Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Sunday, January 29, 2012 Ski orienteering on TVI watched most of the Swedish ski orienteering championships this morning (thanks to SVT Play). I thought the coverage was good. The commentators noted that a viewer suggested helicopter views to show the skiers in the terrain. I'm sure the coverage could have been even better with more cameras. But, I can't imagine there's a bunch of money sitting around waiting to be spent on ski orienteering TV. Still, I think three things could be done without spending much money that would improve the sport for viewers:1. Let the commentators know which skiers have which forking. The courses had forked loops and the GPS tracking maps showed the different loops. But the commentators weren't sure which skier had which course (the courses were blue and green) and had to figure it out during the competition. It would have been better if the commentators knew which course a skier was on. 2. Pre-record some short audio interviews with the top skiers that could be played throughout the competition. I can imagine hearing a short audio clip played while the video is showing the GPS tracking. 3. Pre-record some images from the terrain - maybe some headcam video following a skier on the course. That would give the viewer a better idea of the type of terrain and trails the skiers were on. The commentators talked about the difference between the trails mapped as solid versus dashed lines. A video illustrating the difference would have been nice to see. All in all, I think it was good coverage. It helped that the format was viewer friendly (chase start with loops). It helped that the GPS tracking seemed to work perfectly. It helped that the commentators did a good job. It helped that the races were good. Here's the GPS track with the two courses (blue and green):  Here's the finish sprint for the men's race:  It is, by the way, very cool that I can sit here in the middle of the U.S. and following TV coverage of a live orienteering race on my phone. It is a reminder of how far technology has come in the last 20 years or so. When I was first living in Sweden, Kansas played in the NCAA basketball championships and won...I didn't find out until a few days after the fact when I was able to find a USA Today in the newstand at the train station. Back to okansas.blogspot.com. posted by Michael | 5:02 PM 
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