Ski and snowboard event broadcast coverage

[rudager]

Howdy,

I wanted to ask everyone what they thought of the last Olympic Games, while it’s still fresh in your head. Just coverage, not judging or athletes.

I just got home China, working as a broadcast engineer at the Slopestyle and Cross events. I work a lot of these events, and it’s always different wherever I go. Olympics is a massive scale, so it’s interesting to see what the average viewer likes.

What worked in Slopestyle? What didn’t?

Halfpipe? Big air?

Whats your feedback for what you saw on screen.

How does it compare to XGames and Dew Tour?

Lemme know! Cheers!

 

[GrandThings]

I was watching a combo of Peacock and live on NBC and it was pretty brutal.

For me, it was mostly how the commercials would randomly cut in and out. The biggest example was in the Slopestyle finals the announcers had just been hyping up the chance of a USA podium sweep and were like "we'll be right back with Colby Stevenson's run after this" and then when it cut back in from commercial he'd already dropped and we missed his first two rail hits. Like you just spent all this time talking about this run, and we didn't even get to see the full thing?

 

[cool270out]

Did not watch / support CCP

 

[ajbski]

-you couldnt see the athletes on the take off. only on the knuckle jump you could really see how they are setting the rotations. the cuts between camera were probably done as late as possible for that reason. maybe if the camera were further away? i remember there being a boom cam at some of the dew tour stops, those shots were sick.

-using the same fixed camera angles all the time made it kind of boring to watch. x games had a few tracking/dynamic cameras that made it spicier. some might disagree with me on that one. its more likely to miss a shot that way.

+the rail section was done pretty good, i liked how the camera zoomed out on the really tall features. with the slower pan speed you could tell easier how fast the riders were going.

overall the coverage was good, kind of robotic, but expected from the olympics. you did a great job sir!

 

[mattm7]

Was there any follow cam?

 

[asparagus]

Follow cams would’ve been cool, the thing where the shot will freeze and camera rotates was dumb, not enough rotation to make a difference and you’d still miss half the trick.

I’m canadian so my coverage was different but ABM was an awesome commentator (I prefer him over wallisch, fight me). Every other commentator either couldn’t call anything or was super annoying and provided no insight.

 

[rudager]

I was watching a combo of Peacock and live on NBC and it was pretty brutal.

For me, it was mostly how the commercials would randomly cut in and out. The biggest example was in the Slopestyle finals the announcers had just been hyping up the chance of a USA podium sweep and were like "we'll be right back with Colby Stevenson's run after this" and then when it cut back in from commercial he'd already dropped and we missed his first two rail hits. Like you just spent all this time talking about this run, and we didn't even get to see the full thing?

I heard the NBC/Peacock coverage was horrible. I worked for the host feed, we provided everything you saw, And then broadcasters would cut their own show to it. NBC paid some lucrative dollar amount (more than the other countries combined, BILLIONS), so they are also there. NBC would usually have a camera at the start, as well as a finish handheld. This let them cater to the American audience. For races , they usually have an additional big lens camera, this is perfect for watching racers cry for 20 minutes while a race still happened.

So hearing all the complaints about their coverage really just makes me scratch my head and wonder what they’re really doing

 

[swherity]

Follow cam would have been nice. Also the matrix shot was kinda meh. The frames like broken down was interesting like idk how to explain it but like the Candide d spin pic over chads that style when the stopped it i liked that. Also like a cable cam all the way down the slope would be cool. Yeah i felt everything just felt a little choppy and not as smooth with commercials and switching cams but overall it was good its just a few additions and some tweaks would make it better.

 

[rudager]

-you couldnt see the athletes on the take off. only on the knuckle jump you could really see how they are setting the rotations. the cuts between camera were probably done as late as possible for that reason. maybe if the camera were further away? i remember there being a boom cam at some of the dew tour stops, those shots were sick.

-using the same fixed camera angles all the time made it kind of boring to watch. x games had a few tracking/dynamic cameras that made it spicier. some might disagree with me on that one. its more likely to miss a shot that way.

+the rail section was done pretty good, i liked how the camera zoomed out on the really tall features. with the slower pan speed you could tell easier how fast the riders were going.

overall the coverage was good, kind of robotic, but expected from the olympics. you did a great job sir!

This is what I like to hear. Great feedback I can pass down to future directors and clients I work with.

Knuckle jump had cameras on either side of it, which helped show their jump setup. I agree, it made for some nice shots, cuts would be made from the uphill camera following in, then cut to the jump camera, missing that preset.

Additionally, we had cameras on the features, like the watchtower and final jump robo cams, and handhelds under the cannon, or between the skews. There is generally a line cut, then the other cameras are used for replay to show different angles.

For those asking about follow cam, I don't think the IOC would allow it.. We had a drone, but their output they were using provided some frame rate and delay problems, which is why it was never used live. Additionally, they have to be about 30 feet above the course so there's no crashes or anything.

Follow cams would’ve been cool, the thing where the shot will freeze and camera rotates was dumb, not enough rotation to make a difference and you’d still miss half the trick.

I’m canadian so my coverage was different but ABM was an awesome commentator (I prefer him over wallisch, fight me). Every other commentator either couldn’t call anything or was super annoying and provided no insight.

Composite camera looked better in Korea in my opinion. I worked the halfpipe event back then, and its a good idea. In china, it was a little whack, and just shot straight into the sun, kinda blowing out the image anyways... I never met the people that set that camera up, but is something I'd like to learn about

 

[rudager]

Follow cam would have been nice. Also the matrix shot was kinda meh. The frames like broken down was interesting like idk how to explain it but like the Candide d spin pic over chads that style when the stopped it i liked that. Also like a cable cam all the way down the slope would be cool. Yeah i felt everything just felt a little choppy and not as smooth with commercials and switching cams but overall it was good its just a few additions and some tweaks would make it better.

Cable cam for Slope would have been sick. The half pipe one was used for a few run ups to show the corral and everything.

We had looked into using the cable cam set for the ski cross events, and it provided some amazing shots, lens right from the rails, and would have brought everyone down the jumps. It looked amazing, and was really the only camera that showed the overall scale and size of the features (they were massive, on slope cameras didn't do justice). However; when the day came for the Ski Slope, the cable cam boys were on their days off. So missed opportunity there