An entertaining game as well.

I’ve looked into things and have a bit more information about the Thunder’s broadcast history besides Neal’s fine report. As you said, Lidholm and Buzz will be doing the PBP and commentating again — this is their third year. I know Chris Lidholm has a few ideas to spice up the broadcast and he’s thinking about trying to make the broadcast interactive, allowing folks to email questions to the broadcast team that they might answer while on the air. I don’t think pbp or color is an issue with the Thunder. The bigger question is the production quality and here’s what I’ve learned.

A crew usually consists of a 2 air talents, 1 producer, 1 director and (hopefully) 3 camera ops.  A lot of times, the camera ops are volunteers.  The Thunder get volunteers from Brown College or they are experienced broadcast techs that the producer, director know.

If only 1 camera operator shows up then either the producer or director go and run a camera.  Thus, leaving the responsibilities of running the camera switcher, audio, making sure they are still online and other assorted tasks, in the hands of one person.  So there is only one set of eyes having to watch 3 or 4 things. This is not a good scenario but it happens.
 
I was also told that in defense of the Austin crew, the first game does not usually go well.  I guess it didn’t go well for the Thunder at first either. 

The producer and director are shown how how the equipment works a month or so before the first game. The first game is the first time the entire crew is able to see video, hear audio and find out how everything looks together as a whole?
 
I also learned that there are two people responsible for that audio distortion.  The play-by-play guy and the audio operator (usually the producer).  The pbp guys sometimes get excited when the home teams scores and can get a little loud and the audio operator is supposed to be on top of it and turn down the mics when that happens.  However, the pbp guys still need to be aware of their own audio levels and just lower their voices a bit.

Hope that helps everyone in understanding the set up.

I believe that their camera operators come from the local communications institute.

On the Austin webcast, I sent a letter with constructive criticism to USL, Austin, and Minnesota Executives, and I trust that their webcast tonight will be MUCH better (how can it not be).

I fully agree with the comments that it is IMPERATIVE that the USL Live productions be top quality for this is the most important marketing tool and the face of the league to the world audience. The last thing OUR league needs is to put out a product that does disservice.

Peace and futbol.

http://www.uslsoccer.com/index_scores.html

Case in point, Saturday evening they were missing the score of the last game of the night between Austin and MN until (I think) the next day. This is something I mentioned as well a couple of weeks ago on the USL Week in Review. It really wouldn’t cost that much to have real time updates and if the league wants to be looked at as a professional league, it something they really need to do.

I also reported on the clock at the top of the USL Live feed in last weeks USL Week in Review. USL actually made that correction based on the comments from the chat in USL Live. There was someone on there last week from USL Live and they were recording the issues people were reporting on the chat. By the end of the Thunder – RailHawks game last week, they already had a clock up there. As well, a few of the other games I watched this week also had a clock. So this could very well be just a Austin issue again. Just not sure?

By the way, I received a nice letter today from Seth Witkowicz from USL today. (I told you they read the blog) He said that USL Live is a huge platform for the league and teams and it’s essential to have quality broadcasts. They understand that and they have standards which are not always met by the teams. He expects to have much fewer issues this coming and week and the weeks to come.

Some of the wrinkles will get worked out, I’m sure. The causes of the less than stellar first broadcast from Austin, for example, seem to be things that can and will be fixed. Other feedback, such as more sane audio levels, also seem like easy (& cheap) things to fix.

However, without more consistent and higher overall quality, USLLive will remain a boon to hardcore fans like us, and an utter failure at promoting the league outside our circle.

Imagine the stray MLS fan, for example. He or she has heard more and more about USL, via CONCACAF CL, US Open Cup, etc. Then they hear about USLLive, the free video service. Perfect! They can check out this lower league, and see if it’s actually higher caliber and more professional than they’d previously believed.

You see where I’m going with this: they fire up USLLive, and get the opposite impression. Whether the play is of a comparable quality or not is almost beside the point, if the A/V experience is so distracting.

Bottom line: you get what you pay for. If USLLive did charge for the service (something that would be harder than ever to do now that it’s been free), maybe it would earn enough to justify an investment by the league to improve quality.

but i have to agree with brian when he says usl is completely responsible for the quality of the broadcasts in their league

the reasons for the poor broadcast are just excuses – and if no one holds the league responsible then nothing will ever get better

and that does not excuse some of the worst camera work & production ever seen on a video screen

- How come no where on the USL site is there a live scoreboard? I wasn’t able to see any of the scores of the games last night and had to wait until today just to see the scores posted. I know that if you watch the USLive feed, it shows the score, but other than that, the score isn’t posted anywhere from what I can see on any site. Very frustrating and not professional in my opinion. Again I might not have looked in the right place but you would think that at least USL would be able to put the scores on the homepage like MLS and other leagues do. I don’t need a match tracker, just updated scores in a timely fashion.

- Speaking of the USLive feed, I know they have a graphic with the score in every game, so obviously someone is having to update that after every goal to repeat a score, so would it really be that hard to include a running clock in that graphic? Its very frustrating to watch the USLive feeds and not know what time it is in the game.

While I am very happy with the free service like others said, I just think it would be nice to add a couple other BASIC items such as those listed above which would make USL look more professional and provide a better product.

With that said, good to see the Thunder got a road point!

On the other hand, the St. Paul Saints here in town are just as minor league as the Thunder, and their (public-access TV, for the most part) broadcasts look pretty decent. Not great, but passable; why can’t a pro soccer league get the same kind of quality?

Finally: why can’t anyone in this country announce soccer? I’m certain it’s more difficult than it looks, but I’m equally certain that I’ve never heard a stateside play-by-play or color guy that I’ve actually liked. The Carolina guys last week were absolutely awful – not having the audio from Austin was a major step up. Surely we can do better.