambolic information being fed to commentators during the road race coverage was all the spectators' fault:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/29/london-2012l-twitter-blam_n_1716779.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Quote
International Olympics Comittee communications director Mark Adams said around one million people had lined the roads with many using Twitter which effectively jammed transmissions of race information.

Spectators should only send "urgent" updates when the peleton passed, he insisted.

The words "piss-up" and "brewery" spring to mind. Funny how a certain other massive road race not so long ago didn't suffer the same problems...
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: clarion on 29 July, 2012, 08:54:49 pm: Round objects
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: hellymedic on 29 July, 2012, 08:56:21 pm: Spherules!
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: PaulF on 29 July, 2012, 09:02:32 pm: Don't tell Marbeaux :D
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: andygates on 29 July, 2012, 09:03:42 pm: Regular phone cells instead of radios? Whoops!

Ah well, the information wouldn't have helped anyone. And we were all jumping and yelling regardless of the presence or absence of numbers.
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 29 July, 2012, 09:11:18 pm: I thought it added to the quality of the Women's race. There was an element of tension lacking in those TdF stages where the break is caught on the line. I was on the edge of my seat willing the leaders on. The best rider won, our best got Silver, and a hard working domestique got a Bronze, a very satisfactory result. Chris Boardman sat in the commentary box timing splits off road junctions was all part of the fun.
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: Exit Stage Left on 29 July, 2012, 09:24:17 pm: The commentary could have been a lot worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D568_-2E2Uo
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: mattc on 30 July, 2012, 01:28:44 pm: The coverage was total sh1te.

VERY LUCKILY the womens race* was very unchaotic, so we could follow it even with the sound turned off (what, turn off Hugh Porter? Good grief!)

But the mens was a joke. Having Cancellara, Gilbert et al in the break without getting a mention ... we need a bigger :facepalm: smiley.

I don't know why I persist with wathcing BBC road coverage - it's always rubbish. Beijing was rubbish even with better data from the hosts. Hugh Porter is rubbish - in fact he's not much help in the track coverage. Surely he's old enough to be pensioned off? please?

</rant>

*The 3 in the break may differ - I don't think they got a single blackboard with their gap on it, despite being away for what, an hour?
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: Jaded on 30 July, 2012, 01:33:20 pm: Eurosport had the women's race on, but I switched back to the BBC because of the adverts.
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: mattc on 30 July, 2012, 06:11:10 pm: Apparently the rider position/gap info couldn't be displayed on screen, cos the timing data wasn't supplied ...
by OMEGA, an olympic sponsor!

(who in turn are blaming "network provider partner's signal strength" )
Title: Re: Olympic Broadcast Service - spectators at fault for poor timing information!
Post by: TimO on 30 July, 2012, 06:18:39 pm: That does sound like an impressively bad job on the timing. I reckon I could knock up a more reliable system, although I do bash together systems that have to be reliable for a living, because where they are, we can't really do any maintenance. ;D

I didn't manage to see much of the coverage, because real life got in the way (travel to the South West for my Mother's 80th Birthday, and then my Mother's 80th Birthday Party), but what I did see, the last ten minutes of the Men's Road Race, seemed spectacularly poor. I was working out where they were by recognising the roads, which was challenging with rather a lot more people on the streets than is normal, but still probably better than the commentary!