GaryMrMets
08-27-2004, 01:44 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/9507759.htm
Posted on Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
Looking behind football broadcast
ESPN has been on a creative tear lately, presenting modern programs in old-fashioned ways (its retro-style SportsCenter broadcasts) and familiar stuff in new, experimental formats.
Tomorrow night at 7:30, it will put the Virginia Tech-Southern Cal football game on two channels at once. ESPN will carry the normal game broadcast, while ESPN2 will simulcast a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the broadcast.
ESPN2 viewers will see staff in the production truck making real-time decisions as quickly as the players on the field need to act, feeding statistics to announcers, preparing instant replays, inserting graphics such as the yellow first-down line. Viewers will learn about the "red hat" person who tells referees when it's time for commercial breaks.
"We're bringing in a separate truck to produce our coverage of the production of the game coverage," says Mike Moore, coordinating producer for the behind-the-scenes telecast.
"Our intent is to introduce the cast of characters at the beginning and turn everything on" - all the sound and video, Moore says. Then the telecast will isolate different producers and crew members and illustrate what they see, hear and do. ESPN2 will stay on during ESPN's commercial breaks, using that time to interview production and broadcast staff.
Throughout the backstage telecast, the regular TV version of the game will show in a window in the corner of the screen, so when the production people push a button, you can see what happens.
ESPN has been pulling out all the stops during its 25th anniversary celebration this summer to keep its 10-quarter ratings-growth streak alive.
In fact it has two behind-the-scene-casts this weekend. It will give the backstage treatment, for the second time, to SportsCenter tonight. At 10 p.m. ESPN will air This is SportsCenter, a taped program that demonstrates how elements of the show are put together. It will lead into a live view of the production behind the 11 p.m SportsCenter, which will air on ESPN2 and proceed there on as if nothing goofy is going on behind the curtain.
Traitors. Eagles fans, please sit down for a moment. Philadelphia's own Comcast is preparing to launch a (gasp) Dallas Cowboys channel for its customers in the (cough) Dallas area, where it is the dominant (moan) cable carrier.
The channel will show Bill Parcells' news conferences, as well as talk and highlights about the good old 'Boys. Comcast could offer the channel in the Los Angeles area, where there's no NFL team. The Cowboys' training camp is in Oxnard, Calif., about an hour from L.A.
There are no plans at this time to offer Cowboys TV in Philadelphia. You can get up now.
Carly Patterson is old.ABC televised its first Little League World Series in 1963, from Williamsport, Pa., with Chris Schenkel calling play-by-play. It's that time again.
ABC airs the U.S. Little League championship game tomorrow at 7:30 and the world final game Sunday at 6:30. Both are live night games.
Brent Musburger and Harold Reynolds will call the games. Sam Ryan and Grant Paulsen, the 16-year-old broadcasting phenom who has his own sports show on XM Satellite Radio, will report from the field.
Here today, goon tomorrow.The planned date for Hockey Gladiators - a pay-television tournament of hockey-fighting supremacy that was supposed to bring 32 great hockey enforcers into the Target Center in Minneapolis on Aug. 20 - came and went without a glove dropped or punch thrown.
"The Target Center asked us to leave. Nice - less than a month before the show," says Ray Walker, one of the event's organizers.
A backup plan to hold the event at Winnipeg Arena in Manitoba was squashed this month too, by Winnipeg police. Publicity for Hockey Gladiators rolls on, including a recent appearance on Dennis Miller's cable TV show by tournament mastermind Darryl Wolski and Gladiators participant (and former NHL penalty-minutes collector) Lyndon Byers.
"Now we're searching for a new venue," Walker says. "Darryl has spoken with the [Wachovia] Spectrum a few times... that could be interesting."
Posted on Fri, Aug. 27, 2004
Looking behind football broadcast
ESPN has been on a creative tear lately, presenting modern programs in old-fashioned ways (its retro-style SportsCenter broadcasts) and familiar stuff in new, experimental formats.
Tomorrow night at 7:30, it will put the Virginia Tech-Southern Cal football game on two channels at once. ESPN will carry the normal game broadcast, while ESPN2 will simulcast a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the broadcast.
ESPN2 viewers will see staff in the production truck making real-time decisions as quickly as the players on the field need to act, feeding statistics to announcers, preparing instant replays, inserting graphics such as the yellow first-down line. Viewers will learn about the "red hat" person who tells referees when it's time for commercial breaks.
"We're bringing in a separate truck to produce our coverage of the production of the game coverage," says Mike Moore, coordinating producer for the behind-the-scenes telecast.
"Our intent is to introduce the cast of characters at the beginning and turn everything on" - all the sound and video, Moore says. Then the telecast will isolate different producers and crew members and illustrate what they see, hear and do. ESPN2 will stay on during ESPN's commercial breaks, using that time to interview production and broadcast staff.
Throughout the backstage telecast, the regular TV version of the game will show in a window in the corner of the screen, so when the production people push a button, you can see what happens.
ESPN has been pulling out all the stops during its 25th anniversary celebration this summer to keep its 10-quarter ratings-growth streak alive.
In fact it has two behind-the-scene-casts this weekend. It will give the backstage treatment, for the second time, to SportsCenter tonight. At 10 p.m. ESPN will air This is SportsCenter, a taped program that demonstrates how elements of the show are put together. It will lead into a live view of the production behind the 11 p.m SportsCenter, which will air on ESPN2 and proceed there on as if nothing goofy is going on behind the curtain.
Traitors. Eagles fans, please sit down for a moment. Philadelphia's own Comcast is preparing to launch a (gasp) Dallas Cowboys channel for its customers in the (cough) Dallas area, where it is the dominant (moan) cable carrier.
The channel will show Bill Parcells' news conferences, as well as talk and highlights about the good old 'Boys. Comcast could offer the channel in the Los Angeles area, where there's no NFL team. The Cowboys' training camp is in Oxnard, Calif., about an hour from L.A.
There are no plans at this time to offer Cowboys TV in Philadelphia. You can get up now.
Carly Patterson is old.ABC televised its first Little League World Series in 1963, from Williamsport, Pa., with Chris Schenkel calling play-by-play. It's that time again.
ABC airs the U.S. Little League championship game tomorrow at 7:30 and the world final game Sunday at 6:30. Both are live night games.
Brent Musburger and Harold Reynolds will call the games. Sam Ryan and Grant Paulsen, the 16-year-old broadcasting phenom who has his own sports show on XM Satellite Radio, will report from the field.
Here today, goon tomorrow.The planned date for Hockey Gladiators - a pay-television tournament of hockey-fighting supremacy that was supposed to bring 32 great hockey enforcers into the Target Center in Minneapolis on Aug. 20 - came and went without a glove dropped or punch thrown.
"The Target Center asked us to leave. Nice - less than a month before the show," says Ray Walker, one of the event's organizers.
A backup plan to hold the event at Winnipeg Arena in Manitoba was squashed this month too, by Winnipeg police. Publicity for Hockey Gladiators rolls on, including a recent appearance on Dennis Miller's cable TV show by tournament mastermind Darryl Wolski and Gladiators participant (and former NHL penalty-minutes collector) Lyndon Byers.
"Now we're searching for a new venue," Walker says. "Darryl has spoken with the [Wachovia] Spectrum a few times... that could be interesting."