Hockey webcasts - why is RPI so good?

[billhoward]

Maybe we could rent you for this weekend. Dueling webcasts. Do the Cornell faithful choose the already paid-for Recast or spend $5.99 for standard-def quality which still beats driving to Ithaca, scrapping for tix, and then paying for a hotel for two nights?

We deserve a better webcast. You guys deserve a better (late in the season) team. ECACs in Albany eight years and never a trip to the Pepsi / Times-Union Center must be disheartening. Thanks for being a shining beacon on the video end.

(You think the PCB residual matter in the Hudson somehow clarifies the image, like the big capacitor you connect between the wall socket and your TV's rabbit ears? I'm trying to remember what that stupid thing was called.)

[Jim Hyla]

So all we need for a great webcast are a dozen, or so students willing to put their time into a production. Any complainers ready to volunteer someone?:-}

[billhoward]

So all we need for a great webcast are a dozen, or so students willing to put their time into a production. Any complainers ready to volunteer someone?:-}

Maybe WVBR or The Cornell Daily Sun might want to expand into the medium of video. It worked for Rupert Murdoch.

[CowbellGuy]

So all we need for a great webcast are a dozen, or so students willing to put their time into a production. Any complainers ready to volunteer someone?:-}

No, we had that. All we need is for athletics to extract their collective heads from their collective rectums. Don't hold your breath.

[billhoward]

The people behind Cornell athletics aren't inherently evil. Overwhelmed, maybe. The occasional wrong-in-hindsight choices. We're on, what, our third or fourth webcast provider: the Syracuse operation that came down to help do a couple events, the CSTV operation (that also did the cookie cutter website) where CS ddn't stand for customer service, somebody else?, and now the Redcast operation. That's my recall. Has any one of them lasted more than a couple years? Cornell perhaps might call on a distinguished panel of smart alumni for guidance in this area just as alumni help with insight and guidance for the Cornell Daily Sun and the Alumni Magazine. Bucky Gunts '73 was on the team that won Cornell's first championship and you may have seen his name second on the credits list for the NBC Olympics. That'd be a start.

Barring our bringing in a half-dozen Cornellian Emmy winners, we could just hire Team RPI since they don't, as in the past eight seasons, have anything to do after the ECAC quarterfinals.

[mnagowski]

Barring our bringing in a half-dozen Cornellian Emmy winners, we could just hire Team RPI since they don't, as in the past eight seasons, have anything to do after the ECAC quarterfinals.

Does Team RPI get paid? Or are they student volunteers? I think that's the difference right there.

[KenP]

If anyone is serious about wanting to try and make a difference, ask CowbellGuy for some of his first-hand experience with the Cornell Athletic Department.  What's needed is a philosophical shift within the Administration to enable this type of student-based or volunteer-based activity.

[phillysportsfan]

I agree that the webcasts are bad but RPI is an exception. After watching a lot of streamed away basketball games this year, I would say Redcast is about average. Most colleges have terrible streaming systems unless espn360.com picks up the game. At least our school doesnt cut into the time when the other team is on offensive with replays of Cornell offensive plays or while the other team is on offense, take the video feed away and just display a big sign that says Defense. At least a couple schools did this for basketball games.

[Al DeFlorio]

Today's lax webcast is a good example.  No pre-game audio--came up just as game started--audio still breaking up with sudden changes of volume after one quarter.  Livestats not working at all.

[Bahnstorm]

So we have now and have had for years a lot of talk/complaining and we know folks like CowBellGuy have gotten crap from athletics in the past, but seriously what can we do to make something actually happen here? Do we get a petition, do we recruit some motivated students, do we approach WVBR/WHCU/Slope Media Group/RPI? Do we strap down some of the folks in the Admin and force them to watch 12 hours of redcast broadcast?
Anyone want to step up here? Watching the RPI broadcast last weekend was just so refreshing and frustrating at the same time, something has to be done and would be great if the ball could start rolling this post season.

[CowbellGuy]

You're not going to see a change in policy from Athletics because the idiocy runs throughout everyone who sets policy, from Andy and Anita right on down. If anything were to change, the pressure would have to come from above, and outside of, Athletics. Like, say, the trustees. And to the average trustee who isn't paying close attention, Athletics probably seems to be doing a fine job based on Andy's singular metric of winning percentage. I suppose Schafer might have enough clout to get something done, but he doesn't really have the time, or likely desire, to wade through that mess.

[Rita]

So we have now and have had for years a lot of talk/complaining and we know folks like CowBellGuy have gotten crap from athletics in the past, but seriously what can we do to make something actually happen here? Do we get a petition, do we recruit some motivated students, do we approach WVBR/WHCU/Slope Media Group/RPI? Do we strap down some of the folks in the Admin and force them to watch 12 hours of redcast broadcast?
Anyone want to step up here? Watching the RPI broadcast last weekend was just so refreshing and frustrating at the same time, something has to be done and would be great if the ball could start rolling this post season.

I might donate money to see that provided we can pick which games we make them watch. I think the Dartmouth at Lynah from this past fall (I think that was the game where the video was out for most of the game) should be on the list. Sounds like a few lax games would make it too.

And no, they do not get any of the "refreshments" ::drunk:: that Redcast viewers typically have while watching and bitching/griping about the quality of the broadcast.

[Al DeFlorio]

And no, they do not get any of the "refreshments" ::drunk:: that Redcast viewers typically have while watching and bitching/griping about the quality of the broadcast.

Dunno.  Allowing "refreshments" but forbidding potty breaks might be even better.

[Chris '03]

Today's lax webcast is a good example.  No pre-game audio--came up just as game started--audio still breaking up with sudden changes of volume after one quarter.  Livestats not working at all.

I gave up halfway through the first. The choppiness was too much to take.

[Al DeFlorio]

Today's lax webcast is a good example.  No pre-game audio--came up just as game started--audio still breaking up with sudden changes of volume after one quarter.  Livestats not working at all.

I gave up halfway through the first. The choppiness was too much to take.

Picture's been steady here, although the washed-out color makes the Cornell players look like klansmen who've been short-sheeted.

Edit:  Scoreboard doesn't work, either.