When I was a kid, it was a thrill to watch sports live. Up in one corner, there’d bit a big flashing ‘Live – via Satellite’, a distinct differentiator for networks back then.
Now, we’re savvy enough to see if it was broadcast live. Also, networks do the opposite and will label what was normally a live show as ‘re-broadcast of a show recorded on…’
Now the new differentiator is Live with a mobile phone. The videos and audio sent from war zones using satellite phones, the maps of events that update with a stream of notes and photos (writing about the Love the Farm – Leave no Trace, triggered this post), and, of course, the live Qik streams.
Interesting.
Here’s the live map from Glastonbury that we’re using on Nokia Conversations.
Sometimes the news videophone reports are quite poor and it’d better off if they just stuck to audio.
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There was a blackout in the live Germany vs Turkey semi-final this week.
“The director of sport at German broadcaster ZDF said yesterday it was “the most annoying balls-up imaginable” on a night when up to 32.7 million people were watching. The broadcaster was forced to resort to TV reporter Bela Rethy giving a blow-by-blow account of events in a telephone link when the multiple disruptions occurred. Eventually producers switched to an alternative feed from a Swiss broadcaster, but the winning goal was heard before it was seen.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/27/television.euro2008
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It’s fun to switch between the Glasto map and the Worthy Farm satellite map, you get to see the traces left behind from previous festivals: worn paths, dry stage areas.
They’re also handing out biodegradable tent pegs, the cows aren’t too keen on the hunrdeds of metal ones left behind each year.
http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/35136
I wish they did that the year we forgot to ours altogether. We had to go round and swipe one peg — and only one — from other well-pegged tents: one missing peg shouldn’t cause any major disastors 🙂