Video quality - Cornell-Syracuse lacrosse

Awesome video feed on Big Red sportscast using the TimeWarner video. From 10 feet away on a bigscreen TV, the quality is pretty good. So it is possible to get good quality video at Cornell sports events.

Too bad what we're seeing is Syracuse not Cornell rolling up the score.

billhoward
Awesome video feed on Big Red sportscast using the TimeWarner video. From 10 feet away on a bigscreen TV, the quality is pretty good. So it is possible to get good quality video at Cornell sports events.

Too bad what we're seeing is Syracuse not Cornell rolling up the score.

As I had said when discussing how to get a good signal at Cornell Club NYC, garbage in, garbage out. If they want a good signal there, they need better cameras at the events.

Maybe we should invite over a couple IK broadcast majors to help out. The "I would found an institution" part seems to have bypassed electronic media. I recall the video from ACC lax events to be pretty good, too.

Actually, they use a (Panasonic -- yes, yes, I work for them) P2 camera to film the games, at least for hockey, so the camera quality isn't the issue. A/V is not my area of expertise, so I don't know what the issue is. Tha intarwebs???

Broadcasters such as TimeWarner26 aren't just using better cameras. They're probably using a much better feed to the outside world, most likely a satellite link. Big as Cornell is and with as much bandwidth as Cornell has to the outside world, when Cornell originates and feeds its own webcasts, I wonder if we're not having some bandwidth issues.

That said, the quality of the webcasts, mediocre as they are for Cornell hockey, are still better this year than 2-3 years ago.

I came very close to driving up for the lacrosse game which would have cost as much in gas as a whole year of the RedCast. Part of the reason for watching on TV (webcast on the big screen) was the belief that it would be a decent experience since the feed was coming from a commercial broadcaster.

Don't tell Andy Noel this, but the annual webcast may be almost as price-insensitive as DisneyWorld, meaning whether it's $30, $40, or $50 a day for tickets, you'll take the kids to see Mickey and Goofy and only when you charge $90 or $100 a day are parents going to pull back. Same for the webcast: If Cornell keeps creeping the price up by $10 a year, I'd gripe about it and still re-up. Getting rid of CSTV was alone worth the extra money for this season.

IHMO, the 500 KB feed for Hockey games is to low.

Additionally, the production should feature 3 cameras (with good lenses), a switcher, CG, and video store. These are the elements that make a TW broadcast look better.

Where would you put the extra cameras? Up on the balcony near the band? Down low in the Cornell end in the corner?

"Video store" as in for instant replay? Good idea. I can't remember if Cornell has a character generator already, just between periods, or what.

A tripod about 3 feet taller would help, too, unless you can convince all fans to stay seated.

Typical low budget quality hockey shoot has 1 center tripod mounted camera with big glass (can go wide or tight) and hand helds down low at each end of the ice. More upscale would use 5 cameras, 3 up top on tripods and the two down on the ice (this would be a bit much for a streaming production though).

All camera operators should be in audio contact with producer directing/running the switcher. Output of switcher goes to streaming encoder and video store. Video store output feeds back to switcher for replay. CG would be useful (some of the other schools have basic CG) during the game and during intermissions.

The center camera operator would benefit from a spotter. The puck is often lost.

I am not sure how big the production team is. So this may be way over the top.

I think you're way over the top in terms of what a college could afford to do with a webcast given the revenue coming in. Does anyone who's spoken with the athletic department have a sense of the number of Cornell's season subscribers to the webcasts? I'm guessing somewhere in the single digit thousands, split among alumni with no lives other than Cornell sports (like me) and parents / relatives of players.

If it's 5,000 subscribers a year, that's $300,000 to be split among Cornell and Redcast network povider. To bring in $1 million a year, you'd need 16,700 subscribers. Is that possible?

On the other hand, some of the things you suggest are cheap, like student labor as spotters. On the other other hand, the hockey video is shot from such a wide angle it's hard - not impossible - to miss the puck, or fail to follow a breakaway.

Frankly, I'd be very happy if the webcasts started on-time (i.e., when they are supposed to start as published in the schedule, so we don't fiddly-fart around for half an hour wondering where the webcast is) and if the audio and video were consistently reliable.

Al DeFlorio
Frankly, I'd be very happy if the webcasts started on-time (i.e., when they are supposed to start as published in the schedule, so we don't fiddly-fart around for half an hour wondering where the webcast is) and if the audio and video were consistently reliable.

Why shouldn't they start ahead of time. Sign on a half hour early and you get a screen telling you that your connection is good and that your program will start at .... time.

What I have suggested is not as costly as you might imagine. I am not talking broadcast cameras and collosal pedestals. Besides, much of production value comes from composition and technique, not the equipment.

Streaming encoder hardware is not very expensive. Cornell has big internet pipes.

Wide shots are fine for establishing play, but they are to "distant" to project involvement in the event. Pull back could be used more when the puck makes big changes in position (a clear for example). It is detracting to the cameraman struggle to find the puck in a tight field of view.

Someone joked that we should get students from IC to do it. Seriously, there might be some merit in that.

Jim Hyla

Al DeFlorio
Frankly, I'd be very happy if the webcasts started on-time (i.e., when they are supposed to start as published in the schedule, so we don't fiddly-fart around for half an hour wondering where the webcast is) and if the audio and video were consistently reliable.

Why shouldn't they start ahead of time. Sign on a half hour early and you get a screen telling you that your connection is good and that your program will start at .... time.

Better still.

But I'm not greedy. If I could be certain that the Syracuse lacrosse webcast will start at 6:30 when the RedCast schedule says it will start at 6:30, I'd be happy. Now to ensure that will happen, it would make good sense to begin transmitting some kind of signal before 6:30 to confirm all the connections, links, etc., are functioning correctly.

It would also make sense, when the decision is made to webcast the TV feed of a game (as happened Tuesday night) where the feed won't begin until game time, to give that as the starting time of the webcast, so viewers won't be trying to connect thirty minutes before anything is going to be transmitted, causing frustration.

cmoberg
Someone joked that we should get students from IC to do it. Seriously, there might be some merit in that.

Seriously. Ever check out the quality of The Ithacan's website? They even have pretty decent coverage of the bigger Cornell sporting events.