Interactive Coverage

[G@v]

Just watching Everton v Spurs on Sky Sports Extra which gives you an interactive option for watching soccer. You have a choice of 3 different camera angles plus a player cam which follows a different payer every 15 minutes. Then there's an highlights option which allows you to follow the match on one screen while showing you the highlights of the match thus far on a larger screen. Then there's an option called Fanzone, which has a fan of each team commentating, which is crap must of the time, although it can get a little heated, especially if you have Leeds v Man United or Spurs v Arsenal. Finally, there's a Stats option, which as the name suggests keeps you abreast of the up to the minute match stats, plus other options which allows you to look at the team squads, other Leagies and football trivia. Rugby Union and cricket also have interactive coverage on Sky, and I always wondered why Rugby League fans couldn't receive this extra option of viewing their game. If you could have interactive Rugby League on your tele what options would you like? Obviously, the extra cameraangles would be great, although I can't see a player cam being as good for League. How about a camera fitted to the head of each touch judge? Mind you, he'd have to keep his head set at the same angle throughout the match for that one to work. How about doing away with the video ref and havingall RLcouch potatoes voting on controversial incidents? That would be entertaining in itself. Interactive coverage will soon be commonplace, particularly in Australia, where League enjoys greater coverage than here in the UK.

 

[ozbash]

gav, just out of pure noseyness, what does sky cost in the U.K ??

i reckon these cameras should be compulsory headgear for all refs and touchies.
a nz company has invented/developed the graphics etc you see now on cricket matches,union games ,yachting etc etc.
we are very smart down here doncha know !!

 

[legend]

With the fanzone initiative you would get your fair share of problems. Imagine trying to listen to someone commentate on a Saints game. Pure torture.

 

[G@v]

Tony, too bloody much, that's how much it costs. I pay £28 a month for my package, that's the four sports channels plus the family package, so in effect, I'm paying 12 quid a month for the sports. In order to receive the sports channels you have to subscribe to a lesser package. I think it's about £38 for the whole lot including the movie channels.

So we can blame you Kiwis for those stump cams?

Legend, think about the fanzone option when the Saints are playing their beloved neighbours from the Shire, or Rooster Cogburn talking bollox for 80 minutes, quick hand me that RC.

 

[Willow]

Gav:
When we watch UK news on Fox (Aust), sometimes the presenter will tell the viewer that it's now time to go interactive.I'll always get excited about it even though there's no way we have access to to this fangle technology.
Like all things, the inventors of TV get such things before us poor colonials... but it shouldn't be far off now.
The UK prices for cable sound the same as here except in Aust dollars. That is, you pay about 3 x the price. We pay about $30 AUD per month and get the movie channels as well.
BTW, The fanzone is a great idea. Rooster Cogburn up against Lord Ted. My money is on the Lord...

 

[G@v]

Willow, you mean you get Sky News in Oz? The only alternative we have on Sky is news from CBS, I wouldn't mind watching a daily dose of news from downunder. I get Sky thanks to a little dish on the south facing wall, so when there are any storms it firks the picture up, or the signal totally disappears.

I'd like the fanzone option. There's more to explain in a RL match than what you get with soccer.

BTW, Sky are introducing a new system in a month or so, it's called Sky Plus. You can record programs without a video tape, even pause a live program if you need to leave the tele, it's all done digitally. Sounds good, but it costs 15 quid a month to subscribe to the recording service; that's on top of the cost of a new digi box.

 

[Willow]

Yes Gav. It's Sky News. We get the Aust version for half an hour and then we get the UK version for half an hour. They say it's constant news all day.
I actually tune insometimes in the mornings... having relllies and mates living over there and all that. Love the weather reports

It's cable so we don't have any dish problems.
And yeah we also get the US news as well but it I rarely watch that.

A few years back I saw a demonstration of cable TV where the viewer could access a menu of subjects. Be it movies or sporting events. It was like having a video library except that it was from a remote server. I would have thought that such a thing could be possible for the home viewer by now. I know a similar setup is happening in Hotels.
SkyPlus sounds like this.
I guess they had to work out a way of protecting the interests of the video shop chains.