By the way, DET vs CGY tonight = great PQ, and great sound, just like in Vancouver. No SD cam also... so Premier is now full HD. Encore still have one SD cam.
Yes I thought the PQ of the Cgy/Det game was great. Much better than the Van/Dallas game (which I now know was only SD 16:9 so that makes sense).

The audio of that game was using all 5 channels and was much better than the other game. However, the audio of the Calgary game was still nowhere near as good as some of the audio I've heard in a some games. I can't remember which game it was but it was in the week or so before the playoffs started. It had really clear and distinct sounds happeneing in the L, C, R such as what I described a few posts up. The Calgary game did not have that. The game I'm talking about was probably the best sports 5.1 I've heard. SO good in fact that I was almost more focussed on the great sound that the game! When they would go into the boards on the L side of the screen the L speakers would clearly have skate stopping sounds, crashing boards, puck bouncing, etc...and if a power play was in the L zone then when the power play was about to end you would hear from the R speaker only the goalie slapping the stick on the ice. It was fantastic. The Calg/Det game didn't have that kind of separation effect, though it was still good.

I hope I can hear more games like that in the future. (Though there is a slight possibility that my memory is failing me and it may have been a TSN aired game/feed).

Either way I find the info from Stoakley about the mic placement very interesting. Same with Bruno.

Thanks guys.

I'm sorry all you Bob Cole haters, but the man is a legend, and for good reason. You are in Canada, you are supposed to know the names of the players and what is going on yourself. Bob's roller-coaster delivery gives the game a sense of grandeur and occassion that no one else will ever be able to touch. I for one hope he can keep it going and think hockey watching won't be the same without him.

Now as for the CBC letting the brilliant Chris Cuthbert go.... well, don't get me started on that one........
I agree. Bob Cole does make mistakes, but his voice inflection as a team scores or just misses scoring adds incredible excitement to the game. So much so that I have to turn the volume down when my team is killing a penalty as his voice makes it too stressful to listen to at full volume. I think many of you are focussing too much on the announcer, and not watching the game itself. Who cares if he makes mistakes! You aren't listening to the radio, you're watching a hockey game. IMHO, Bob Cole has the best voice for hockey in North America right now.

I think the graphics are fine. But why can't either CBC or TSN show a 4 on 4 running time?
I agree. That is one thing that the American NHL broadcasts have over CBC and TSN. But that is the last addition--no ice time for popular players on the ice like with the NBC broadcasts.

Last night Bob Cole seemed to lose his train of thought a few times and stumble over the action. I won't repeat what my wife thought of him.

It really is time for him to go.

Either way I find the info from Stoakley about the mic placement very interesting. Same with Bruno.

Thanks guys.

Hey Robby,

Thanks. There is a lot of debate among the main A1's who mix hockey in Canada (at least) about what type of mics to use, where to place them and how to create mixes. I believe the NHL has officially approved PCC's as the mic of choice, but not all A1's like the sound of them.

For example: For the Toronto regional games we use the following mics -
4 overheads 2 slots - 816's, 2 blues - 815b's
6 - ECM-77b lavs - 2 behind the nets, 4 in each corner of the red lines.
3 - 416's on each of the 3 hand helds.
1 - stereo mic on the main play camera.

I know the A1 who mixes the games reads this forum, he's not a member but he likes to see what people are saying.

Cheers!

Last night Bob Cole seemed to lose his train of though a few times and stumble over the action. I won't repeat what my wife thought of him.

It really is time for him to go.
Bob was pretty bad at times - I agree that it's time for him to retire, or maybe just stick to Leafs broadcasts 'cause at least he seems to know the names of the players on one of the teams that way :rolleyes:.

What was up with the guy manning the centre-ice camera for the Sens/Pens last night!? That was the worst camera work I've seen for a game in a long time - constantly moving all over the place, little left/right movements that weren't necessary, and way too much zooming in causing him to lose track of the puck on numerous occasions. I felt like I was going to come down with motion sickness a couple of times.

Get rid of Bob Cole, someone send him back to the Leafs please. That guy is so anti Senators it's glaringly obvious. He constantly gushes over former Leaf Gary Roberts in this series and how great the Pens are against Ottawa whenever they won a game in the regular season and their one win in the playoffs. When it looks like the Pens are about to score his voice goes up about 3 octaves and he gets all excited, when the Sens are about to score he sounds like, oh well, they scored. Sens goals get a couple of replays but Pens goals especially by Roberts get 4 to 5 replays in case anybody missed them. :rolleyes:

At least the other guy is more balanced in his commentaries.

Well the CBC knows all this and keeps him employed...thats the really annoying part.

Mike Emrick has just as good of a voice as Bob Cole, and he actually does his job and commentates a non-biased game.

Gord Miller from TSN is actually very good as well.

I think that Don Wittman (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/personality/index.jsp?personality=Wittman%2C+Don&program=CBC+Sports)
who is doing the CGY vs DET games is a one of the bestplay by play announcer.

I hear ya Bruno and agree that he's quite good.

I think he may only do the western games - I don't recall seeing/hearing him do any eastern matchups.

On a side note....
I thought in the opening sequence of the Sens/Penguins game last night, the "retro" black and white fuzzy analogue look to the Michel Therrien interview was
very cool. It was of great production value.

By the way, DET vs CGY tonight = great PQ, and great sound, just like in Vancouver. No SD cam also... so Premier is now full HD. Encore still have one SD cam.

I thought all the cams in the two HD trucks were HD and the SD cams weren't from the truck but were from the Arena. Am I mistaken?

roger1818 : I'm really not sure of that. But you are maybe right, because both Calgary and Vancouver have Jumbotron (Jumboscreen) in widescreen (and HD?) and I think in Pittsburg and in Ottawa, both Jumboton is in 4x3 SD.

Would be nice to ask Mark...

does anyone know if tonights VAN - DAL [g4] game will be available on live streaming video online since it is only being broadcast in BC?

I was able to watch the 3rd period online. I gather (for those who are interested) all of CBC's games will be available online in Canada. The PQ wasn't the greatest, but it was better than not being able to watch it (I don't have cable or satellite). I was quite surprised that they didn't show any commercials (they would cut to a screen listing the games that were playing that night).

BTW, is there anything I can do to improve the PQ on my end, or does CBC need to increase the bit-rate of the video feed? If I could get even SD quality video, that would be amazing! It would also be nice if they could provide the WS broadcast and let people do a center cut if they want, but that may be a Windows Media Player issue (it would also require more bandwidth).

Overall I was quite impressed and I am thinking of ways I can display this on my TV instead of having to watch it on my computer. Great job CBC!!!

There are rights issues with putting anything on the web. We have the rights for the programs but not the commercials so the breaks are covered by a slide.

For the most part, the video quality is governed by CBC's bit rate. We pay by the bit, so the rate per viewer is controlled.

Thanks Marc. I am surprised that the advertisers would complain about having their commercials on the web. I would have thought it to be free advertising for them. I am not complaining though. I assume in the long run, the CBC will sell advertising for the web broadcasts separately from the conventional broadcasts. This additional revenue should help pay for the CBC's bit rate.

Question for Stoakley:
When I unplug my center speaker, and just listen to the game/crowd noise, whenever the annoucers talk, the other 4 channels dip in volume.

I was just wondering if you knew why this would happen? Is there some setting on your end that lowers the sound on the other channels when the center channel is being used exclusively (by the announcers)?

Question for Stoakley:
When I unplug my center speaker, and just listen to the game/crowd noise, whenever the annoucers talk, the other 4 channels dip in volume.

I was just wondering if you knew why this would happen? Is there some setting on your end that lowers the sound on the other channels when the center channel is being used exclusively (by the announcers)?
Hi JesseJ,

I'm not sure. It could be the metadata the A1 has setup in his/her 5.1 mix or it could be a Dolby D setting or transmission thing. I'm not really sure. I'll ask around and get an answer for you when I have some time.

It's off to the Raptors playoffs for me now... the ACC was hopping tonight!

Cheers!

The center channel is hitting the overall "brickwall" limiter, causing the overall program to dip on the surround output.
This is caused by hitting your centre channel far too hard with your dialogue.
The limiter is limiting the surround output, not really recommended.
Is this on the PLII decode or the DD? What network? what service provider?