On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 7:16 PM, Tom Wolper <twol...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The main third persons are Steve McManaman, Ruud Gullitt, and Jurgen > Klinsmen. They don't seem to have great broadcasting chops, but they > were top players in international games for England, Netherlands, and > Germany, respectively. They certainly know the game; I think they have > a bit of difficulty explaining it to casual viewers. > > I have been watching, on average, a game a day and I really enjoy the > coverage. I'm going to write a longer piece about all the thing > they're doing right on TV, especially compared to US sports coverage. > > As for the noise of the vuvuzelas, I think the sound engineers have > changed the audio mix to dampen them somewhat. They were much louder > and more annoying in the first games that were broadcast. They seem to > be much less intrusive now. > I would like to read your piece, I think they are doing a lot of things right too - odd since ESPN does so many things wrong with their other live sports coverage. I also agree with you about the expert analysts in the studio - I have gathered that they were great players (that one Dutch guy they keep mentioning was named player of the year twice), but they add almost nothing to my understanding of the game. OTOH, the play by play guys do such a great job calling the action that I have actually learned a lot about the tactics and strategy of the game just by watching and listening (though I still can not decipher what they mean by off-sides, and it is unclear to me what a tackle is, and which ones are legal and which are not). The trumpets may be quieter (I think they mentioned that they were somehow selling quieter ones, though that may have been a joke) - but I still can't really hear the cheers in the crowds - the effect (also noted by Salzman) is an odd disconnection between the action on the field and the ambient crowd noise, which is a steady drone regardless of what is or is not happening on the field. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
